Gloria

Gloria’s jaw nearly dropped to the tabletop.

“Whoa. That’s a… that’s

a lot.”

“Yes, but, well, there’s a bit of a stipulation to it. The money is yours. However, your aunt put it in her will that you can only receive the full amount after you’ve spent a year living here in Hamlet. In the house she left you.”

Gloria blinked, then leaned back in her seat.

Maybe all those zeros were doing something funny to her because she could’ve sworn that the lawyer had just made receiving her inheritance seem like a set-up to an old Scooby Doo episode or something.

Well, she mused, she did already run into the kid with the mask. Why not spend the night in a creepy old house?

Only, if she said what Goria thought she said, then—

“Excuse me? Did you… did you say a year?”

“I did, yes. I know, I know… it’s an unusual request, but your aunt was very particular. Of course, she understood that you’d probably have to give up your job to comply with her instructions and she’s authorized a monthly stipend to make sure that you don’t go without.” Another sheet. Another number that was way higher than anything Gloria was used to. “If you say yes, this amount is also yours.”

“For staying in a cabin for a year,” echoed Gloria. It just… it didn’t seem possible. “I… are you sure this isn’t some kind of Halloween prank?”

“I’m positive, dear.” Sadie reached out, tapping the top of Gloria’s hand with her palm. A kind smile creased her face before she drew back. Shuffling her papers, putting them in order again, she slid them inside of the folder, then tucked the folder in her bag. “Take your time, finish your coffee. When you’re done, I’ll take you up to see your new cabin.”

Gloria began to second-guess her decision about five minutes after she started to follow Sadie away from the coffeehouse.

Apart from the lawyer driving ahead of her, she was the only car on the road. And maybe she was still shaken up from earlier—suffering from a case of the Halloween heebie jeebies—because the further they drove into Hamlet, the creepier it got.

The streets were narrow and empty. Trees bordered both sides, growing thicker and taller as they headed toward the mountains that began to rise up in front of her. Shadows fell across the asphalt, the branches whipping in a chilly wind. It was early afternoon, but the temperature had only continued to drop.

She was just wondering if this was the type of small town where outsiders go to disappear when, all of a sudden, Sadie took a sharp turn off the road.

Gloria was about three seconds away from throwing her car into reverse and returning to the city when she realized that Sadie was starting up a winding, dirt path that led up high into the mountains.

She kind of still wanted to run and hide. But then Sadie honked her horn, Gloria thought of the promise of her great aunt’s estate, and she eased her car onto the rocky, mountain path.

Her car shook a little as she pushed it, or maybe it was her nerves. The incline was steep enough to make Gloria think of a rollercoaster and she kept waiting for the sudden drop. She gripped her steering wheel and stayed right on Sadie’s bumper until the lawyer had led her in front of a pair of cabins.

Once she had parked her car, Gloria scrambled out of her seat, careful not to look behind her in case she accidentally saw how high up on the mountain she currently was.

“That path was… are you sure that was safe?”

Sadie slung her giant purse over her shoulder, her green eyes twinkling at the squeak that slipped into Gloria’s voice. “Oh, heavens, yes.”

“Really? People are supposed to actually drive on it?”

“Promise. Villagers have been taking that path since long before there were even cars in Hamlet. There’s never been any trouble. You’ll get used to it.”

Gloria wasn’t so sure about that. Not that she wouldn’t get used to it, but that she’d have a reason to take that path except for when she left.

Sure, the lawyer mentioned the stipulation that she’d have to live in the cabin for a year before she could touch the rest of her inheritance, but that would be crazy. Giving up her apartment, her life in the city, her boring desk job to move into a mountain cabin in a town with fewer people than her graduating class?

That would be crazy.

Right?

Sadie slammed the door on her vehicle closed, then turned toward the cabin on the right. The other one was set a little further back, maybe about fifty feet away.

The good news was that her great aunt’s cabin wasn’t the only one up there. The bad news, though? There was only one neighboring home nearby. And Great Aunt Patti’s looked a little beat-up and rundown compared to the robust cabin to the left of it.