Whispers of the Turning Seasons (part 16)

The sheriff’s office felt smaller than ever.

Evelyn sat alone in the interview room, elbows on the cold metal table, head buried in her hands. Everything was spinning—
the woman, the child, the photos, the impossible familiarity.

Nightmares from years ago…
coming alive in front of her.

A knock sounded on the door before it opened. Rowan stepped inside, closing it quietly behind him.

“You okay?” he asked softly.

“No,” Evelyn whispered. “I’m really not.”

Rowan pulled out the chair beside her and sat, leaning forward.

“You said they looked familiar.”
He paused. “Evelyn… do you think you’ve seen them before? Not in dreams. In real life.”

Evelyn swallowed hard.

“I don’t know. That’s the problem. I keep trying to remember, but every time I get close, it’s like something in my mind pushes back.”

Rowan frowned.
“Pushes back how?”

Evelyn looked up at him with terrified eyes.

“Like a door slamming shut.”


---

1:40 PM — Sheriff Ellis Joins the Room

Sheriff Ellis entered the interview room with a folder under her arm and seriousness etched into every line on her face.

“We ran the figure comparisons through old case files,” she said, placing the folder on the table. “There’s something you need to see.”

She opened it.

Inside were documents, newspaper clippings, and photographs that looked decades old.

Ellis pulled out one photo and placed it in front of Evelyn.

A cabin.
Deep in the Vermont woods.
Its windows boarded, its roof half-collapsed.

“This cabin belonged to a woman named Marla Dovren,” Ellis said. “She disappeared sixteen years ago. No body. No trace. But several hikers reported seeing a child with her before she vanished.”

Evelyn stared at the photo, her fingertips shaking as they brushed the edge.

“I’ve been there,” she whispered.

Rowan’s head snapped up.
“When?”

Evelyn’s eyebrows knit, confusion battling memory.

“I… I don’t know. I shouldn’t know this place. But I do.”

Ellis exchanged a serious look with Rowan.

“There’s more.”

She placed a newspaper article on the table.

Local Child Missing After Mysterious Cabin Fire
Mother Hospitalized
Investigation Continues

Evelyn read the headline three times before she dared look at the photo below it.

A woman with burns on her arms.
Eyes red from crying.
Standing in front of a burned cabin.

Her breath caught.

“I know her,” she whispered. “That woman—her face—”

She froze.

Rowan leaned closer. “Who is she, Evelyn?”

Evelyn pressed a hand to her forehead.
A pain shot behind her eyes—sharp, splitting, unbearable.

“I… I think she’s my mother.”

The room fell silent.

Ellis sat. “We suspected that. We pulled your childhood records. Your mother lived in Vermont before moving away. According to court documents, you were taken briefly after a cabin fire incident.”

“No,” Evelyn whispered. “No, that can’t be right. She never told me anything about—”

But a memory suddenly slammed into her.

—

Snow.
Branches.
A cold hand pulling her through the trees.
A woman whispering: Don’t look back. Don’t look at the fire.
A child crying.
The smell of smoke.
The sound of crackling wood.

—

Evelyn gasped, grabbing the table.

Rowan caught her arm. “Evelyn! What happened?”

“I saw it,” she choked. “The cabin. The fire. I was there. I wasn’t dreaming—those nightmares were memories.”

Ellis nodded slowly.
“That means the woman and child you’re seeing now… were connected to that fire.”

Evelyn’s voice trembled.

“But why would they be following me?”


---

2:25 PM — The Locked Memory

Ellis slid another paper toward Evelyn.

A police report.

Small.
Simple.
But devastating.

‘Unidentified woman seen fleeing scene with a child. Possible involvement in cabin fire.’

Evelyn stared at the report…
and the world tilted.

She saw another memory—

A hallway in her childhood home.
Her mother locking a drawer quickly as Evelyn approached.
Her mother whispering: Some things are better forgotten.

Her mother’s hands shaking.

Her mother’s eyes filled not with fear—
but guilt.

“Evelyn,” Rowan said quietly, “it sounds like your mother might have known who these people were.”

Evelyn nodded slowly, her voice hitching.

“I think she did. And I think she hid it from me to protect me.”

Ellis leaned forward.

“But protect you from what?”

Before Evelyn could answer, there was a loud knock on the door. Deputy Morris opened it halfway, face pale.

“Sheriff? You’re going to want to see this.”

Ellis stood. “What now?”

Morris swallowed.

“Someone dropped a package at the front door. No return address.”

Rowan tensed. “Is it safe?”

“We scanned it. No explosives. But…” Morris hesitated. “There’s a note on top. It has Evelyn’s name on it.”

Evelyn’s blood chilled.

Ellis motioned for Rowan and Evelyn to follow.


---

2:37 PM — The Package

At the front desk sat a small, battered box wrapped in brown paper.

On top—
in sharp black ink—
was written:

FOR EVELYN
IT’S TIME TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING

Rowan’s jaw tightened.
Ellis signaled for gloves and opened the box carefully.

Inside—

A small wooden music box.
Old.
Weathered.
The kind a child would keep beside their bed.

Evelyn stared at it as if it were a ghost.

“I had one,” she whispered. “Just like this. When I was little.”

Rowan looked between her and the box.

Ellis lifted it.

“There’s something else inside.”

She opened the music box.

A haunting lullaby began playing, soft and broken.

And beneath the lid…

A photograph.

Evelyn’s hand flew to her mouth.

The photo showed:

A younger Evelyn—
five years old—
in the arms of the same woman who’d been stalking her for days.

The woman was smiling.
Holding Evelyn like a daughter.
Behind them, blurred in the background—

the child.

The same shadow.
The same boy.
Standing beside Evelyn.
Holding her hand.

Evelyn collapsed into the nearest chair, trembling violently.

Rowan crouched beside her. “Evelyn… what is this?”

Evelyn shook her head, tears falling.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember this. I don’t… I don’t understand.”

Ellis placed the photo on the table.

“Evelyn,” she said quietly, “I think the woman stalking you isn’t trying to hurt you.”

Evelyn lifted her red, terrified eyes.

Ellis continued:

“I think she’s trying to bring you back to her.”

Evelyn’s breath caught.

“To your real family.”