Chapter 1
Paola appeared out of nowhere to watch the boy. He was the first child she had seen in the canyon, and she was curious. The five ghost towns nestled within its stone walls drew plenty of tourists but never children. Paola guessed the boy was about six. He was pasty-pale and awkwardly thin, teetering precariously close to the crumbling concrete edge of the bridge spanning the dry wash.
A tall, blonde-haired woman was trailing, wearing a wrinkled denim dress and flimsy sandals. Paola assumed she was his mother. Behind them, parked in the dry grass on the side of the dirt road, was a white SUV. The open doors allowed Paola to evaluate the pair based on the wrappers cluttering the interior. Mass consumer: she labeled.
Spotting Paola leaning over the cattle gate barring the road, the boy’s mother gasped, “Oh—we don't have facemasks!”
Paola raised her hand. "I won't come any closer.”
The boy’s mother flashed a nervous smile. Her eyes darted over Paola’s dingy clothing, landing on the head of the dog creeping from the sage. Zag’s blue heeler eyes remained unblinking as he sniffed the air and slowly melted back into the landscape. She stepped back, pulling the boy with her. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? All these buildings—just abandoned. The way they look on the internet, I thought we could go in them. Are you a local?"
That was a good question. Paola looked at the thin, blue summer sky tiptoeing over the striated cliffs framing the canyon, then over the low fence and across the field to the brick skeletons of the abandoned coal town of Peerless. She tried but failed to recall the emotions of seeing it for the first time. She was in shock, and those initial few days of peering through the broken windows of the abandoned houses and down mine shafts were overshadowed by the dark nights spent in the belly of the lodge listening to the news. The desperate cries for help were dispatched like messages from a sinking ship as the world slipped below the dark tide of a rising global pandemic. Then the riots. When the summer wildfires began again, Paola unplugged the radio, muting the outside world. She was now so lost in her self-prescribed isolation she didn’t even know what month it was, let alone what day of the week. She simply labeled the time as hot, summer.
“It’s too dangerous to go in the buildings,” Paola said, returning her attention to the boy and his mother.
“Because of the ghosts?" the boy asked, blinking the phantom eyelashes framing his bleach-blue eyes.
"Where are you from?" Paola asked.
“Ogden," he answered.
"Are there ghosts in Ogden?"
Looking for the answer, the boy turned and faced his mother.
“She’s kidding.” His mother’s assurance was chased by a high, nervous laugh that awkwardly skipped away. The boy shrugged and headed for the SUV. His mother turned to follow.
“Look,” Paola said, feeling guilty, “up the main road, there’s a cluster of old miners' cabins that aren’t fenced off."
"Thank you—and I'm sorry about…." The woman stopped talking because Paola was gone. Unobserved, Paola had jumped from the road, receding like a rat into the metal culvert and out of sight.
"That wasn’t nice, Kitty," Jack said over the can of beer perched at his chapped lips. Startled by his appearance, Paola covered her mouth to damper a yelp.
"You probably scared the shit out of them," he continued. "I bet they think you're a ghost." Behind his mossy eyes and the haze of dark stubble on his cherubically round face, Jack waited for her to explain why she hadn’t offered to let them explore the ruins of Peerless—half of the fallen town was on her land.
"The boy was clumsy, he'd have gotten hurt, and the woman was inept,” Paola said, picking a spot to sit that was a safe distance from him. The heeler moved down the tunnel toward them, his eyes up, watching the sound of the car turning around on the road.
"Still, it wasn’t nice of you to disappear like that," Jack objected between soundless sips of the beer. "Are we gonna stay here all afternoon like moles?" Jack ran his wide fingers through the twisted dark waves of his hair. "I thought we could hike to the bathhouse." Cocking his head, Jack cracked half a smile. His tongue slid out of his mouth to lick the blood from one of the deep splits in his lower lip.
A shiver rolled down her spine. Paola pulled her knees into her chest. “It’s too late for a hike like that. You know I don't like being in the canyon in the dark.”
"You don't like being anywhere in the dark." Jack smiled again. This time his full grin sunk the corners of his eyelashes so far that they nearly kissed the upturned sides of his wide mouth. Paola always thought it made him appear stoned, especially when he wasn't.
Still smiling, Jack closed his eyes, sinking into the curve of the metal conduit. His amusement at her expense made her feel sorry for herself. Paola got up. "I'm going home.” Hearing the magic word, Zag turned and began retreating down the tunnel.
"Have it your way," Jack shrugged.
"I always do now," she said, stomping off.
"Stop fucking around in the past. It won’t change anything. You need to decide, Paola, because people are coming.”
"Wait, what people?" Paola spun around, but Jack was gone. She stared into the emptiness. "That has always been the trouble with you, Jack Wells," she called into the dripping vacancy. The weight of her loneliness pressed on her throat, making it hard to swallow. "Just like when you were alive—you're never around when I need you."
Literary Review by Tory Hunter
"Incredible writing and incredible scene-setting. I’m immediately sucked in by the dark and gritty imagery."
"The use of language is truly excellent. It generates a gritty, unsettling atmosphere."
"The descriptions are amazing... realistic and haunting."
"Dark"
"Clever"
"Just when I thought there couldn’t possibly be another twist..."
"It’s extremely rare that I complete a manuscript and don’t have any big picture concerns to address, but I simply don’t. The character development, pacing, structure, imagery, descriptions--everything is incredible. This is such an intricately woven plot with so many shocking and clever twists that just keep coming and coming and coming. I’m truly blown away by this novel."