Page 181 of Our Little Secret
As soon as the words appeared they faded, the phone completely dead.
Her insides turned to jelly and she quickly used her laptop to skim through the cameras she’d set up in the house. The upper hallways and entry hall were clear. No one in the guest room. The living room camera had taken footage and her heart stopped for a beat before she realized that Shep had activated the recording.
All as it should be.
She turned to the outside camera, its tiny lens already starting to ice over. Snow distorted the view, but as she stared she thought she noticed a movement by the woodshed.
“No,” she whispered as the figure appeared, dark and looming.
With a touch to the screen she enhanced the picture just as Elijah Rossario moved to the doorway. He smiled into the camera’s eye, snow collecting on his beard, his eyes dark with the night. And curled in the fingers of one gloved hand?
An axe.
Her grandfather’s axe.
The one they used in the woodshed.
For a split second she couldn’t move. Her breathing seemed to stop. The world spun slowly, as if off its axis. This couldn’t be happening.
But it was.
She shot to her feet.
Just as the lights went out.
The rumble of the furnace died.
What?
No, no, no.
She couldn’t lose power now.
But this wasn’t just a blink or a flicker. This time everything went dead. Her computer was still glowing, its battery still viable, but when she tried to email, she discovered that her Wi-Fi was down.
She had no flashlight but thought it would be best if she didn’t show herself. Elijah Rossario had already let her know that he was coming for her.
Were the doors locked?
So what?
He had a key. She knew that already.
She tried to dial 9-1-1, but her phone didn’t respond.
You’re on your own.
She couldn’t stay upstairs or she’d be a sitting duck. No, she had to get out, get help, run to the nearest house, anything.
The house wasn’t in total darkness; the computer screen still glowed and the dying fire downstairs illuminated the stairs and the dark hallway somewhat, casting a dim orange illumination.
Just what she needed.
Click.
Creeaak.
A downstairs door opened.
