Chapter Text
Droplets of water slid down Sierra's back as she closed her eyes, feeling the slight warmth of the shower. She leaned her forehead against the cool bathroom wall, letting the steam fill her lungs, trying to wash away the exhaustion of the mess that was yesterday.
Every time she closed her eyes, her mind flashed back to what had happened with Nathan, and what she experienced at nighttime.
It had been just past midnight when she could hear soft tapping on the house wall below their window. Sierra had crept toward the glass, slowly opening the curtains, trying not to wake her younger sister. That’s when she saw them.
A woman in an old-timey waitress uniform and a red-headed man with a wide grin that would make even the Joker jealous. Both just standing there near the pool area. They weren't screeching or scratching at the walls anymore; they were just smiling. Somewhat polite, dead-eyed smiles.
They had stood there as if they simply wanted to invite Sierra out for a walk like old neighbors. The casual wrongness of it had kept Sierra’s heart hammering against her ribs until dawn. A part of her understood now, why people here were slowly going insane or why they’re pretending that everything’s fine.
She forced herself back to the present, turning the handle to shut off the water.
After stepping out, she wrapped a large towel tightly around her body and stood in front of the fogged-up mirror. She wiped a clear circle through the condensation to look at herself.
Her braids were heavy, some of them damp from the steam. She grabbed the hair dryer, tilting her head forward to target the roots, the loud hum of the dryer filling the small bathroom. Once the dampness was gone, she pumped a dollop of her sister’s hair mousse into her hands, carefully working it into her roots to smooth down any frizz. Finally, she gathered the long braids and tied a silk scarf tightly around her edges to lock everything in place. It was a familiar practice that gave her even a tiny speck of normalcy in this fucked-up, magical town.
When Dara had finally fallen asleep, Sierra started gathering her thoughts in the journal Kristi had given her. She wrote down everything — the tree in the road, the forest animals, the forest talismans, evil voices, the crows, Jade’s radio, Victor’s drawings, and his cryptic warning about someone knowing how things were supposed to go. She purposefully left out anything that had to do with Father Khatri and Sara. You never know whose hands this notebook could end up in.
Sierra took a deep breath, adjusted the corner of her towel so that it stays securely over her chest, and unlocked the door. As she stepped out into the hallway, she almost stumbled straight into Kenny.
She stopped short, her bare feet skidding slightly on the floorboards. Kenny froze too, his hand halfway up as if he had been about to knock, a stack of folded clothes neatly tucked under his arm.
They locked eyes. The hallway was narrow, and the sudden, quiet proximity felt heavy between them. It was one of those strange moments when all the noise suddenly stopped. No chirping birds, no distant voices, no wind rustling through the trees.The silence made Sierra feel acutely aware of her bare shoulders, the towel barely covering her thighs, and the wet footprints she was leaving on the wood.
Kenny’s raised hand awkwardly fell back to his side as his eyes seemed to focus on anything but her after his gaze had unintentionally flickered over her scantily clad figure.
“I— I’m sorry. I just…”
A slight tint of red appeared on his freckled cheeks as Sierra still stared at him in surprise. Snapping out of it, her expression formed into something more neutral.
"No worries. Shower's all yours," she said, her voice calm as she stepped sideways to clear the path and rushed into the bedroom before he could even attempt to say anything more.
She shut the door quickly, leaning her back against the wood until she heard the quiet click of the latch. Sierra let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, her shoulders dropping.
“What the hell was that?” she thought, burying her face in her hands.
She was supposed to be the unshakable one who handled high-stress situations without blinking. Yet, a ten-second awkward encounter with a guy in a hallway had her heart hammering against her ribs like she’d just run a sprint. It was ridiculous.
She shook her head to clear the thoughts, looking around the empty room. Dara must have already gone to the diner to help Mrs. Liu with the daily breakfast for the town.
Determined to shake off the lingering awkwardness, Sierra walked over to the bed and reached for her clothes after drying herself off. There was too much to do today to get tripped up over a little bit of blushing. Thank God that this was their last night in this house.
“Chaos and faith, that is the duality of our existence,” Father Khatri’s voice boomed inside the walls of the church as he preached his sermon.
Dara stared ahead, but her attention kept drifting to the side. Surprisingly, Sierra was sitting right next to her, eyes locked onto the priest, listening attentively to every single word.
Back home, getting Sierra into a church was next to impossible. She had always relied on hard facts and what she could see with her own eyes, leaving the religion part to Dara and the rest of the family. To see her here, basically absorbing a sermon about faith after the horror of yesterday felt surreal. It made Dara wonder if this place was finally cracking her sister’s armor.
When the sermon ended, the small congregation began to walk out into the sunlight. Dara stepped into the aisle, exchanging a few quiet, comforting words with Father Khatri about finding strength in the community. She felt a flicker of hope, but as she turned to leave, she noticed Sierra hadn't moved from the pew.
Dara paused. "Sisi? You coming?"
Sierra looked up, her expression completely unreadable. "You go ahead. I want to talk to Father Khatri for a minute."
Dara blinked, entirely confused by the sudden interest, but she didn't push. "Okay. I'll see you. I’ll be back at the diner helping out Mrs. Liu with the dishes."
As Dara left the church, she passed Tabitha, who was leaning against the wall. Tabitha caught Dara’s eye and offered a small, tired smile.
"Father," Tabitha said, holding out a small stack of papers once Dara was gone. "I wanted to return these."
Father Khatri took them with a gentle nod. "Thank you, Tabitha. How is Ethan doing?"
"He's um, he’s scared and confused," Tabitha admitted, her voice cracking slightly. "Jim is with him now." She hesitated, glancing at Sierra, "Has anyone... has anyone seen Sara?"
"Not since she ran off into the woods," Khatri said smoothly, his face a perfect mask. Sierra wanted to roll her eyes.
"Boyd and Kenny searched the tree line again this morning. There’s no sign of her."
After Tabitha and Father Khatri ended their conversation about Sara and the situation they’re in, Tabitha left the church, leaving it completely silent.
Father Khatri organized the papers in his hand that Tabitha had returned. Slowly, he turned his head and glanced toward the back pew where Sierra still sat, her arms crossed. The comforting priest persona melted away, replaced by the calculating man from the animal enclosure.
He walked down the aisle, stopping a few feet from her row. "I didn't expect to see you in the pews today, Sierra."
Sierra stood up, stepping out into the aisle to meet him. She didn't look comforted, and she didn't look like she was seeking a blessing. Her gaze was steady, tracking his body language.
“Why didn’t you tell Boyd?” her voice dropped to almost a whisper. “He said that you told him that she ran into the woods. They even searched for her. I kinda expected you two to be close, so why not tell him the truth?”
Khatri kept his expression neutral, but his shoulders tensed. "It’s a part of the truth. She ran."
Sierra took a step closer, cutting through the space between them. "I kept my mouth shut like I promised, but don't bullshit me. Where are you hiding her?"
Father Khatri’s lips pursed, his expression deeply troubled as he looked around the empty church, weighing his options. He let out a defeated breath. That's how Sierra found herself in the church's basement, staring down at a tied-up Sara and a guilty-looking priest.
“What the fuck?”
Her eyes flickered to Father Khatri. "So, you tied her up…" Sierra concluded, her eyes darting from the rope to the priest, her mind racing to find any twisted logic in what she was seeing. "You told the town she ran, you let Boyd and Kenny search the woods, and you’re keeping her prisoner inside the church? Full offense, but have you completely lost your mind?"
"I am protecting her," Khatri hissed back, his voice fierce but low. "And I am protecting this town. If Boyd finds her, he has to put her in the Box. It’s the law he built. Do you want to watch her get torn apart by those things tonight? Is that the kind of justice you want?"
“Oh, don’t turn this on me. This is entirely your doing. I can somewhat excuse hiding her so that the people here don’t go mental on her, but not telling Boyd about this? He’s the sheriff. He made those rules. For fuck’s sake, she killed her brother!”
At the mention of Nathan, Sara let out a muffled, choked sob. "I didn't mean to... the voices, they said... they said we could go home..."
“What voices are you talking about?” Sierra asked, gesturing wildly.
"There are things happening here that you don't understand yet. Sara is connected to this place. She hears things. I need to find out why."
Sierra stared at the priest, then at the broken girl. The cold air of the basement settled into her bones. She had promised to keep quiet about where Sara went, but she hadn't signed up to be an accessory to kidnapping or whatever the hell this was.
"Boyd is going to find out," Sierra warned. "And when he does, he’s not just going to be mad at her. He’s going to lock you up right next to her."
Sierra walked into the diner, the bell above the door chiming softly, cutting through the low murmur of the few townspeople gathered inside. The scent of coffee and grease did nothing to ease the knot tightening in her stomach.
Before leaving Sara and Father Khatri alone in the basement, she told him that she won’t partake in whatever he’s doing, and that if he won’t tell Boyd in the next couple of days, she’ll tell him herself. As hypocritical as it may sound, she also demanded to be kept in the loop if Sara ever said something that would come back to bite them all in the ass.
Sierra spotted her sister sharing a booth with Rosa. She slid into the seat next to Dara, who looked up from her mug, searching her sister's face.
"That was a long talk. Everything okay?"
"Yup," Sierra said smoothly, her voice a flat line as she maintained eye contact. "Nothing serious. Just had some questions, that’s all."
Rosa’s dark eyes flickered from one sister to the other. “I’ll leave you to it. Dara, don’t forget what I said.”
With a soft smile, she exited the booth to talk to a pale-faced Jade, who just entered the diner with a piece of paper and some pencils. He looked like he saw a ghost.
“What did you two talk about?” Sierra asked, focusing on her sister again.
“Nothing serious. Just had some questions, that’s all.”
Sierra snorted, a soft smile gracing her features. “Fair enough.”
"People are talking. They’re saying Sara went into the woods without a talisman. They think she's already dead. It's like... everyone is just waiting for the next bad thing to happen."
Sierra looked out the diner window toward the church’s graveyard. "Let them talk. We focus on what we can control. Boyd said Sara and Nathan’s house is ours. We should move our things later."
“I like it at the Lius’ home. Mrs. Lui and Kenny are very nice and honest people.”
“They are… but it might be better to have some space. Focus on us.”
Dara sighed, sliding the coffee mug toward her sister. "You look like you haven't slept in days."
"I'm fine," Sierra repeated, sliding the mug back. She stood up, sliding out of the booth. "I'm going back to the Lius' to pack up our stuff. Maybe you should start hanging out with Julie more. Have some fun."
Dara looked up at her, smiling slightly, “Yeah, maybe I should.”
Sierra entered the main door to find a glum-looking Kenny sitting at the table, carving wood.
“What’cha doing, Mr. Deputy?”
A huffed laugh escaped his lips, “Making a new chess set after the old one got ruined.”
Sierra walked over, pulling out the chair opposite him. She didn't press immediately, just watched his hands work. The wood shavings fell onto the table like snowflakes, but Kenny’s grip on the small knife was tight, almost aggressive in a way.
"You play a lot?" she asked casually, gesturing to the half-formed piece.
Kenny froze for a fraction of a second, his thumb resting against the rough edge of a knight. He didn't look up.
"My dad and I used to. Every day." He let out a bitter breath, carving a sharp line into the wood. "The old board... there was too much blood on it after the night he died. I couldn't look at it anymore."
She watched him for a second before her eyes focused on the unfinished wooden pieces.
“I get that,” she said softly. “I used to feel the same way about playing piano.”
Kenny stopped carving, his eyes lifting from the wood to look at her, “You play?”
“Not anymore,” Sierra said, a faint smile sneaking up on her face at the memory. “But when I was a kid, my parents took me to the mall. Must’ve been around Christmas time. There was a man just sitting there in the center of a crowd, playing this beautiful song, and it felt like magic to me in a way. I begged my parents for one, and then I played it every single day… or at least I tried to. Our neighbors definitely hated me.”
Kenny let out a breathy chuckle, the tight grip on his knife loosening slightly. He leaned back a fraction, his attention entirely fixed on her. “So what happened? Did the neighbors bully you into stopping?”
The smile faded from Sierra’s lips, her gaze dropping to the wood shavings on the table. “No. About a year later, my mom had a miscarriage and then it just went downhill. I didn’t really understand what was going on at the time. Dad lost his job, started drinking, and my mom just checked out emotionally. It’s like the light suddenly went out at home and then playing didn’t really feel like magic anymore.”
She looked up, meeting Kenny's gaze directly. “I haven’t touched a piano since. It feels silly, but looking at one just reminds me of that time. It’s not as bad at it used to be though. So... yeah. I get why you can't look at the old board anymore. But you’re making something new. It hurts, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
“I hope one day you’ll start playing again,” he said softly, and he genuinely meant it. He looked down at his own hands, his voice dropping to something more vulnerable. "Before my dad got sick — he had dementia — chess was the one thing that kept him grounded. We built a life here. Kristi took care of him. We let Sara into our home… into our hearts. My mom treated her like a daughter."
His grip on the knife tightened again, his emotions slipping through the cracks of his exhaustion. "And then she turns out to be a monster. Just like the ones in the forest."
He looked up again, searching Sierra’s face, tears threatening to make it past his waterline, yet they never managed to escape. Sierra just looked at him with a quiet understanding. She leaned her forearms on the table, getting on his level.
“I know,” she said gently. “You look at the people you trust, and suddenly the version of them you knew is just... gone."
Kenny listened attentively, the tension in his jaw slackening.
"It forces you to grow up fast," Sierra continued, her voice soft. "And it makes you angry because you can't fix it. But it doesn't mean you or your mom were stupid for trusting Sara. It just means you both have big hearts. Don't let this place turn that into a weakness. Empathy and love are rare things nowadays, especially here."
Kenny stared at her for a long moment. The defensive tension in his shoulders seemed to sap right out of him, leaving just a tired guy who had seen way too much cruelty in this town. He looked down at the wooden knight in his hand, clearing his throat as he tried to blink away the sudden moisture in his eyes.
“Yeah. Well. Big hearts usually just get you into trouble around here."
He looked up, the grief in his eyes fading into a small, slightly sheepish grin. "Speaking of trouble... you always glare at people like they’ve committed a federal crime when they’re just trying to get ready in the morning?"
Sierra raised an eyebrow, leaning back in her chair. "I wasn't glaring. I was evaluating why the deputy of this town was hovering outside a locked door when the shower was clearly running."
Kenny winced slightly, a faint tint of red returning to his cheeks as he held up his hands. "Okay, first of all, I wasn't hovering. I was... wandering. I had my clothes and everything… I was trying to get ready for the day."
"You had your hand raised to knock," Sierra countered, a teasing grin breaking through her usual serious expression. "You knew damn well someone was in there, Mr. Deputy."
"I thought it was my mom!" he protested, a genuine laugh finally breaking through his glum mood. He dropped his hands back to the table, shaking his head. "Seriously. Usually, if the water is running that long, it's her wasting the hot water. I was literally about to knock and tell her to please hurry up. Your sister was already gone, your room’s door was open, I wasn't expecting..."
He trailed off, scratching the back of his neck as his eyes darted back down to the wood piece.
"To almost run into me?" Sierra finished his sentence.
"Well, I mean, you were kinda the one almost running into me," Kenny said, looking back up with a sheepish smile. "I just… I really didn't mean to make things awkward first thing in the morning."
"It's fine," Sierra said, her voice softening as she picked up one of the wooden pieces. "It wasn't that awkward. Just... work on your timing next time."
“Next time?”
She stared at him for a second. “Well, not next time since we’ll be moving out. But who knows, maybe next time it’ll be Jade.”
“Oh, right. I forgot that you’re moving out. Guess we won’t be next-door neighbors anymore.”
“Yeah, I guess you’d have to walk all the way down the street to see me in a towel.”
Realizing what she had just said, her eyes widened. “I— I mean, it’s not like I’d want that. I just— it’s a joke!”
Kenny froze, his pocketknife hovering mid-air above the wood block. The red tint on his cheeks flared up instantly, spreading all the way to his ears. He locked eyes with her for a second, completely caught off guard, before a choked laugh escaped him.
"Right. Yeah. Down the street. Got it," he stammered, gaze completely locked in as he vigorously started shaving a piece of wood that absolutely did not need shaving. "I'll, uh... I'll make sure to knock. Loudly. Three times."
Sierra cleared her throat, her cheeks burning as she dropped the wooden piece back onto the table. For someone who prided herself on always maintaining control of a conversation, she had just handed him the biggest lever in the world. What’s going on with her today?
"Yeah, please do… knock," she muttered, forcing her voice back into a flat tone to save whatever dignity she had left. She reached across the table, firmly tapping the lopsided knight to change the subject. "Anyway. Hand over the knife before you accidentally carve your thumb off, Deputy. You're ruining the ears."
Kenny gladly let her take the knife, looking relieved while they both tried to pretend their hearts weren't doing flips. "Sure, take the lead."