Mira did what was asked, slipping off her shoes and reaching in the back for the boots. They were several sizes too large but she tied them up anyway, and when she was finished she got out and walked with Jesse down the path. It didn’t take long before the path merged with a large graveled trail that paralleled a water canal. Still, it didn’t register to Mira what it was and where they were until a couple appeared with matching kayaks floating along the canal, heading in the direction of the swamps.

“I can’t believe I grew up in Kipsen and never knew about this place.” They were on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, close to two hundred square miles of swampland. Jesse’s boots made sense now. She had to be careful where she walked. She moved slowly, each step deliberate, and listened. There were bears to watch out for, as well as snakes hiding in the thicket. Mosquitoes and thorns ready to pierce the skin. Terrors lurked in what she couldn’t see.

“I didn’t either. I learned about its history a few months after I first moved back. I mentioned it to Celine and we used to come whenever we both could get time off. It became our place for a bit. Someplace we could go. The canal isn’t that far and it’ll take you to Lake Drummond, the heart of the Great Dismal Swamp. We rented a kayak to see it once. The water was like black tea—clear and dark. We paddled out to the lake and when we got there the sun had begun to set and an orange glow shined over the water. It was so quiet and still. That’s what I remember about it. It felt like we were entering another world.”

“I wouldn’t think she’d even care, not the Celine I talked to last night,” Mira said. “She seems too wrapped up in the security of her new life to want to risk any threat to it.”