“Did she have black hair?” Nate asked, wrapping his fingers around the ax handle now. “Dark eyes? A little shorter than you are?” He was looking at Helen but also beyond her, like the figure he was describing might be right behind her, watching.

Helen nodded, taking another step back, knowing she must be close to the door. She held one hand in front of her, palm out in an it’s okay, let’s calm down gesture. With her other hand, she reached back, feeling for the doorway.

“I saw her,” Nate said. “Jesus, I must be going crazy, because I swear to you, I actually saw her.”

He collapsed back down in the kitchen chair, let the ax slip from his hand, slumped forward, put his arms up on the table, and buried his face in them.

Helen went to him. She put a hand on his arm. “Tell me,” she said. “Tell me exactly what you saw.”

Tell me what she did to you.

He lifted his head. “I was out in the woods, tracking the deer. I know you think I’m crazy, but she’s real, Helen. But now I think…oh god, I don’t know what I think.”

“So you were in the woods. Is that where you saw Hattie?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I was walking in circles for what felt like hours. She knew I was following her. It’s something she does. A game she plays? Then the circles got wider, and soon, I was following her along the edge of the bog. Only…it was different.”

“Different how?”

“Maybe I somehow stumbled onto another bog? Or another part of the bog. An area we haven’t explored yet.”

Helen nodded but knew there was no other bog. No other part of the bog.

“What did you see there, Nate?”

“There was a house. A little cabin. A ramshackle thing. Crooked, leaning to the left.” He looked at her and she nodded again, encouraging him to continue. “There was a chimney with smoke coming out of it. And the door was open. My doe…I mean, the doe, the white doe I’d been following, she walked right in. I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing, but I knew I had her then. She was trapped. I got my camera ready and ran, ran toward the cabin. But when I got there…”

“What?” Helen asked. “What, Nate? What happened?”

Nate pushed his chair back, stood up, rubbing his face.

“There was no deer inside. But there was a woman just inside the front door. A woman with dark hair and eyes. She was wearing a white dress. And the way she looked at me, Helen…” He paused, his eyes locked on Helen’s. In them, she saw pure terror. His voice shook. “It was like she knew me, Helen. Like she’d been waiting for me.”

CHAPTER 40

Olive

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015