1970

The ancient cat emerges from beneath the bed just before midnight.  Josey strokes its coarse fur in the flickering light of a lamp.  The search party returns.  They stomp their cold feet, their shoulders sag and they shuffle off to bed.  Her grandfather stops at her doorway only long enough to shake his head.

The older woman is there.  “Would you like me to stay with you?”  Josey nods.

—————————————

She is suddenly awake.  Candace sleeps on the stuffed chair.

She steps into the hallway, following the muffled sound.  She walks silently through the darkened house, through the foyer with its collection of boots and snowshoes, through the living room decorated in hanging Navajo rugs and antlers, past the modern kitchen, to a door tucked in a corner.

She opens the door and peers up a steep, dark stairway.  Light sneaks from the bottom of a closed door at the top.

Something is moving in there.  It wheezes.  It rattles.

This Ends the Fifth Cycle of  BURNT

The Story So Far