Narrator

Then it said, I'm Maddie.

From down the hall came Maddie's sleepy voice, muffled by her door.

What?

All of us froze.

The voice outside didn't falter.

It continued in the same calm tone, now with an edge of irritation, like someone being contradicted.

"'Eric, open the door.

I can't feel my hands.'

Eric took a step toward the front door.

I grabbed his shoulder harder than I meant to.

He jerked, startled, then turned to me in the dim hallway light like he was about to argue.

Nora said very quietly, "'Maddie is in her room.'

There was a silence outside, and in that silence, I could hear the creak down somewhere below the cabin, steady and indifferent."

Then the voice outside changed again, not to Maddy's real voice, but to something close enough that it made Maddy gasp behind her door.

"'Please,' it said.

"'Please, I'm right here.'

I didn't think.

I crossed to the front door and slid the deadbolt and the older lock and the hook latch in one motion, like I was sealing something.

I didn't open it.

I didn't speak.