Suicide Mission (Guarded Secrets #1)

The persistent hum of her bedside lamp cast a soft glow on Sara's sketchbook. Four years. Four years since the crash, and still, the nightmare clawed its way back almost every night. The shrieking tires, the shattering glass, the agonizing flip of the car – it was always the same, ending with the familiar, gut-wrenching realization that she was the only one left.

She traced the lines of a new drawing, a labyrinth of shadows and light, trying to lose herself in the intricate patterns. The clock on her nightstand glowed 1:00 AM. Alex, her adoptive brother, had just left, his usual late-night comfort a fleeting reprieve. He always came when she screamed, a silent guardian against the echoes of her past.

Sighing, Sara pushed the sketchbook aside. Sleep was a lost cause. She rose, her movements almost silent, a practiced stealth honed from years of nocturnal escapes. Tonight was the anniversary, a day that always felt heavier than the rest. A visit to the cemetery was inevitable, a quiet communion with the family she’d lost.

As she slipped through the silent house, avoiding the creaking steps and navigating around the Rickers' sleeping dog, a flicker of something new, something unsettling, tugged at her. A sense of being watched, an almost imperceptible shift in the air that prickled her skin. But she dismissed it, blaming the lingering dread of the anniversary. Little did she know, the shadows were not just in her mind; they were gathering, preparing to pull her into a world far more real and terrifying than any nightmare.