I Know What I Saw

PROLOGUE

It was a mistake moving to Silverleaf Heights.

She’d felt it in her bones the second she stepped through the wrought-iron gate and heard the clink as it closed behind her like a prison cell.

Back then, she’d had no idea that’s what this place would become.

Beautiful, terrifying confinement. Just like everyone else who lives here, she’d fallen for the dream.

But now she knows that there’s a line as thin as thread between dreams and nightmares.

On the expansive, freshly cut green, she looks at each of the houses encircling it.

They seem to mock her with their pristine splendour: immaculately painted walls, not a blade of grass out of place on each lawn, flowers that never seem to wilt.

Picture perfect. But she knows the truth.

Behind all those walls, nothing is how it looks from the outside. The flawless facade withers and dies.

She’d better get back soon. She was only supposed to be out here for a few minutes.

A sound startles her – heavy footsteps and the rustle of clothes – and her pulse races as she holds her breath and squints into the darkness.

‘What are you doing out here?’ a voice she recognises calls. ‘Bit late, isn’t it?’

Her breath catches in her throat when he steps out of the shadows, even though she already knows who it is. Confusion clouds her brain; he’s not supposed to be here.

‘I was just . . . getting some fresh air,’ she says, standing. ‘I need to go in now.’

‘Wait,’ he says softly. ‘Come with me. I want to show you something.’

She backs away. ‘I can’t. I’m really tired. I need to get to bed.’

He steps closer. ‘I think you should come with me.’ He pauses, a smile flickering on his lips. ‘You don’t want people to know what you’ve been doing, do you?’ Even though he’s whispering, his voice seems to echo across the green.

The air is sucked from her lungs and she stares at him, unable to form a coherent sentence. This is when it all comes crashing down. She glances around; there are no lights on in any of the houses – no one is watching them.

He grins. ‘Are you coming, then?’ His voice devoid of emotion. A stranger, even though she knows him well.

She’s never heard him like this before, and she glances at her own house, her chest tightening. ‘I . . .’

And then she runs, fumbling in her pocket for her keys. But she stumbles and falls, her wrists slamming into the ground. Before she can move, he grabs a fistful of her hair and yanks her up.

‘Get off me!’ she screams, turning to the dark, silent houses, as if this place can somehow save her. How is it possible nobody is awake? That no one can hear them?

She meets his eyes and knows without a doubt that she’ll get her wish to leave Silverleaf Heights after all.