Return?

Marie runs toward the bridge.

She reaches the first row of stones and rushes onto the arch without stopping. The sensation returns almost at once.

The icy wind passes through her body again, from right to left. The trees remain motionless, but the air thickens, pressing against her lungs. Marie opens her mouth and tries to breathe. She cannot.

Her chest begins to burn.

She gropes forward, holding on to the parapet. Her legs shake, and the lack of oxygen clouds her sight. Still she keeps going. She thinks only of Sunny, Joseph, and the cabin she has left on the other side.

The pressure grows with every step.

Marie stumbles, strikes the stone, and almost falls. She forces herself upright. Only a few yards remain. The air seems to have vanished altogether, yet she keeps moving with a strength that comes no longer from will but from panic.

When she reaches the other bank, the sensation ends.

Marie drops to her knees and drags in a desperate breath. Then another. She stays bent over the ground, struggling to breathe, unaware that beyond the bridge the sky is clear.

Nor does she notice that she has left the rain behind.

For a few moments she can do nothing but try to catch her breath. Then she gets up and starts running toward the cabin.

Exhaustion and breathlessness keep her from realizing that she is no longer stepping in mud. The ground beneath her feet is dry and firm. Sunlight bathes the hills with an almost blinding intensity, as though the storm had never existed.

Marie keeps descending.

As she approaches the cabin, she sees the SUV parked by the entrance. Joseph has returned.

The certainty sends a fresh surge of fear through her. She runs with all her strength, crossing the grounds until she reaches the building.

But the nightmare is not over yet.

A few yards to the right of the cabin is a clearing in the vegetation. Marie sees something on the ground and stops.

At first she cannot make it out. Exhausted, her clothes covered in mud, she approaches slowly.

Then she understands.

An open pit has been dug in the earth.

Joseph is inside it.

His body lies motionless at the bottom, partly covered with earth. At the edge of the pit is her own figure, turned away; she cannot see the face. A woman identical to her, at least.

Her double lies dead on the ground. Beside her is a shovel.

Marie raises a hand to her face.

For a few seconds she stands still, unable to accept what is before her. She has returned to her cabin, but the tragedy she witnessed across the stream has happened here too. The only difference is that this time Joseph has not been the one to kill Marie.

In this version, both of them are dead.

Tears begin to flow uncontrollably. Marie steps back and stumbles, but manages to stay on her feet. She no longer knows what is real, what she has seen, or which part of it has yet to happen.

Then she thinks of Sunny.

The thought strikes her with renewed force.

Marie runs toward the cabin. She passes the SUV and opens the front door. She goes inside, drenched, muddy, and trembling.

There are traces of blood on the floor.

The marks run across the living room and out of the house, as though someone has been dragged from inside to the clearing.

Marie stops.

She looks toward the stairs. Something seems to be held within the cabin’s silence.

“Sunny?”

There is no answer.

She takes a few steps farther inside. Exhaustion, fear, and the shock of what she has just seen begin to merge within her. The room tilts before her eyes.

Marie tries to catch hold of a wall.

She does not reach it.

She falls to the floor and loses consciousness.