“I'm not so sure it's a good idea,” I start. “There are a lot of people and scare actors. It can get really confusing in there.”
“Come on, Emma,” Dean chimes in. “It's Halloween. Let him have some fun. I doubt things are very festive in the jail at Halloween.”
“We aren't even allowed costumes,” Xavier says.
There isn't a hint of humor on his face. He says it as if it's a travesty against nature, one of the miseries he suffered. I can't help but commiserate with him at least a little bit. Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I might not have thrown on a cape and gone trick-or-treating in a long time, but it's hard to imagine not having any celebration at all.
“I'll go with him,” Dean says. “You don't need us there, anyway. She'll probably respond better to just talking to you, anyway. Just meet us over at the maze when you're done.”
“Okay,” I say. “It shouldn't take too long.”
Xavier is already off on his way across the field toward the corn maze. Dean rushes after him, and I watch them until they've disappeared into the distance before I turn and head to Lilith's house. It's not too far away from the corn maze. Just through a thicket of woods that separates the tracts of property.
This is far from the first time I’ve visited the little house. I've tried to talk to Lilith a few times before, but she has been reclusive, not wanting anything to do with the situation. Everyone says they can't blame her. The idea of living that close to something so gruesome is horrifying. Especially for a single woman living alone in such an isolated area. She doesn't want to be involved.
But I think she already is.
I walk up onto the porch and knock on the door. It takes several seconds before she opens it and looks out at me. Her shoulders droop. She looks less than delighted to find me on her porch. But she doesn't immediately close the door.
“Agent Griffin,” she says. “What are you doing here?”
“I'm sorry to show up without calling, Mrs. Duprey, but I'd really like to talk to you for just a minute. Can I come inside?”
I haven't been inside her house before. Every time I've come to talk to her, she has come outside and stood on the porch or down in her yard with me. But I want to get inside. I want to see what her house is like. I don't know why, but something draws me into it.
She hesitates but eventually steps back and gestures for me to come in. I step through the door and into the tiny cabin. It is nothing more than one large room, a kitchen in an alcove to the back, and a bathroom. For one person, it's everything she needs, but it seems strange.
Especially considering what Lydia told me about her.
“Would you like to sit down?” she asks, gesturing toward a sofa up against one wall.
“Thank you,” I say.
I sit, and she lowers herself into a wooden rocking chair to the side of the couch.
“I've already told you everything I know,” she says. “I don't know what else I can help you with.”
“Lilith, I know I’ve come to talk to you a few times, and other people have, too. We really appreciate your being willing to talk to us. I think you could help more,” I say.
She shakes her head, her eyes wide. There's discomfort in that expression, something close to fear.
“I don't know how,” she sighs. “I'm just a widow on my own. Just out here by myself. I don't know anything about that cornfield or anybody who might have used it. After my husband passed, I decided to come out here to live, and I was told that land isn't a part of my property. I never knew who it belongs to. Anything past those trees is off-limits to me, and I stay away.”
“And you never set foot on it?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “I don't really go far from my house very often. I’m just a poor old widow; I stay around here and keep to myself.”
“But it hasn't always been that way, has it?” I ask.
“What do you mean?”
“You didn't always live out here. You own that house in Salt Valley,” I point out.
“Yes,” she says. “I lived there with my husband.”
“And before that, you lived in the city,” I say. “Right?”
She shifts a little, seeming uncomfortable with a question. “Yes.”
“So, you're comfortable around people. Used to it.”
“When I lived in the city, I was young. Married. I wasn’t an old widow suddenly by myself. It's a very different thing,” she says. “And it's terrifying to find out I'm so close to a place where so many monstrosities occurred. I don't get anywhere near that place, especially now that I know what happened there. I won't go past the shed.”
I nod and stand up. “Thank you. I really appreciate your taking the time to talk to me again. I'm sorry you're having to deal with all this. I'm sure it's scary. Are you thinking about moving away?”
She shakes her head. “I can't.”
“Well, we are working really hard to resolve all of this, and hopefully, very soon, you'll be able to feel safe,” I tell her.
“Thank you,” she says.
She walks me to the door, and I step out into the deepened darkness. Night comes fast this late in the year, and even in the short time I was in Lilith's house, the light has completely disappeared. When she closes the door behind me, there is nothing but the faint glow of her porch light and the moon overhead to guide me along. Now, there’s only darkness.
I take out my phone and turn on the flashlight, so I have some illumination at my feet to help me through the woods.
There is a creepy feeling at the back of my neck as I walk toward the cornfield. Of eyes on me. Like
