Eroded Ember

There were three things that carried great fear in Ariella’s heart.

The first, a long lasting worry, that she’d never escape a day of feeling the cold burn of her mother’s hatred. There were the days when Ariella was young, that her mother smiled, sang, laughed, and she had basked in the warmth of her love, but that was before her father died—before her mother lost her hearing and the light in her eyes.

Second, that her little brother, Anders, the only sunshine in her dark and lonely world, was losing his light, as well. Nightly, Ariella would awaken to Anders screams, and the heart-wrenching crying over terrifying dreams he swore to be real. His nightmares spiraled him into a paranoid state, until he grew suspicious of empty hallways in broad daylight.

And the third, but most concerning, was the possibility of her or her family disappearing, just as many had in their small town of Crescent City. The locals named him the Silent Killer. He came and took as he pleased, when he pleased, without warning—without a sound or bread crumb to track him, and over time, his greed became unquenchable.

Ariella was not aware of the attention her anxiety would cause, whose curiosity her fear would draw, how terror could begin a deadly dance of love she’d never intended to step into, and it festered until one of the dreaded three became reality.

Ariella Rowe had been abducted.

And the Silent Killer was far from human.