[CHAPTER 8] - The House With the Red Barn
That night, I had my first real nightmare about the wall.
I dreamed Nora was behind it again.
I pushed bread through the vent.
But every time her hand reached out, the wall moved farther away.
I woke screaming.
Dad was beside me immediately.
"You're okay."
"Nora can't reach me."
"It was a dream."
"No."
I started crying.
"She needs me."
Dad held me.
"She needs us to let the police help."
I hated that answer.
Police were adults.
Adults had already been looking for days.
Nora was still gone.
The next morning, Hannah received an email from an account she didn't recognize.
No message.
Just a video.
Detective Reed played it.
Nora sat at a kitchen table.
A white wall behind her.
A man stood partly outside the frame.
Mason.
Nora looked exhausted.
Vivian's voice came from behind the camera.
"Say it."
Nora swallowed.
"I want Aunt Hannah to stop looking for me."
Hannah began crying.
Vivian spoke again.
"Why?"
Nora's lip trembled.
"Because I want to live with Aunt Vivian."
"Good."
Nora looked directly into the camera.
Then she lifted her left hand.
Three fingers.
Closed fist.
Three fingers.
Closed fist.
Nobody understood.
I did.
"She's counting."
Dad looked at me.
"What?"
"Three."
I stood close to the laptop.
Nora lifted three fingers again.
"Three."
Hannah frowned.
"Three what?"
I watched the background.
A clock hung on the wall.
A wooden bird sat above it.
Then I remembered something Nora had whispered when we talked through the vent.
"My grandma had three red barns."
At the time, I thought she was talking about toys.
I looked at Hannah.
"Red barn."
Her eyes widened.
"My mother's farm."
Dad stood.
"What farm?"
"Our childhood home."
Hannah grabbed her phone.
"It was sold years ago."
"To who?"
"I don't know."
Detective Reed checked property records.
The farm had changed owners twice.
The current owner was a corporation.
Mercer Holdings.
Vivian's shell company.
The property sat less than twenty miles from Bellweather.
Police moved immediately.
The farm had three barns.
All painted red.
I wanted to go.
Dad said no.
This time he didn't change his mind.
"You stay with Officer Mills."
"But I know Nora."
"I know."
"She showed me."
"I know."
"Then I should come."
Dad knelt.
"You already saved her once by telling us where to look."
"But you didn't find her."
That hurt him.
I saw it.
I started crying.
"I'm sorry."
Dad hugged me.
"You never apologize for being scared."
He left with Hannah and Detective Reed.
Officer Mills stayed with me at the hotel.
I sat beside the window.
I watched cars move along the road.
Every black SUV made my stomach hurt.
Hours passed.
Then Dad called.
Officer Mills answered.
His face changed.
He turned on speaker.
"Ellie?"
"Daddy!"
"We found the farm."
"Nora?"
A pause.
"No."
My chest sank.
"But she was here."
Police found the room from the video.
The wooden bird.
The clock.
The chair Nora sat in.
They also found children's footprints in mud behind one barn.
A second set belonged to an adult.
The tracks led toward a creek.
Then disappeared beside tire marks.
Again, Vivian had moved her.
Again, we were late.
But this time she left something behind.
Not accidentally.
Nora had hidden a piece of paper beneath the chair.
A drawing.
Three red barns.
A black truck.
A yellow sun.
And a blue rectangle.
At the bottom, she had written one word.
WATER.
Hannah knew another family property.
An abandoned summer campground beside Millstone Reservoir.
Vivian had hated it as a child.
Mason loved it.
There were cabins there.
Boats.
Miles of woods.
Police headed toward the reservoir.
Then the hotel fire alarm went off.
Officer Mills looked toward the hallway.
"Stay here."
He opened the door.
People were leaving their rooms.
Smoke drifted from the stairwell.
The alarm screamed.
Officer Mills took my hand.
"We're evacuating."
We joined the crowd.
On the ground floor, sprinklers poured water over everyone.
People pushed toward the exits.
Someone bumped Officer Mills.
His hand slipped from mine.
A woman grabbed my shoulder.
"Ellie."
I turned.
Vivian.
She wore a baseball cap and dark glasses.
I screamed.
Her hand covered my mouth.
"Quiet."
I kicked.
She dragged me through a service door.
"Let me go!"
She squeezed my arm.
"You have caused enough trouble."
I bit her hand.
Vivian screamed.
I ran.
A man appeared ahead of me.
Snake tattoo.
Mason.
He grabbed me.
I screamed louder than I had ever screamed.
Officer Mills shouted from somewhere behind us.
"STOP!"
Mason lifted me.
Vivian pushed open an emergency exit.
A truck waited outside.
They threw me into the back seat.
Vivian climbed in.
Mason drove.
I kicked the door.
"DADDY!"
Vivian turned around.
Her face was no longer beautiful.
It was furious.
"You wanted Nora so badly?"
She smiled.
"Fine."
May you like
The truck accelerated.
"You can stay with her."
