Cassie had never painted anything other than flat colors on bedroom walls until about three years ago. Her doctor had suggested it as a means to get over her anxiety. Hed advised that she start with paint-by-numbers sets at first, but that got boring very quickly. Then, one Saturday morninghaving just received another batch of bad news concerning fertility treatments the day beforeCassie had gone to Hobby Lobby and purchased about one hundred dollars worth of paint and supplies. Shed then found a few basic tutorials on YouTube and by that night, she was hooked.

Shed worked on honing her craft and now the tutorials she watched were much more advanced. She was even paying a subscription fee to one artists channel and she knew she had gotten much better. She was still just as anxious these days now that she was being told there was a very good chance shed be able to conceive via IVF treatments.

Because good news often made her stress even worse (thinking of all the ways it could go wrong) shed been painting a lot over the past two weeks. Four ocean scenes, a generic still-life of the birdhouse in the backyard, and now tonights projectfinishing a seascape. There was no land, just the crashing of waves during the beginning of a storm at sea.

It only took a few brush strokes to get her thereinto a nearly hypnotic state where her stress and anxiety became little more than a blur on the canvas in front of her. She had Spotify open on her phone, listening to a playlist of her favorite 90s alternative tracks. She blended navy-blue and white, adding in a bit of green and just a dab of white, trying to get the right color for the caps of the smaller waves. Applying it to the canvas, it came out too dark, so she wetted her brush, got a little bit more white, and started fixing it up.

She wasnt sure how long shed bene painting when she heard the noise at the back door. It was far too easy for Cassie to lose herself in her painting. There had been nights when her husband was at work when shed start painting around seven and somehow it would be midnight before she even bothered to look at the digital clock on the microwave.

She placed her brush down on the table and turned to the door. It was opening, which caused her heart to slam in her chest, and then someone entered her house.

Who are

Those were the only words that came out of her mouth before the crazed-looking woman came rushing across the kitchen. Cassie didnt see the knife in the womans hand until the very last second and even then, as she backed against the kitchen table and heard her brushed clinking in the water jar, she was pretty sure it was too late.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE