ＣＡＵＴＩＯＮ：𝘉𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦

ᴛᴡᴇʟᴠᴇ

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Maura pushed the trolley of displaced books by the counter and began sorting through them starting with their ISBNs. It was easy to get lost in her own thoughts, especially with the quiet din of voices and the soft sounds of rain trickling over the tarp in front of the cafe as background noise. She stared off into space as her fingers skimmed over the spines of books, content to just zone out for a few minutes and let her brain go on autopilot.

She noticed that it had started raining more frequently in Blackwick these days. It would seem that the last residue from summer had finally faded.

For some reason, the gloom of fall made Maura's mind drift elsewhere. She couldn't help but think about how easy it would be to disappear in this kind of weather—tumultuous as it was. Any traces of an assailant would all but disappear, washed away by the cold and the damp. It was an eerily morbid thought—but these days, morbid thoughts were all that would appear with the recent commotion in the small town just beyond the border.

The bell above the door chimed, dragging Maura from her stupor. She slipped the last book in place and craned her neck over the clerk's counter just in time to see Silas's head pop up next to the nearest bookcase. He beamed at her, shaking the dew from his shoulders. While he squeezed the rain from his umbrella and pocketed it in the stand by the doorway, Maura lifted herself to her feet and greeted him with a warm smile.

"What are you doing here?" She asked curiously, but not all that defensively.

"Relax," He jokingly chided with his hands up. "I'm not here to chew out your project. I just want a quick bite to eat and... some company on the side."

"Company, is it?" Maura raised a brow. "I didn't think you were here to berate me on my lackluster project anyway. I'm just surprised to see you again. You've been busy. Feels like it's been a while."

"It has, hasn't it?" Silas rubbed his chilled palms together and blew out a puff of air. "It's been like what—three weeks now?" He shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe it's already October."

Maura checked for any customers on her floor before falling in step behind Silas. "Yeah. You'd hardly think the quarter began a month ago if it weren't for these gaudy decorations."

Gesturing to the orange, black, and red pumpkin-shaped baubles strung around the shop, Maura caught several new ornaments, all quaint. Some were black cats, woven with plastic fur and marble green eyes. Others were origami-shaped bats and witches. They were inlaid with colorful rhinestones. 

It wasn't just the decorations that marked the changing seasons. The air was somehow brittler, colder—harsher on the skin, and the rain was anything but the light sprinkle September had carried. It grew heavier, carrying the bite of December on its tail.

But it was the trees that served as a reminder to locals that a brumal season was on the cusp.

Maura threw a look outside—to the forest that lay just on the border of the town, surrounding it.