In the Silence of Death

Chapter 6: Shadows of the Past

Kate sat on the edge of her bed, her mind consumed by the haunting face of the woman she'd seen in the chamber. She couldn't shake the feeling that she knew this woman, even though the memory remained distant and vague. But the more she tried to grasp it, the more it slipped away, like trying to hold on to water.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, forcing herself to go back—to where it had all started.

Kate was twelve when her world had changed. She'd been on a beach vacation with her family, a day that was supposed to be filled with fun and laughter. The water had been perfect, shimmering under the summer sun, and the waves gently rolled against the shore. Kids had been playing in the sand, their parents relaxing under umbrellas. It was an ordinary day until the boy screamed.

Kate remembered it vividly—how everyone's heads had turned at the sound, how a young boy, no older than eight, had been pulled from the water by lifeguards. His tiny body was limp, soaked in saltwater, his face pale and lifeless. People had gathered around in a panicked circle as the lifeguards frantically performed CPR, trying to bring him back.

For what felt like an eternity, nothing happened. Kate remembered standing there, paralyzed, watching from the edge of the crowd. Her heart had raced, pounding in her chest as she realized she was watching someone die.

But then—he came back.

The boy had coughed, gasping for air as the lifeguards pulled him up. His chest rose and fell erratically, but he was alive. The crowd had erupted into applause, relief washing over everyone, but Kate couldn't move. Something had shifted inside her, a deep curiosity she couldn't explain.

Later, when things had calmed down, Kate had overheard the boy talking to his parents. "I saw God," he'd whispered, his eyes wide with wonder. "I think I died."

For three minutes, the boy had been clinically dead, and when he came back, he had returned with a vision—a glimpse, he claimed, of something beyond life. It was that moment, standing on the sand, that had sparked Kate's obsession with death.

What lay beyond? What happened when the heart stopped beating, when the breath ceased?

The boy's experience had ignited something in her—an awareness that life was fragile, and that maybe, just maybe, there was something waiting on the other side. Kate's fascination wasn't rooted in fear but in curiosity. She wanted to know what the boy had seen, what others claimed to see in those fleeting moments between life and death.

The dreams had started shortly after that.

At first, they were faint, more like feelings than actual dreams. She would wake up in the middle of the night, her heart racing, feeling like someone was watching her. There would be a heaviness in the air, an unseen presence lingering in the shadows. But she hadn't thought much of it at the time.

It wasn't until she saw the woman in her dreams for the first time that Kate began to connect the dots.

The woman had appeared like a figure made of mist—barely there, always in the distance, watching Kate with an expression she couldn't quite place. It was as if the woman was waiting for something. There were no words, no explanation. The dreams never made sense. But the woman was always there, an ever-present figure standing at the edge of Kate's consciousness.

Kate hadn't told anyone about the dreams. They felt too strange, too disconnected from her everyday life. But now, after her experience at Dr. Bennett's lab, it all seemed to make sense. The woman wasn't just a part of her subconscious; she was real. Or at least, real enough in whatever world existed beyond the living.

Kate pulled her knees to her chest, staring out of her window at the fading light of the day. She had spent so much of her life trying to understand death, trying to figure out what waited beyond it, and now that she had caught a glimpse of the truth, it terrified her. The woman's warning echoed in her mind: You do not belong here. Not yet.

Why had the woman been watching her for so long? And why now, after all these years, was she finally speaking to Kate?

Kate thought back to that day on the beach. The boy had seen God—at least, that's what he had believed. But what if there was more to it than that? What if Kate had opened a door she was never meant to? Was her curiosity, her obsession with death, what had drawn the woman to her in the first place?

The day passed slowly, Kate's mind distracted as she went through the motions at the vet hospital. She felt disconnected, like she was living in two worlds at once—the mundane life of work and routine, and the other world, the one filled with shadows, whispers, and a woman she was never supposed to meet.

By the time she returned home that evening, the weight of it all felt suffocating. She collapsed onto her couch, pulling a blanket over herself. Her phone buzzed with a text, but she ignored it, too lost in thought.

The dreams had returned that night. And the woman had come with them.

Kate jolted awake in the early hours of the morning, her heart hammering in her chest. She knew, without a doubt, that the woman wasn't finished with her.

There were still more secrets to be revealed.