Chapter 6: The Hollow Truth
The wind howled through the empty park as Zoey and I stood in uneasy silence. My heart was still pounding from whatever the hell had just happened.
I turned to her. "That thing… it showed me something."
Zoey's expression darkened. "What did you see?"
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. "The night before you… before you died. We were in my house.
You looked wrong, like something was warping the memory." I exhaled sharply. "It told me I should have saved you."
Zoey flinched, looking away.
For the first time since she came back, I saw something in her that I hadn't noticed before.
Shame.
I took a step closer. "Zoey… what is it?"
She hesitated, her hands trembling at her sides. Then, in a voice barely above a whisper, she said, "It's my fault."
I froze.
"What?"
She lifted her eyes to meet mine. There was something haunted in them, something broken.
"I—" She shook her head. "I wasn't supposed to come back, Marcus. I was supposed to be gone. But something pulled me back, and now… now it won't let me go."
A chill crept up my spine.
"What is it?" I asked.
Zoey shook her head again. "I don't know. But it's tied to me. And because you saw me…" She looked at me, guilt flashing across her face. "It's tied to you, too."
I exhaled sharply, trying to push down the growing sense of unease.
"We need answers," I said. "There has to be something—"
Zoey cut me off. "The library."
I blinked. "What?"
She turned toward me, a determined look in her eyes. "Summersville's history. Weird stuff has happened here before, Marcus. If there's any record of something like this happening before, we might find it there."
I hesitated for only a moment before nodding.
Because at this point, I'd do anything to stop this nightmare.