It was only after, when Mrs. Fields had grown concerned about her not starting her period and contacted her case manager, that the reason she hadn’t revealed the extent of abuse she had suffered at Kate’s and Owen’s hands. Because Kate and Owen were both minors when the attacks occurred, the details of what they had done to her had been sealed by the courts. Subsequently, they sent her to counseling, where the therapist told her it was her mind who had made up the wind talking to her. She took the medicine the therapist had prescribed, and the wind had stopped talking to her.

Sometimes she thought she could hear the voice in the wind talking to her, but it was so faint that she couldn’t make it out. Gradually, she had stopped trying to listen. In jail, without her medicine, she had started hearing it again the night Matthew was arrested. Frightened that she was taking a backward step into a traumatic period in her life, she had resumed taking the medicine. Then she stopped taking it the next day, when she had seen the hurt in Matthew’s eyes at her behavior.

Precious seconds were ticking away … She frantically spun in place, determining where to hide. Matthew should be back any minute … she didn’t want him searching for her if Kate was coming for her.

“What should I do?” she screamed out, grabbing her head.

Hide in the fort. Matthew is coming.

She ran to the Coleman’s childhood fort and had to bend and wiggle through the overgrown ivy clinging to the structure. Losing precious seconds so no one would see the ivy had been disturbed, she managed to crawl inside, ignoring the spiderweb clinging to her face. She waited until she was sitting in the farthest, darkest corner before removing the clinging web.

“Alanna, where are you? This is Deputy Huxley. The sheriff sent me to bring you to his office.”

Don’t listen. He isn’t a deputy.

Through a gap in some stacked logs, Alanna could make out a uniformed leg. It was the same uniform that Deputy MacNeil had worn and that she had seen on the officers when she was in jail.

“I’m only here to help you …”

“Who are you?”

Relief filled her at hearing Matthew’s voice.

Stay quiet, the wind warned her.

Biting her fist, she remained silent, all the while wanting to run to Matthew.

“The sheriff sent me to protect Alanna.”

“I know everyone who works for the police in town. You don’t work there.”

“I’m a new hire.”

“Bullshit. Get off my property. If Knox wants to protect Alanna, he can either come himself or send Deputy MacNeil back.”

“That might be hard to do.” The deputy’s voice had turned sinister. “Deputy MacNeil can’t help himself right now. Hand her over and walk away.”

“Get off my property.”