Chapter 3

Detective Miller placed a small digital recorder on the table between us.

"This is from Chloe' s phone. It was on her nightstand. It seems to have started recording."

He pressed play.

My breath caught.

First, muffled sounds, a rustle of fabric.

Then, voices. Panicked.

"Don't touch her! Get away!" That was Brittany, sharp and scared.

"Ashley, call for help! Call 911!" Emily, her voice cracking.

A gasp, a choked sound.

Then, Chloe' s voice, closer to the mic, desperate: "Stay back... Sarah... don't come near me!!"

A thud. Silence for a beat.

Then, a final, piercing scream, unmistakably Chloe: "SARAH!! WAKE UP!!"

The recording ended.

The room was silent except for the buzzing in my ears.

"I... I don't understand," I stammered. "I didn't hear anything. I was asleep."

My hands were clammy.

Detective Miller' s voice was flat. "The recording started at 1:37 AM. It ended at 1:42 AM. You told us you were asleep by 1:00 AM, Sarah."

I felt pale, sick.

"My dream," I whispered. "The voices... someone was pulling me... telling me to wake up. It sounded like them."

It wasn't a dream. It couldn't have been.

"Ever consider it wasn't a dream, Sarah?" Detective Miller pressed. "That they were genuinely pleading with you?"

The image from my "dream" slammed back into my mind, vivid and terrifying.

Ashley' s face, inches from mine, her eyes wide with terror.

"Sarah, wake up," she' d mouthed, or had I imagined it? "Wake up, or we're all going to die."

The words echoed the recording.

My stomach heaved. I might have been asleep, but another part of me was there.