Chapter 3

Five years passed.

Life, somehow, moved on.

I met Mark, a kind, steady school teacher.

He knew about my family, about the whispers, about my father' s death.

He listened, he supported, he helped me build a fragile wall around the past.

We got engaged.

It felt like a new beginning, a chance to finally escape the shadows.

I wanted our families to meet, to make it official, normal.

So, I arranged a dinner. My treat, at a nice, quiet restaurant.

Mark' s parents, the Hendersons, were conventional, warm, everything my family wasn't.

I invited Mom.

I hadn' t seen her in almost two years, just those sparse postcards.

She agreed to come, her note surprisingly quick in response.

When she arrived at the restaurant, she looked gaunt, her eyes distant, haunted.

She was even more withdrawn than I remembered, if that was possible.

The Hendersons were polite, tried to draw her out, but she offered nothing, just nods and those unsettling, fleeting smiles.

Dinner was an awkward affair, strained by her silence.

Then, as we were having coffee, Mom turned to Mark.

She leaned in, and whispered.

Her second sentence.

My blood ran cold.

Mark listened, his expression unreadable for a moment.

Then, surprisingly, he smiled, a genuine, warm smile.

He reached out, gently took her hand.

"I will, Evelyn," he said, his voice soft. "I'll cherish her. Always."

Mom nodded slowly.

Then she looked at me, and that same disturbing smile from five years ago spread across her face.

She stood up, mumbled a barely audible "Goodbye," and left.

The Hendersons looked bewildered. I felt a familiar dread coiling in my stomach.

"What did she say, Mark?" I asked, my voice trembling.

He looked at me, his smile fading a little.

"Nothing bad, Sarah. Just... motherly advice, I guess."

But his eyes held a flicker of something I couldn' t name, something that scared me.

The next day, the vultures descended.

Tabloid reporters, true-crime bloggers, they' d been tracking the "Blackwood Creek Speaker" legend for years.

Somehow, they knew Evelyn had been in the city, had spoken.

They ambushed us outside Mark' s apartment, microphones and cameras shoved in our faces.

"What did she say to you, Mr. Davis?"

"Is the curse real?"

"Are you in danger?"

Mark, ever the calm one, downplayed it. "She just wished us well. It' s a family matter."

He hustled me inside, but the damage was done. The old fears were new again, public and loud.