Gripping the edges of the plywood, the three yanked it free. They set it against the wall before pulling the curtains open, leaving the sheers in place.
Staring at the wall behind the bed, Conner imagined the darkness Jared had described to the priests. He envisioned evil on the other side of the wall, but then quickly cast the thought from his mind. The demon was gone. The threat no longer existed. Jared had made certain of it.
The sunlight through the window had chased away the darkness of the room. So, the three pushed the bed until the space underneath was completely exposed. But no one needed to stand at a better vantage point to interpret the markings etched onto the floor. The markings were clearly visible, scratched deeply into the dark wood.
adam
conner
trevor
end it
where it started
TWENTY-FIVE
Conner knelt and ran his finger along the rough, splintery edges of the letter c. He pictured Jared feverishly scratching the message into the wood with a screwdriver. A tingling jolt shot through Conner's body at the thought of Jared squatting where Conner now crouched. Beside him, Adam swiped the pieces of chipped wood away as Trevor laid his palm flat against his own name.
Dave hovered behind them, directing the camera's bright light at the words.
"End it where it started," Conner said.
"Lake Bantam," Adam muttered.
Circling the three, Dave panned the camera low, capturing their mournful expressions.
Lou asked, "Do you even know what he means?"
Standing, Conner wiped his hands on his jeans. "Ending it?"
"Yeah."
"No."
Adam stood and pulled Trevor to his feet. "Maybe we're supposed to kill that man."
Trevor chuckled. "What? No way, man. I seriously doubt he wanted us to murder someone."
"Why not?" Adam asked with bite. "Jared's dead because of him."
Conner rested his hand on Adam's shoulder. "We're not killing anyone. Plus, you just said it on camera."
"What, then? Go give the man a new goat?"
The security light in backyard turned on, illuminating the hallway and casting a beam of brightness onto the wall behind Jared's bed. Then the wood flooring in the hall creaked.
Stella spun around and peered through the doorway.
"Just an empty house," Lou said.
After a prolonged moment of silence, everyone redirected their attention to the message on the floor.
"So now what?" she asked. "Maybe we can use this footage in the episode, but we don't have an answer to the message's meaning."
"We probably shouldn't use it," Lou replied. "While it might interest the viewers, it could look like we're handing over an unfinished project to the network."
"Nobody else knows about the floor?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Mr. Smith didn't even know."
"A few friends," Conner said. "The night we snuck in here. But no one else saw it. Just us."
The security light went dark, the room now only illuminated by the sunlight peeking through the clouds and Dave's camera.
"Well," Lou said. "I don't think we need to film this room. We can get some interior and exterior shots. But I think we should set this part of the investigation aside."
"Okay." Conner glanced at Trevor, who was staring at the wall behind the bed. As Conner opened his mouth to ask what, Trevor slyly shook his head. So he said, "Let's go. We're done here."
At the door, Trevor stopped Adam and Conner from walking out into the hall. "You guys go on downstairs," he said to Lou and the others. "Let us have a minute alone here."
"All right." Stella stepped away and led the men downstairs.
"What is it?" Conner asked.
"Wait a sec," Trevor replied as he watched the crew descend the stairs. Then he shut the door. "I know what Jared wants us to do."
Surprised, Adam asked, "What? Seriously?"
"I think so."
Trevor hurried across the room to the window. As he closed the curtains, he said, "I might be seeing something that's not really there."
Conner's curiosity swelled, but his patience was wearing thin.
"Look at the back wall. It's dark, but. . ." Trevor opened the curtain again. "Now watch what happens when I move the sheers."
He gripped the edge of the thin, white curtain and gently waved the fabric, causing the sheer to undulate from one end to the other. Fissure-type shadows moved across the wall, dancing with the sunlight like the shimmer of water reflected on a surface.
"You see it?" he asked.
Conner watched the choreography of movement on the wall, but he didn't immediately recognize what Trevor was trying to point out.
More enthusiastically, Trevor asked, "What's it look like?"
Adam stepped closer and traced his finger over two cracks in the baseboard that stretched up the wall and then forked out across the ceiling. "It looks like a tree on fire."
"Exactly," Trevor responded excitedly. "That's it."
Conner first narrowed his eyes at the image on the wall, then at Trevor. "Why didn't Jared just write burn the tree on the floor?"
Trevor lowered his voice to a strong whisper. "He wants us to do something to put an end to what started at the lake. Who knows? Maybe he wanted us to kill the man, like Adam said. But . . . Stella told us all about the ritual thing and the demon having to be cut free from the tree so it could enter our world. So, if we burn the tree, that demon can't do nothing to nobody."
"I guess so. But what if—"
"Let's do it!" Adam declared.
For a moment, Conner wanted to laugh at Adam's excessively serious tone and enthusiasm, but he thought better of it. "Really?"
Trevor jerked the curtain closed. "We can talk and plan later. Just the three of us. Let's get outta here."
Outside, the group gathered at the foot of the porch steps. They chatted idly and glanced nervously around, no one speaking to the neighbor couple as they exited their car in the driveway next door. Once the neighbors had gone inside, Lou and Stella discussed the pilot episode with the guys, hinting—more than stating—that they'd reached the end of their work together. Dave and Walter stood next to Stella's car, likely discussing the video footage.
Conner
