CHAPTER THREE This was a low blow, but it somehow struck me all the way back to my backbone. I stood there, feet several inches from the door, breathing frozen in mid-chest expansion. Again, the cell phone vibrated in my hands, the number appearing on the black screen: “Do. Not. Open. It These words vibrated in my sight until my heart beat in perfect time with them. I swallowed. “Ez A second knock. "Slow," "Methodical," just like the masked man at the funeral home. And then, of course, there was "the voice, the voice that was Ezra’s." "Aiden. open up." I could sense my hairs rising on the back of my neck. My feet appeared to be just a shade unwilling to move any closer. In fact, the house was too quiet, too tight, in the kind of house whose walls are holding its breath. A flash of lightning outside, bright, hard, and for that moment, the corridor behind me was reflected in metal light. It was then that I saw it reflected in the bend of the door handle: It is a tall shadow, s
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