He scrambled into his truck, throwing the satchel onto the floorboards and locking the doors with a frantic click. As he turned the ignition, his headlights caught a figure standing at the edge of the clearing, unmoving. It was a man, tall and thin, wearing a heavy coat despite the summer heat.
Elias didn’t wait to see if the figure moved; he slammed the truck into gear and roared up the dirt path. The satchel slid across the floor, and a small, silver object fell out of an unzipped side pocket. It rolled toward his feet, sparking under the dim dashboard lights like a fallen star. He reached down at a red light, picking up a gold locket shaped like a heart, its hinge rusted shut. He remembered seeing that locket on Sarah’s neck in every school photo she had ever taken before that summer. His hands were shaking so hard he almost veered into the ditch on the main road.
The figure in the woods hadn’t followed him, but Elias felt eyes on the back of his neck the entire drive home. He needed to find a way to develop the film without the whole town finding out. In Blackwood Creek, secrets were the only currency that actually mattered to the people in charge.
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