Page 48 of Forever Dark
She cried until the force of it burned itself down to shuddering breaths and a wet face and a pounding behind her eyes.By then night had taken the street.Porch lights glowed on scattered houses.Insects threw themselves against the windshield and left faint specks.
Selena scrubbed both hands over her face, checked the mirror, and continued driving.
No point going to Jessie’s now.No point arriving red-eyed and raw and pretending she could manage a difficult reunion on top of everything else.She hadn’t seen her dad in two years, but she hadn’t seen Jessie for many more than that.The Wilson Motel would do.A locked door, a shower, bad coffee in the morning.Enough to hopefully get her through the next few days.
Town thinned around her as she headed out.Houses gave way to stretches of field and ditch and trees.Storefronts closed up for the night.The pink in the sky drained away until only a bruised band remained at the horizon, then that too was gone.
Darkness in Harlan County was different from city darkness.Fewer lights.More room for the mind to wander where it shouldn’t.The road ahead shone in her headlights and vanished beyond them.Fence posts flashed past.A mailbox.A stand of corn gone black as cut paper.Twice she checked the rearview mirror for no reason she could name.
Home had gotten under her skin fast.Too fast.She rolled down her window and let the night air seep in.It smelled both young and old.Fresh and corrupted.Soil and flowers in the dark.
By the time the motel sign flickered into view in the distance, a cold unease had settled low in her stomach.Not a thought exactly.Not even a fear she could give shape to.More like an old instinct waking up and refusing to go back to sleep.
She kept driving toward the motel, hands tight on the wheel.
For the first time since returning to Harlan County, Selena felt it clearly.
She should never have come home.
CHAPTER TEN
Sleep wouldn’t come.
Selena lay on her back in the narrow motel bed with one arm over her eyes and listened to the room settle around her.Pipes knocked once in the wall.The old air unit gave a tired rattle and went quiet again.Somewhere outside, tires hissed over the highway and faded into the night.Every time her body started to loosen, another sound pulled her back up.
The ceiling looked stained in the weak light from the parking lot.
She turned onto one side.Then the other.Kicked the sheet down.Pulled it back up.
No use.
Her father’s face kept returning to her.Not the way he had looked when she was ten or fifteen or even twenty-five.Too much like when he had cancer.Too close to that.The version from the porch.Thinner.Smaller.Fragile in a way that felt wrong on him.Every time she closed her eyes, she saw his hand shaking just a little as he lifted the pipe.
Selena sat up hard and pushed both feet to the floor.
The motel room was close and stale.She reached for her jeans draped over the chair, pulled them on, then grabbed her shirt from the dresser.A glance at the clock told her it was past midnight.Late enough that even Elmsview should have gone still.
A sharp cry cut through the wall.
Selena froze.
It came again.High, jagged, sudden.It was definitely a scream.
She was on her feet before the sound had fully died.Pulled on her jeans and a blue top, and then she was ready.
When the scream came a third time, she had to act.Gun in hand, safety of motion taking over where thought lagged.She stepped to the door, listened, then eased it open.
Cold night air met her first.The motel lot lay under a thin wash of yellow light from the office sign.Cars sat motionless in their spaces.The soda machine near reception hummed to itself.Nothing moved.
Then the scream came a fourth time, louder now, unmistakably from the office.
Selena crossed the asphalt fast, keeping low by instinct, pistol angled down but ready.The walkway thudded under her shoes near the curb.The office blinds were half open.Flickering light spilled through them in jerky bursts, white and black and white again.
Another shriek split the night.
Selena reached the door, took one step inside, and stopped.
“FBI!”
