Chapter 7: The Oak Tree
The Dream House
Book One
The storm arrived just after sunset.
Rain hammered the windows of Maya's apartment.
Thunder rolled above the city like distant drums.
The lights flickered once.
Twice.
Then stabilized.
Maya sat on the floor surrounded by sketchbooks.
The woman in the flames lay on the table in front of her.
Beside it sat her phone.
Two messages.
Two different people.
Two different problems.
Selena:
WE NEED TO TALK.
Luna:
ARE YOU HOME?
Maya stared at the screen.
Something felt wrong.
Not dangerous.
Not yet.
But strange.
Like standing at the edge of a puzzle and suddenly realizing the pieces belonged together.
She called Luna first.
The answer came immediately.
"Maya."
Luna sounded breathless.
As if she had been running.
"What's going on?"
Silence.
Rain crackled against the phone.
Then Luna spoke.
"I found another message."
Maya sat upright.
"What message?"
"The person who keeps leaving notes."
The room suddenly felt smaller.
Maya looked toward the drawing.
The woman in the flames seemed darker tonight.
More alive.
"What did it say?"
Luna hesitated.
Then answered.
"It mentioned you."
A chill crawled through Maya.
"What do you mean?"
"It told me to find a tree before you do."
Maya laughed nervously.
"A tree?"
"I know how it sounds."
"No, I mean..."
She stopped.
Because suddenly she remembered something.
The old man from the park.
The bench.
The oak tree.
Someone planted it knowing they would never sit beneath its shade.
The memory struck like lightning.
The tree.
The oak tree.
Maya slowly stood.
Her heart began beating faster.
"What kind of tree?"
Luna answered immediately.
"An oak."
The room fell silent.
Neither woman spoke.
Outside, thunder shook the sky.
"Maya?"
"I'm coming."
Twenty minutes later.
The three women stood together beneath the awning of Luna's flower shop.
Rain poured beyond the shelter.
The city lights blurred into streaks of gold and silver.
Selena arrived last.
She looked exhausted.
The kind of exhausted that couldn't be fixed with sleep.
Dark circles framed her eyes.
The confident businesswoman Maya had met in the café seemed smaller somehow.
More human.
For a moment nobody spoke.
Three strangers connected by accidents.
Drawings.
Messages.
And unanswered questions.
Finally Luna pulled the photograph from her bag.
The old paper trembled slightly in her hands.
She handed it to Maya.
Maya studied the image.
Three children.
One girl.
Two boys.
Standing beneath a massive oak tree.
The girl's face looked disturbingly familiar.
Not identical.
But close enough.
Almost like looking at a younger relative.
Or an earlier version of herself.
Then Maya noticed something else.
The background.
A church.
Small.
White.
Simple.
Barely visible behind the tree.
"What is this place?"
Luna shook her head.
"I don't know."
Selena took the photograph.
For the first time all evening she seemed interested.
Her eyes narrowed.
Then widened.
"What?"
Maya asked.
Selena pointed toward the corner of the picture.
"There."
Barely visible near the edge of the photograph was a sign.
Old.
Weathered.
Half hidden.
But still readable.
Three words.
The Dream House.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The rain seemed to disappear.
The city seemed to disappear.
Everything narrowed to those three words.
The Dream House.
The title of a place none of them had ever heard of.
Yet somehow...
All three felt they should have.
A strange sensation settled over Maya.
Like standing before a door she had forgotten existed.
Like remembering something she had never learned.
The feeling made no sense.
Yet it refused to leave.
"Has either of you heard of it?"
Selena shook her head.
Luna shook hers too.
Maya stared at the photograph.
The oak tree.
The church.
The children.
The sign.
Questions multiplied faster than answers.
Then Luna pointed toward the back of the photograph.
"There was something else."
Maya turned it over.
The handwriting matched the previous notes.
Sharp.
Intentional.
Certain.
Only one sentence.
When the fire comes, go to the tree.
Thunder exploded overhead.
All three women jumped.
And somewhere far across the city...
An old building alarm suddenly began to ring.