Vacations are supposed to be built on trust.

in the photos. I simply said we were not stopping there. Every car behind us felt suspicious. Every dark roadside shape seemed to be watching. By the time we finally checked into a hotel on the outskirts of a city, it was almost three in the morning. The bright fluorescent lights in the lobby felt like the safest thing in the world.

In the hotel room, I could still feel the tension in my body. The prepaid phone I had used for the booking suddenly felt contaminated, as if 

it connected us back to whatever had happened in that house. I smashed it against the furniture until it broke apart. Mara said nothing. She just sat beside me, holding my hand.

The next morning, I went to the police and filed a report. I gave them everything: the photos, the detector cover, the screenshot of the host’s message. The officer