But I don’t think they’ll stop.” The video ended on one instruction: “If you ever have to choose between this family’s comfort and the truth — choose the truth, Jen.

It’s the only way to break the curse.” I sat in the dark of his childhood office for a long time after the screen went black, holding the little player against my chest as though it were his hand.

Chapter 7 — The Man in the Marsh

By dawn I was running on adrenaline.

Inside the cover of one journal was a phone number in Porter’s hand.

I slipped out before the staff arrived and called it from a payphone at a gas station down the road.