YOUR SISTER TOLD YOU TO HIDE IN THE ATTIC AND NOT TELL YOUR HUSBAND—THEN YOU FOUND THE PASSPORTS UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS

from an abandoned service road. In daylight, it’s a pleasant line of trees. In a storm at midnight, it becomes a dark, swallowing mouth. You run into it anyway.

Branches slash at your face.

Mud drags at your feet.

Your lungs burn.

Then floodlights detonate behind you.

“Elise!” Caleb shouts.

You don’t look back.

A siren erupts from the street.

Then another.continue reading …