At the schoolhouse, he stopped to listen. A bolt of lightning splintered the sky; this time the answering boom of thunder followed close behind. The wind kicked up, moaning along the eaves. Closer, the limbs of the old cottonwood scraped against the side of the building, making his skin crawl.

He reached for the doorknob and realized it was sticky and wet with... The door swung open. He stared down at his hand in the dim light. Blood.

His gaze shot up at a sound. Jolene stood just inside the door. Her face was distorted in fear, her mouth open. She was saying something but the wind was stealing her words before they reached him. Or maybe he didn’t hear what she was saying because he was too busy staring at the butcher knife clutched in her hands, the blood dripping from the tip onto the hardwood floor at the feet.

Her mouth opened but he never heard her yell.

The blow came out of the darkness. Something hard and cold struck his temple. He reached, his fingers brushing fabric as he fell, a familiar face peering down just before the darkness closed in around him.

Dulcie waited anxiously for something more to appear on the screen. She could hear the howl of wind and looked up to see tree branches whipping in the gale outside. Shadows flickered wildly. She could barely make out the dim light at the schoolhouse.

Russell must have reached the schoolhouse. That’s why Jolene had quit typing the story. She glanced out the window toward the faint light glowing through the blackness.

She started to push away from the computer when words began to appear again.

You killed your own mother.

And now you have to kill yourself the same way you killed her. It’s the only way your story will end.

Dulcie stared at the screen in horror. Jolene wasn’t the one writing this. She shot up out of the chair and ran to the door, praying she wasn’t too late.

Chapter 14

“Russell! Russell!” The wind tore away her words and lashed her hair around her face as Dulcie ran up the road toward the schoolhouse. Lightning flickered on the horizon. A soft boom sounded like gunfire in the distance.

Up the road she could see the dim light in the building. A shadow moved in front of it, making her catch her breath. Jolene? Or Russell?

The first cold drops of rain splattered on the dusty ground, pelting her as they began to fall harder. The rain mixed with her tears of fear as she topped the hill and, turning into the school yard, came up short.

The door into the schoolhouse stood wide open.

“Russell?” She mounted the steps cautiously. “Russell?” No answer and yet she’d just seen someone inside when she was coming up the hill.