PROLOGUE

Adrenaline fueled Kate’s will to live. She ran as fast as her legs could move. Her desperation to survive his hunt surpassed her fear of tripping. Sharp twigs, decaying logs, and overgrown blackberry canes covered the dark trails, slowing her down while threatening a hard tumble on the stony ground.

Her senses were nearly useless. She could only hear dried leaves crunching beneath her flimsy shoes and her forceful exhales as she searched for a way out of the thicket. The elusive moon hid behind stubborn clouds, making it difficult to see and escape.

Her attempt to flee was instinctive and self-serving. She wanted to live. She loved her life, even though she had once condemned it and wished it to end when her depressed emotions choked the very life she had taken for granted.

And while her visibility was low, she remembered her way down the dirt-worn trail. She had spent countless hours walking the sunny trails with freedom abound, oblivious to autumn around the corner with its fiery show, then its icy fury.

The driving sleet stung her exposed face and hands. Her fingertips felt as numb as her toes as she wiped away a trickle of blood that oozed from a fresh cut above her brow and blurred her struggling night vision.

It was awkward to run, and she couldn’t see behind when she turned to look, but she wondered where he was, desperately so.

Is he trailing me close?

Can he stab me with his flailing knife, or did I finally lose him?

She prayed to outrun him but could only assume the worst as the hard truth lingered in the freezing wind, surrounding her at every turn, stalking her like a grim reaper who would not give up – not ever.

Running felt useless. Her exhaustion prompted her to hide behind a honeysuckle for quick rest. She tried to calm her burning lungs, but her racing heart convinced her he was tracking her by her pulse.

When her breathing calmed down a bit, she heard shuffling dry leaves from her left side, then right. She felt disoriented and even dizzy. Was it the rousing wind or her ruthless killer? Her heart sank when she realized it indeed was him. That she hadn’t lost him like she hoped, and he was trailing her like a magnet to her steel will.

As she tucked her knees in close to hide, she noticed a vibrant red light from a familiar tower in the distance, bright and flashy: on, off, on, off. It reminded her of her carefree moments spent walking on the trails. The tower’s light had been a stable friend; guiding her north while helping her to not lose her way.

Her walks were meditative then, often spiritual. She remembered the clean air filtered through summer greens, the melodic confluence of birds in tune, and her cherished state of mental peace that nature often provided. The stark contrast between her fond memories and her current crisis stung without mercy. The red light was no longer a friend to her now, but a frosty warning taunting her in the moody night sky. She thought of how quickly her perspective could change and how the mysteries and dangers of her future could hide so secretly in the shadows of her ignorance.

Kate froze when she heard his advancing footsteps, and while the gusty wind rustled the lingering leaves in the skeletal trees, making it difficult to hear, the clouds cleared to reveal the deranged man in the streaky moonlight. She was thankful to be hidden behind a large cedar tree and studied him in the lackluster light.           

He was tall and strong, emitting a boisterous rage that channeled through every move of his tireless body. And while she could not see his face, she still sensed his repulsive anger. A formidable beast determined to find her at last and kill her as planned.

The man ran with a stiff limp and was desperate and crazed, like a starved animal hunting for its only prey. She knew he would not stop until he carried out his plan to completion.

He called to her in vain, as if reaching the peak of his outlandish anger, so ready to carry out what he was born to do. “You can’t hide from me forever, Kate. I’ll find you. I’ll kill you.”

She shivered when the poison of his threatening voice consumed her last bit of hope. She prayed he wouldn’t find her behind the swaying cedar, but like her worst nightmare coming true before her eyes, he inched closer to her hiding place as if he could sense her fear and track her intuitively.

He was so close to her then; only a few yards away. She held her breath and shivered with an unprecedented fear that pierced like a knife through her weary soul. Her heart beat so fiercely, she was sure it would explode into a million pieces.

“I’m coming for you, Kate. You can’t escape me any longer.” His wicked laughter felt demeaning to her soul.

She whimpered as he moved closer to her hiding place, then screamed into the useless night, leading him closer still. 

“There you are, Ms. Sommers. Finally. You’re making me have to work for you tonight, aren’t you now? At least wrong can be set right. What do you think, Kate? Should we make our time together short and sweet or long and torturous?”

She imagined him grinning through his wicked promise. But fortunately for her, her desire to live was stronger. She ran and hid behind another cluster of cedars as the howling wind muffled his singsong taunts. And while she could no longer hear his fits of rage, she could sense he was close enough to grab her if she dared to stumble, or even worse, tripped and fell.        

Not wanting to die that night, she searched for a way out through the tangled vines, but the moon faded behind more clouds, darkening the forest like a smothering blanket, transforming her surroundings into aimless night.

A gust of wind swirled the treetops. A dead branch cracked overhead. She fell to her knees and shielded her head with her hands. The next gust snapped the heavy branch in half, causing it to break off and fall on top of her, stabbing into her shoulder. She collapsed to the hard ground, feeling both severe pain and mental defeat.

She rolled to her side to see him standing there, Machiavellian to his core. Contrition was her only hope; a trickle of virtue mixed with saving empathy, but he showed no sign of it as he raised his knife, knowing quite well that nothing stood between his blade and his mission any longer.

She knew it was too late to save herself as time slowed to a near stop. Her struggle was over, and destiny won. Her life had reached its mortal end, and there was nothing she could do but lie there and concede to the nightmare as she watched it unfold.

She saw her young life flash in images like the fading stars through parted leaves. Warm tears turned cold on her cheeks as she thought of her sudden loss of life. She couldn’t say goodbye to the ones she loved most. The idea of it murdered her spiritually before his blade touched her skin, then organs, then bone.

She always believed she would live a long and wholesome life. Never would she have imagined such a gruesome fate; to be cheated in the most horrible and degrading way.

She feared the pain that would soon invade her body from his hovering knife, but she looked beyond him somehow, towards the bitter moon and twinkling stars that all seemed to shine for her sake. It would be her last glimpse of beauty on earth; she was certain of it.

She resigned herself to dying, to fading into the phantom night. She closed her eyes and offered a desperate prayer.

(Search soon for Candle in a Cabin Window to continue reading Kate Sommers’ haunted fate.)