Mason
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
I leaned forward, heart thudding.
What is it?
Ellis stood and looked at me.
Someone had scratched the same intersecting line symbol into the dust on our car.
Not into the paint.
Into the dust like a finger drawing on a dirty window.
It was fresh enough that the lines were clean.
It meant he had been here.
It meant he knew where our vehicle was.
It meant that while we were lost in those woods, he had walked out to the trailhead at some point, stood in this lot, and marked our car like it belonged to him.
Mason saw it too, and his face twisted in a way I'll never forget.
Not fear alone.
Something like violation.
Like someone had touched a part of his life that was supposed to be separate from the forest.
Ellis wiped the symbol away with his palm, slow and deliberate, like he was erasing a curse.
Then he said, Go straight home.
Don't stop.
If you see any vehicle following you, call it in.
Understood?
We nodded.