Release Date: September 30, 2025
Sometimes, a bad, bad feeling creeps over Veronica Quick. It happened on her tenth birthday, when a voice filled her head: Don’t go in the water. That day, she nearly drowned while swimming with her friends, one of whom was seriously injured.
Since then, she has tried to turn off her premonitions. After all, not every vision comes true. She’s made a fool of herself before, predicting things that didn’t transpire. And she’s still shaken by disturbing images tied to that day at The Pond.
But this new vision is different. This one won’t be ignored. There’s a clearing in the woods, and a woman, strangled to death, her hands bloody and torn.
The body is found just as she predicted, and suddenly she’s seeing glimpses of more victims, even as she clashes with a skeptical police detective from her past. But Veronica sees just enough to know there’s a killer out there, stalking, strangling, circling everyone she knows in an ever-tightening web.
But it’s the part she doesn’t yet see that is the most terrifying . . .
The night was dark and cold. The cabin was a little more than a lean-to shelter these days. The woman shivered and counted her many sins. She’d made mistakes, vast mistakes as it turned out. She wasn’t good at reading human nature and it was going to kill her . . . maybe . . . if she didn’t think of a plan of escape.
The dog whined softly and she pulled it close. It wasn’t her dog but she’d taken it with her for protection.
A chilly wind clattered against the cabin, trembling the walls. She could smell dirt and damp weeds, saw tendrils reaching from beneath the rotting floorboards. She couldn’t stay here long. She had to move . . . run . . . She’d wracked her brain on who to call to help her, but there was no good answer. The only person, and it was an insane longshot, the longshot of longshots, was Veronica. Clutching the dog, burying her face in its black fur, she sent a message into the universe. I’m in trouble. He’s coming to kill me. I don’t want to die. Help me.
Was that a car engine? She raised her head in alarm, heart galumphing. She didn’t move. The dog growled low in its throat and she quietly shushed it. They’d bonded in their short time together and the animal complied, softly snuffling her ear.
She couldn’t hear the engine anymore. Was it real? Had someone cut it? Were those footsteps? She strained to listen.
The door of the cabin had a latch on the inside. In horror, she watched as a small stick was inserted beneath the latch and pushed upward, releasing it with a small metallic click.
She trembled. Her hand moved to clasp the rock she’d placed beside herself. If the dog couldn’t save her, it would be her last defense.
The dog was quivering all over. Its skin sliding beneath her other hand, beneath its soft fur. The door opened and a black figure stood there. “You called?” Said with real concern.
Relief flooded her. And surprise. Full on shock. “You . . .? You. . .found me?
The dog started barking and barking and barking.
Slam. The world went black.
The next thing she knew she was lying face up in a clearing. A faint moon glowed behind a cloud, a momentary respite from the rain. She wanted that rain now. Wanted its cold wash on her face. Needed it to clear her mind. She envisioned diamond droplets falling on her face, rinsing all the bad stuff away.
Then hands circled her throat. Gloved hands. “Why?” she asked but it might have been in her mind.
The last thing she remembered was the frenzied barking of the dog, somewhere far away . . .
