Chapter 14 "In the Cemetery "
KELLY
Kelly broke every speed limit getting to the cemetery.
His hands gripped the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were white, Maya's panicked voice still echoing in his head: "She's not Ember right now. She's someone named Rosanna Vale."
He screeched into the campus parking lot at 4:17 AM and sprinted toward the old cemetery, his phone flashlight cutting through the darkness.
"Maya!" he called out, not caring who heard. "Maya, where are you?"
"Here!"
He found her huddled against a weathered headstone, her face streaked with tears, her whole body shaking. Kelly dropped to his knees beside her.
"Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine, but Ember" Maya's voice broke. "She just walked away. Into the dark. And I couldn't follow, Kelly. I tried, but I couldn't move, like something was stopping me."
Kelly pulled her to her feet. "Show me where you last saw her."
Maya led him to a grave in the far corner. Kelly shone his light on the headstone:
ROSANNA VALE
1882 - 1906
"Sleep, though heaven's gate be shut and hell's gate open"
"Jesus," Kelly breathed. "1906. That's when"
"When the curse happened. I know." Maya wrapped her arms around herself. "Kelly, she spoke to me. Through Ember. She said 'I'm not Ember right now. I'm Rosanna.' And then she just... left."
Kelly's mind raced. The spirit possessing Ember was Rosanna Vale the woman from the folk tale, the Scarlet Woman who'd been cursed over a century ago. Which meant the deaths, the mark, everything it was all connected.
"We need to find her," Kelly said. "Now. Before"
Before what? Before she killed someone else? Before she hurt herself? Before the possession became permanent?
They split up, Kelly taking the east side of the cemetery, Maya the west. Kelly called Ember's name over and over, his flashlight sweeping across graves and monuments, finding nothing but shadows and silence.
Fifteen minutes of searching yielded nothing.
"She's not here," Maya said, her voice small. "Where would she go?"
Kelly's phone buzzed. A text from Ember: Back at the room. Where are you guys? It's 4:30 AM.
He showed Maya the screen.
"She's back," Maya whispered. "How is she back? We've been looking for twenty minutes"
"I don't know. But we need to get back to the dorm now."
EMBER
Ember woke up fully dressed on top of her covers, disoriented and confused.
Her phone said 4:28 AM. Her shoes were on. There was dirt under her fingernails.
She sat up slowly, her head pounding. The last thing she remembered was working on her laptop around midnight, researching for her Sociology paper. After that nothing. Just blank space.
She looked across the room. Maya's bed was empty, unmade, her jacket missing from its usual hook.
Ember grabbed her phone and texted: Maya "Where are you? Are you okay?"
Then she noticed the state of her clothes. Her jeans had grass stains on the knees. Her jacket smelled like earth and cold air.
Had she gone outside? Why would she go outside at 4 AM?
Ember stood, moving to the mirror. Her reflection looked wrongpale, with dark circles under her eyes, her hair tangled like she'd been running. There was a smudge of something dark on her cheek. She rubbed at it.
Dirt. It was dirt.
What is happening to me?
The door burst open. Maya and Kelly practically fell into the room, both breathing hard, their faces flushed.
"Em!" Maya rushed to her, grabbing her shoulders. "Are you okay? Do you remember anything?"
"Remember what? I just woke up. Why are you guys" Ember looked between them. "Why is Kelly here at 4:30 in the morning?"
Kelly and Maya exchanged a look that made Ember's stomach twist.
"What's going on?" Ember demanded. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"We were just worried," Maya said, her voice too bright, too forced.
Another look between them.
"Guys, seriously, you're freaking me out. What's happening?"
"Nothing," Kelly said, but his eyes said otherwise. "We're just being paranoid. You should get some sleep. We all should."
"Kelly, it's 4:30 AM and you're in my dorm room. Something is clearly wrong."
"We'll talk about it later," Maya said, gently steering Ember toward her bed. "Just rest, okay? We'll be here."
Ember wanted to argue, wanted to demand the truth. But exhaustion crashed over her like a wave. Her limbs felt heavy, her eyes burning.
She lay down, and within minutes, sleep dragged her under.
MAYA
Maya waited until Ember's breathing evened out before turning to Kelly.
"We can't keep lying to her," she whispered.
"We have to. For now." Kelly was pacing, his hands running through his hair repeatedly. "If we tell her she's possessed.
"She'll panic. I know. But Kelly, she's losing time. She knows something's wrong."
"Then we tell her it's stress. Anxiety. Sleep problems. Anything but the truth." Kelly stopped pacing. "Tomorrow oh today, I guess we research. Find out everything we can about Rosanna Vale. Who she was, what happened to her, why she's doing this."
"And then what?"
"Then we figure out how to get her out of Ember."
Maya sank onto her bed, exhaustion making her bones ache. "This is insane. We're college students. We should be worrying about exams and parties, not exorcisms and murder."
"I know." Kelly sat beside her. "But Ember needs us. So we do whatever it takes."
"Even if it destroys us?"
Kelly's jaw tightened. "Even then."
DETECTIVE SARAH MONROE
Sarah Monroe hadn't slept. She'd spent the entire night in her office, surrounded by files, photographs, and a murder board that would make her look certifiably insane to anyone who walked in.
But the pattern was undeniable now.
She'd spent hours digging through genealogy records, cross-referencing names, following bloodlines backward through time. And what she'd found made her blood run cold.
Tyler Brett: maternal great-great-grandmother was Constance Ashcroft, born 1885.
Rayan Walsh: paternal great-grandmother was Elizabeth Ashcroft, born 1892.
Both victims had Ashcroft blood. Distant, barely traceable, but there.
Sarah pulled up the Ashcroft family tree she'd been constructing. The family had been prominent in Hollow Creek since the town's founding. Wealthy, influential, deeply involved in local politics and religion.
In 1906, there had been a scandal. Sarah had found references to it in old newspaper archives vague mentions of "unfortunate circumstances" and "a woman of ill repute." Nothing specific, but enough to suggest something dark had happened.
And in that same year, according to church records, several men in town had died mysteriously. The causes listed were varied heart failure, apoplexy, sudden illness but they'd all died within weeks of each other.
All of them connected to the Ashcroft family in some way.
Sarah sat back, rubbing her tired eyes. This was impossible. She was investigating a pattern that suggested a century-old curse was real and active.
But the evidence was right there in front of her.
Her phone rang. Officer Chen.
"Monroe, we've got another one."
Sarah's stomach dropped. "Where?"
"Off-campus apartment on Riverside Drive. Male, early twenties. Landlord found him an hour ago."
"Same mark?"
"I haven't seen the body yet, but dispatch mentioned 'unusual markings on the forehead.' So probably."
"I'm on my way."
Sarah grabbed her jacket and keys. Three victims now. The pattern was accelerating.
She needed to figure out who was next before the body count got any higher.