Rose runs deeper into the forest as the fierce wind makes the leaves shudder in the trees. She’s never run so fast, zigzagging around trunks and fallen branches, slipping on moss-covered rocks.

Her coat gets snagged on a branch, so she peels out of it. There’s barely any light and she gets tangled in vines, stumbling in her high-heeled boots. She stops, looks behind her. She can’t hear anything over the trees groaning in the wind. She pulls off her boots and keeps running.

Branches rake her face, tear at her silk shirt as she trembles with adrenaline and the cold. Behind a broad gum tree, she slows to catch her breath. She touches a hand to her cheek and finds it wet with tears and blood. She stumbles on.

She fights through scrub, a tight cluster of banksia, and suddenly the ground drops away beneath her and she is falling.

She hits the ground hard.

Dragging air into her lungs, her knees throbbing, she gets to her feet and looks around. The light is nearly gone now but she recognises this place. She’s been here before. Echo Lake.

The shadow descends, the sick feeling.

Then, behind her, his voice…

Continue reading the extract here…

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