THE VILLAGE THAT NEVER LET ANYONE LEAVE
Chapter 7
They hid inside an abandoned ranger station.
Maya locked the door.
Ethan paced across the room.
“My entire life was a lie.”
Nora sat silently.
Maya looked at her.
“Why do you know so much?”
Nora hesitated.
“Because I was one of them.”
“What?”
“I came here in 2016.”
Nora explained that she had been a journalist investigating disappearances.
She found Black Hollow.
She entered.
And never left.
“The village changed me,” she whispered.
“How?”
“I started forgetting.”
Maya’s expression tightened.
“Your memories?”
Nora nodded.
“People I loved. Places I’d lived. Even my own birthday.”
Ethan looked at the wall.
Someone had carved hundreds of names into it.
He recognized several.
Then one name stopped him.
Daniel Carter.
His father’s name.
Below it:
RETURNED — 1994
Ethan stepped backward.
“My father knew.”
Nora nodded.
“He found Black Hollow years before you were born.”
“Then why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because he made a deal.”
“What deal?”
Nora looked toward the mountains.
“He promised the village you would never return.”
A distant bell rang.
12:17.
Nora’s face went pale.
“They know where we are.”
Maya grabbed Ethan’s hand.
“Then we move.”
Nora shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because this time, they aren’t trying to keep you here.”
She looked directly at Ethan.
“They’re trying to make you the next keeper.”
