Chapter 1 #2
Anna had hurried up the steps, expecting him to be there waiting for her.
Only he wasn’t. She raced home as fast as her weak legs could carry her.
Mamm and Daed were extremely worried. Both their daughters had been missing for almost twenty-four hours.
The police came, but an extensive search revealed nothing.
Their kidnapper left no evidence behind to identify himself.
And they found no sign of Constance.
The dank basement smell that pervaded her dreams greeted her. Familiar steps sent chills through her body.
Though her head urged her not to go any farther, Constance’s smiling face kept her moving down the stairs.
The lantern picked up a terrifying image from the bottom step. She screamed at the sight of a body swinging from the rafter above. A woman dressed in Amish attire with her wrists tied above her head. Constance! His letter promised answers. Was this some sick game?
Please, not like this!
Anna raced toward the figure. Holding the light above her head, she froze while relief and disgust warred for control. It wasn’t a woman at all, but a mannequin dressed in the same type of clothing Constance had worn when Anna last saw her.
Reality hit hard, turning her stomach. Her skin crawled thinking about him being close. Watching her. Waiting for the moment to claim her again.
A scurrying sound prompted Anna to whip toward it, her frantic eyes darting around the corners of the basement.
Boxes were piled everywhere. They weren’t there the last time, but now, they’d become the perfect place for the kidnapper to hide.
Get out of here! That inner voice warned her to flee.
Anna stumbled for the stairs, her fear blinding. Heart rate pounding so loud it drowned out everything.
At the landing, Anna yanked open the door and stared into the face of a monster. The masked man who’d taken her hostage ten years ago. Wearing the same grotesque wolf mask.
She screamed and flew down the steps. Her skirt tangled in her legs. She snagged her foot on the stairs and stumbled. Anna grabbed the banister to save herself, but couldn’t. She fell hard.
No, no, no.
She crawled away. Anna could hear his heavy breathing as he slowly came down the stairs. He wasn’t in any hurry. He had her trapped.
Anna clawed at the wall for support and staggered to her feet. Her peripheral vision revealed he was almost right on top of her now.
She reached into the stack of boxes and flung one at him. It struck his head. The masked man barked out an expletive and lost his footing. This was it. Her only chance.
From where she stood at this moment, the stairs looked miles away. Her attacker seemed distracted by his anger. Now or never. She sprinted for the stairs while trying not to look at him.
She reached the bottom step, her legs shaking so much that it became a struggle to lift her foot to the next stair.
Don’t look back!
She clutched the banister tight, her breathing so labored it shut out every other sound.
Anna continued to climb. She grasped the door handle he’d closed and tried to twist it open, but it was as if her fingers wouldn’t work properly.
The monster from her past stormed up the stairs and grabbed her from behind.
“No!” She tried to break free by stomping on his foot. He realized what she planned and kept out of her range. Anna clawed at his hands. His arms. Anything she could to free herself. Her efforts proved useless.
A familiar prick against her neck appeared to seal her fate.
Anna kept fighting. If she could just break free… She wouldn’t go down without a fight.
The serum he’d injected felt like fire coursing through her limbs. Her body grew numb. Her attempts to escape became less focused. She wasn’t sure her flailing arms connected with anything but air.
His hold on her suddenly released. The masked man was no longer worried about her escaping. Like Anna, he knew it was only a matter of time before she was at his mercy.
Anna tried to walk, but her legs felt boneless. Her vision blurred as she stumbled around blindly. She slammed into the basement wall and slid down it. As the world around her tilted into the waiting darkness, one thing became frighteningly clear.
She’d sealed her fate by coming here tonight.
* * *
The day had stretched long, but the results were rewarding. A missing girl found.
Still, nights like this sometimes left Jaxson “Jax” Thomas feeling restless.
The victories were sweet, but the endless parade of missing persons, drug arrests and broken families gnawed at him more than he cared to admit.
There were times he wondered if he was really making a difference…
or just patching the same holes over and over again.
Jax glanced to the back seat of his police cruiser, where Tracker rested his head on his paws. The five-year-old German shepherd became his partner less than a year ago, but they had bonded immediately. Tracker had the ability to predict Jax’s command simply by making eye contact.
“Good job today, buddy.”
A low rumble of acknowledgement caused Jax to smile. Tracker watched him for a moment longer before his eyes drifted shut. The dog deserved a nap.
Jax focused on his driving. A heavy fog, caused by the recent rain, rolled down from Black Mountain, its pale fingers stretching over the town of Rachel’s Crossing. Unease snaked between Jax’s shoulders. Exhaustion playing with his emotions? Something else?
This town certainly offered many reasons for feeling off-kilter, including a previous serial killer.
When he’d left Rachel’s Crossing, never in a million years would Jax have believed he’d ever come back. Not after the final blowup between him and his father. He’d thrown an angry retaliation into his old man’s face and assured Peter this was the last time his dad would ever hurt him again.
That declaration almost became a fulfilled prophecy. Would have, if it hadn’t been for Aunt Betty, his father’s sister. She’d tracked him down at his job in Washington, DC, a little less than a year and a half earlier, and told him Peter was dying.
Jax had struggled with his eighteen-year-old resentful self for a long time. Eventually, he’d given in and returned in time to say goodbye. He didn’t regret that decision.
The cruiser’s headlights cut through the fog as he turned off Main Street, where the police station was situated, and headed toward his old homestead. The one he’d shared with his father during those last moments of Peter’s life.
After his father’s funeral, Chief Diana Nissley came to him with a proposal.
She was looking for someone to take charge of the department’s growing K-9 unit.
Diana heard about his work in DC with police dogs and wanted him to head up the Rachel’s Crossing team.
Jax agreed to a temporary position. That was a year ago.
While he loved his work, there were days when the strain of seeing too much hurt became hard to take.
Something grabbed his attention off to the right. What appeared to be a light inside the old Hill home. The place had remained uninhabited for a couple of decades before he left Rachel’s Crossing. Jax wasn’t sure if there were any family members left to claim the crumbling old house.
He might not have thought much about the light if it hadn’t been for what happened in that house ten years ago.
Jax slowed to a crawl and tried not to let the history of the place distort his cop instincts.
That night, he’d almost lost Anna to a masked man who’d kidnapped her and her older sister, Constance, and held them for almost twenty-four hours of sheer terror. He couldn’t have had any idea he’d lose her for good in a far different way.
Back then, Jax believed there was enough time to tell Anna how he felt about her. That night together had sealed his feelings for her. Yet Jax didn’t foresee the final blowup with his father. Jax believed if he didn’t leave right then, his old man might kill him.
A solitary night brought lasting change to both their lives. Changing him. Probably her as well, since she had left Rachel’s Crossing soon after him and never returned.
His headlights swept the front of the structure, confirming the house was close to collapsing. He killed the engine, darkness returning to the countryside. Nothing showed inside. Was the light he’d seen merely a reflection from his vehicle?
Jax’s gut told him otherwise. Probably just some kids partying. He’d go in and send them home.
Before he opened the car door the light suddenly reappeared, this time moving through the house.
Still haunted by his past, Jax exited the cruiser with his weapon drawn.
Tracker barked a reminder of his presence from the back seat. Jax let the dog out and gave the hand command for Tracker to stay close as he eased to the front entrance. The sight of the wide-open door made Jax grab his flashlight. He looked at Tracker and confirmed they were on the same page.
Something moved as he eased inside. A flash of a figure rushing toward the back of the house.
“Police! Stop. Get your hands in the air.” Jax homed in his light on the person, who appeared to be male. Dressed entirely in black, wearing a wolf mask…just like the one Anna described ten years earlier. A copycat? Or was the kidnapper back?
Jax’s command went unheeded. The perp flung open the back door and disappeared into the fog.
“Go.” Tracker latched on to the command and raced after the fleeing person. Jax started after his partner when a noise from the bowels of the house stopped him in his tracks.
Someone else was here.
He listened closely. Outside, a car door slammed, followed by Tracker’s angry barks that were soon broken by an engine firing. A breath later, tires squealed. Whoever was here had escaped. Had they left their partner behind, or something far worse?
A barely audible moan drew him toward the kitchen. The basement door was open. Worst-case scenarios flew through his mind as he descended the steps. Over a decade prior, this was the location where a kidnapper took Anna and her sister.
Jax remembered the sick game he played with them to choose which one of them stayed behind and which one he took.
His jaw tightened. “Who’s down here? Show yourself.”
He waited on the landing for some response.
“Help. Please help me.”
That voice. He’d recognize it anywhere, even though a significant amount of time had passed since he’d last heard her speak. Reality slammed into him with the force of a tidal wave. Anna. Here.
Jax took the remaining steps two at a time. His light picked up something horrible. Two figures hanging by their secured hands from the rafter.
Anna…and someone else. From her dress, the second victim appeared to be Amish as well.
“Hang on, I’ve got you.” Jax put down the flashlight next to a lantern that glowed atop a nearby stack of boxes.
“Jax?” Anna’s surprise came through clearly.
Jax searched for something to use as a step so that he could cut Anna free. An old chair was lying overturned in the corner. He grabbed it and hoped it would hold his weight as he climbed up and pulled his pocketknife from his belt.
Anna’s attacker had blindfolded her with what appeared to be a knit scarf…just like that night. He removed it and stared into blue eyes filled with sheer terror.
“Jax, oh, Jax. You’ve got to get me out of here. He might come back.”
“You’re safe, Anna. He’s gone.” Jax told her about the man fleeing the house. “Let me cut you down.” He wrapped one arm around her waist and felt her tense. “I don’t want you to fall.”
He wasn’t sure if she understood anything he said. Getting her free was the most important thing right now. He’d sort out the rest once that happened.
Jax placed the blade against the rope and sawed until it gave. Anna’s full weight crashed into him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him in a death grip.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered against her ear. Jax closed his knife and let it drop. “It’s okay. He won’t hurt you again.” Brave words.
Jax stepped from the chair with her still clinging to him. He removed her blindfold and stared into her frightened blue eyes.
“I’ll be right back. Let me help her.” He carefully peeled Anna’s arms from his torso, then turned to assist the second victim…until he noticed a grotesque smile on the woman’s face and realized she wasn’t real.
It was a mannequin someone had dressed up like an Amish woman. What kind of sick game was this?
Tracker, having picked up Jax’s scent, charged down the steps to investigate.
The noise had Anna reaching for him again as if fearing her attacker’s return.
“It’s just my dog, Tracker.”
He could feel her erratic heartbeat. The experience had been a harrowing one, mimicking the actions of a decade ago.
It was the same basement from which Anna had escaped, the same place where she’d last seen her sister, Constance, thanks to a kidnapper’s sick game.
Anna had lost her sister that night and almost her life.
He’d do everything in his power to keep Anna safe this time.
But right now, he had no idea why history was repeating itself and why someone—possibly the same sick person as before—had chosen to play more games with Anna.
Copyright ? 2026 by Mary Eason