Lands of In Between |Book 1|

Chapter 3

Dinner was an exercise in patience as Ellie endured a barrage of questions about the footage from the woods. Not only did both Owen and Pia seem to believe her, but worse, Owen lightly alluded to wanting to abandon his current documentary.

"This could be something worth exploring," he said through bites of his fries. A flicker of dejection showed in his eyes as he added, "Besides, I'm not making much headway here with Valen. The guy is more of a ghost than this apparition you saw. At least we have some damn footage of that thing."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Pia interjected. "He doesn't have a cell phone, he climbs alone, and he has no real friends who can connect us to him. Hell, there are hardly any photos of him out there."

Owen sighed, twirling the short ends of his thick hair around his finger—a nervous habit. "I almost don't believe this guy is even real." He turned to Ellie. "You acted like you knew that woman earlier today, Ell. Who was she?"

Ellie's fingers flew to her temples, massaging a splitting headache coming on. "It's silly, Owen. I don't know what I saw... I just thought it was someone I knew from high school."

Both Pia and Owen's brows raised to almost their hairlines. They blinked at her. "You recognized her from high school? You never talk about high school, Ellie Belly," Pia said softly.

"And I love you guys, I really really do, but I'm not about to tonight either. You think you want to know, but you don't. Besides, you'd never recognize that person anyways. My life then is in the past and irreverent to what's important now—which is moving forward."

"You can trust us, Ell. We already knew you were adopted. Is that why you don't want to talk about it?"

Shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Ellie didn't know how to respond to that, but wasn't one to run from the truth anymore, even if she might be evading it still. "No, not really. That's not why at all."

"Who was she?" Owen leaned forward conspiratorily.

"Is she why you never want to go home?" Pia prodded at the same.

Usually, Ellie had a neverending well of kindness—to her detriment, and something she was working on—but as they kept pressing, she felt her temper running thin. "Look, I don't want to talk about the girl or anything to do with Redfield or Humboldt County," she said, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose.

Owen sucked in a sharp breath and held up his hands in apology. "Jesus, Ell. I knew Redfield was up north, but I had no idea it was in Humboldt County. I made that joke earlier. I'm sorry."

"It's fine, but the last thing I want to talk about is home and Murder fucking Mountain," she muttered, then added, "If you want to know more, do an internet search for Molly Rosetha and Nick Graven."

Tossing her napkin onto her plate, Ellie stood up and threw a few bills onto the table. "You're going to regret reading about it. I can tell you won't let this go, so do the search. Whatever you find, don't ask me about it... because I'm not saying a damn word."

Then, she stomped to her room, uncaring that she's been rude. Even though she liked to overshare, there were some lines she couldn't cross, even with her best friends.

- - -

Plagued with memories from her past, Ellie tore upstairs to her room. She busted open the door and immediately splashed water on her face.

Crawling under the covers, Ellie prayed a dreamless sleep would come quickly. But it never did.

Opening her eyes and dropping her head back, Ellie stared at the ceiling for a long time. Every creak made her jump, every door closing in the hallway made her hold her breath, and even the voices of the other guests disturbed her. The sound was downright creepy. Every whisper made her cold.