Chapter 8 - The Mountain Cabin
I froze completely, pressing the phone harder against my ear to isolate the background noise.
The antique clock chimed exactly three times with a very specific, hollow metallic echo.
I hung up the phone and looked at my mother, who had just climbed the stairs into the jet.
"Mom, did you hear that clock chiming in the background of the call?" I asked frantically.
My mother's eyes widened in sudden, horrifying recognition.
"That is the custom French clock Diane keeps in her secluded mountain cabin up in Pine Ridge," she gasped.
Diane had inherited the isolated property years ago and bragged about its complete lack of cell service.
"It is a two-hour drive up winding dirt roads, and the police will never get there in time," Ethan warned grimly.
We abandoned the decoy jet and jumped back into our car, burning rubber as we sped toward the mountains.
The drive felt like an absolute eternity, every passing second filling my heart with pure dread.
We finally reached the dark, treacherous logging road that led up to Diane’s hidden property.
The sun was setting rapidly, casting long, terrifying shadows through the dense pine trees.
As we crested the final hill, a thick plume of black smoke rose ominously into the twilight sky.
"No, no, no, please God no," I chanted, tears streaming blindly down my face.
We broke through the tree line and saw the massive wooden cabin completely engulfed in raging flames.
Ryan’s sports car was parked in the dirt driveway, its doors left wide open.
There was absolutely no sign of anyone standing safely outside in the yard.
Ethan slammed the car into park before it even stopped moving and sprinted toward the inferno.
I was right on his heels, the intense heat of the fire blistering the skin on my face.
The front porch was already collapsing, sending showers of bright orange sparks into the night air.
We heard a muffled, desperate scream coming from the back corner of the blazing structure.
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Ethan kicked the heavy oak front door with all his might, shattering the wooden frame completely.
We charged into the burning house, surrounded entirely by thick, suffocating black smoke.
