Chapter 15 - The Unread Message
Clara pulled the smartphone from her coat pocket, her thumb hovering over the screen as the glowing notification light blinked a steady, hypnotic amber.
The screen displayed a text message from a blocked, unknown number, time-stamped just three minutes prior—long after the state police had confirmed the fatal crash on the logging bridge.
Her heart hammered against her ribs as she slid her finger across the glass to unlock the display and read the words that would change everything forever.
The message read: “The man in the coffin isn't me, Clara. See you soon.”
Clara stopped dead in her tracks on the gravel path, dropping her phone into the dirt as a cold realization washed over her, making the hair on her arms stand straight up.
She slowly raised her head, looking past the cluster of police cruisers toward the dark treeline where the forest swallowed the winding dirt road.
In the shadows beneath the towering pines, a single figure stood motionless, watching her with a familiar, upright posture, holding a smartphone that flashed once in the darkness.
Before she could scream for the officers standing just ten feet away, the figure turned and vanished into the thick underbrush like a ghost disappearing into the night.
Leo noticed her sudden stillness and walked over, following her horrified gaze toward the dark woods.
"Clara? What is it? Did you see something?" Leo asked, reaching down to pick up her phone from the dirt.
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Clara didn't answer. She couldn't find her voice.
She simply stared at the empty space between the trees where the man had stood, knowing with terrifying certainty that the nightmare was far from over—and that David was still out there, waiting for the right moment to finish what he had started in the parking lot.
