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I’d thought the men in this place were going to be the hardest thing to deal with here, but now I’m not so sure.

“Yeah, it’s real.”

His words settle around us like snow.

A part of me wants to fall to pieces, to scream and cry and deny any of it is possible, but what would be the point? We have to live here, ghosts and all.

I flash him a smile. “Okay, well, like I said, I’m going to grab something to eat, if you want anything.”

“Nah, I’m fine. But thanks.”

There still seems to be something I’m missing, but I’m unsure what. A scent lingers on the air that I can’t quite place.

But the anger I’ve been simmering with toward Blake seems to have waned. Is it because he finally seems to be telling me the truth? Or maybe I’m starting to understand that there’s something far bigger than any of us going on at Windridge Hall.

“It’ll be Thanksgiving soon,” he tells me. “If you want to go down to the basement some day and bring up those decorations, I’ll help.”

Maybe it would help to make things feel a little cheerier, a little more normal.

“Sure, I’d like that.”

“Okay, just let me know.”

I wonder if they’ll have a turkey stashed away somewhere so we can make a Thanksgiving dinner. A rush of excitement and hope fills me at the thought of the four of us gathering around the table and celebrating together. It hasn’t felt like there’s been much to celebrate recently, and since we’re all stuck here together anyway, we might as well make the most of it.

I’m kind of losing track of the days here, since they all feel the same, but it’s still too early to decorate. I find myself looking forward to having an excuse to spend time with Blake, though.

I leave Blake and go to the kitchen to help myself to some hot tea and toast. I’m feeling a little better about things, despite our strange conversation. Maybe it’ll be all right after all, to spend the next four months or so here, and then figure out what to do with my life after. I’m trying not to think what that life might look like, especially with the complication of Tobias ‘missing’ to the outside world, but it’s better than feeling heartbroken all the time.

I’m not quite ready to just go and hang out with Blake yet, especially with the strange way he’d looked at me, so I take my tea and toast back to my bedroom.

As I’m walking down the long corridor toward room 113, I catch the skittering of movement across a wall ahead, a shadow growing larger and then shrinking again. The air grows chilled around me, and goosebumps rise on my arms.

I’m not alone.

Is it Dov? It’s daytime, and Dov isn’t normally around in the day, though of course I now know he has been from the photographs I caught him in the background of, and the times I’d sensed him following me.

Unless it wasn’t him on those occasions…

“Hello? Dov?”

I feel stupid for speaking out loud, like my voice doesn’t really belong to me.

I round the corner, expecting to find him standing there, but the space is empty. That chill hits me again, and I shiver and rub at my arms. It’s normal for an old building like this to have cold spots, especially when it’s freezing outside. As for the shadow, it was most likely just a trick of the light, or perhaps it’s a longer lasting effect of my concussion messing with my brain.

Either way, it doesn’t matter, because nothing is here now.

I reach my room and open the door. Everything is as I left it. My bedcovers rumpled. My sketch pad discarded on the dresser. My clothes in a pile on the floor. Yet something feels off. Like I can sense another person’s presence having been in here.

Going to the bathroom, I click on the light and ensure it’s empty, which it is.

It most likely was Dov. I must have caught him leaving. There’s no sign of him here, though, and he hasn’t left me with any gifts to let me know he was thinking of me.

Turning slowly, I observe this room I’ve come to think of as my own.

How many women have come before me? How many winters have they spent roaming these halls with these three men chasing them down to fuck? I’m worried about what happened to them after. Did they just return to their normal lives? Did they have families who’d worried about them while they’d been here all winter?

It occurs to me how isolated I am, and not just because of where I am now. After my dad died, I no longer had anyone who really cared about me. Had Blake recognized that right away, which was why he’d offered for me to stay with them? If I’d said no, would another woman be in my place right now?