The phone didn’t ring. Faith stared at the phone in its cradle on the desk. Nothing. She pulled her gaze away, to the window over the desk. The sun was setting, inching ever closer to the horizon. He said he would call. He said they would find her before sunset. The phone rang and Faith picked it up before the first ring finished.

“Faith Corwell?” The voice sounded young. It took her a moment to recognize it.

“Yes?”

Greg Holtby didn’t continue.

“Did you find her?” Faith asked, trying and failing to keep her voice from shaking.

The young deputy was silent another moment, then at last he spoke. “No, we didn’t. I’m sorry, Mrs. Corwell. We’ll continue looking. If you can think of anything that might help, call us.”

A numbness had settled over Faith’s mind when he said they hadn’t found her.

“Mrs. Corwell?”

“I’ll call if I think of anything,” Faith said, her voice coming out quiet and flat.

She set the phone back on the cradle, but she didn’t move from the desk. She watched the sun disappear below the horizon the rest of the way. It felt longer, but it had only been that morning that Suzie had been missing. She hadn’t come out of her room, so Faith had gone to check on her. She wasn’t there, or anywhere else in the house. Suzette was seven. The two of them had just moved to Silverfield earlier that month. Suzie didn’t know anyone and didn’t know her way around town. Faith couldn’t think of where her daughter would have gone.

Faith had called the sheriff’s office and Holtby, the deputy, had seemed over confident. He had made it sound like this happened all the time. He had told her Silverfield was small and they would find Suzie by sunset. Sunset was over and they hadn’t found her. Faith looked away from the window, at the darkness falling outside. They would keep looking. They would find her. Even as she thought this, she couldn’t help but see the darkness out of the corner of her eye. The darkness of night outside.

A shiver ran through her. Faith closed the curtain and forced herself to leave the desk, to stop staring at the phone. She had to sleep eventually. She took one last look at the picture on the desk, a picture of Collin getting in his boat at the harbor in Gull Bay, smiling at the camera. His smiles had always made her smile. His light brown hair was short and messy, and his eyes were the same color. Suzie had his hair and eyes. Faith looked away from the picture and went down the short hall to her room.

Suzie’s door was open, but the room was empty. Faith went into her own room and closed the door. The house was still unfamiliar, even after a month. They had lived in Gull Bay all of Suzie’s life until now, and Faith had lived there years before that. Collin had been so excited they could see the sea from the house, the sea he went out on in his boat and didn’t come back from. That had been six years ago, when Suzie was a year old. A day had come when Faith realized he truly wasn’t coming back.

One of Collin’s fishing buddies had convinced Faith to have Collin declared dead, that it was time. It had never felt like it was time, even when she’d done it. A part of her still thought he would come sailing back. It had been time to leave Gull Bay. Faith sat on the edge of her bed, not letting the tears come. The thought came unbidden. If they hadn’t come here, this wouldn’t have happened. She shoved the thought away and got ready for bed.

Faith barely slept that night. It wasn’t just the wind, though the night was exceptionally windy. The wind was gone in the morning, and the sun was shining. Faith got herself out of bed, dressed, and left the room. She froze in the hall. Suzie’s door was closed. She had left it open the night before…hadn’t she? Faith turned the knob and pushed the door open gently. The room was just as it had been the day before. What had she thought she would find?

She made coffee, staring out the window behind the kitchen sink. The phone didn’t ring while Faith drank. She worked at the town store that seemed to sell everything, but the owner had told her to go home the day before when she’d told him about Suzie. Faith had been late to work. He had said not to come in the next day either, that family came first. As Faith sat at the desk and waited by the phone again, she knew she would be better off working, to get her mind off of this.

A creak came from the kitchen, bringing her back to the moment. She looked at the kitchen. The curtain, pulled open to the side of the window, swayed slightly. Probably just a draft. The windows in this house were old, and it always felt cold by the kitchen window. The day dragged on and the phone didn’t ring. The house had gotten steadily colder, but it was sunny and looked warm outside. Faith opened a window, letting in a gust of warm air. Despite the warmth coming in, the house still felt cold.

Faith stared at the phone, then she paced, then she sat back at the desk and stared at the phone some more. Night came and the phone still didn’t ring. Faith closed the window, the breeze having gotten cold. She paused in the hall on the way to her room. Suzie’s door was closed. Faith pushed it open, but nothing had changed. She was certain she had opened it that morning. Maybe the floor was uneven? Faith sighed and went to bed.

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The wind was loud again that night, howling like wolves. She tried not to think about wolves, about Suzie being out there and being chased by wolves. Behind the sound of the wind, Faith thought she heard water running in the kitchen. Maybe it was raining. After a while, she started to worry that it was running water in the kitchen and not rain. She got up and went into the kitchen. Moonlight filtered in through the thin curtain over the window.

The faucet was on, water running steadily. She would have noticed if it was running when she went to bed. Faith turned the faucet off. This hadn’t ever happened before. She tried to push it from mind and headed back to her room. Suzie’s door was closed again. A chill ran through Faith. Something wasn’t right. She shook this from mind and went back to bed. She slept even less than the night before.

The next morning, she was eager to get out of the house. She had left Suzie’s door closed and tried to pass it off as the floor being uneven or the hinges old. Faith had been staring at that phone for long enough. This wasn’t any better for her sanity than worrying about her daughter elsewhere. Faith downed her coffee and hurried out into the warm morning. The warmth didn’t make it past her worry about Suzie. Faith walked past the green park and down to the store. On the way, several people greeted her. After a month, Faith still didn’t know their names. But they knew hers.

She heard a few people talking on her way to the store, about strange things happening in their houses. Doors opening and closing, faucets turning on by themselves, and creaking where the floor didn’t usually creak. Maybe it wasn’t just the stress, but Faith didn’t want to worry about this too, and she didn’t know what to make of it anyway. She heard something else along with these things. That it was the lake’s doing. There was a lake not far from town, but she hadn’t thought about it much. It had a gloomy name. Gray Lake.

Why would they think the lake had caused this? How could a lake cause any of those things? Faith reached the store and brought her thoughts back to the task at hand. Working. Mr. Trindle found her before she’d gone far into the store. Several people were already shopping, despite how early it was. Mr. Trindle owned the store and ran it. He always wore a mangy gray suit of the same shade as his short, neatly combed hair. His bright gray eyes were full of energy at any time of day.

“Morning, Mr. Trindle,” Faith said, trying to find the energy to smile and failing.

Mr. Trindle smiled, but it was a small smile that was more of a grimace. “Faith, I know things have happened. Bad things.” This didn’t sound like it was going anywhere good. “We have too many people working here and you’re the newest.” He straightened his tie and flicked a bit of dust off his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Faith, but I have to let you go.’

It took a moment for this to settle in. When it did, Faith felt even more of that numbness. Her brain tried to tell her this wasn’t happening, how it had when Suzie’s room had been empty.

“Faith?” Mr. Trindle was starting to look worried. “I’ll pay you for the last two days.”

Faith forced a smile that probably looked as painful as it felt. “Thank you, Mr. Trindle.” She turned and walked out of the store.

She walked back toward the green park, not knowing what to do. Where would she find another job? The question felt distant. There was another question she wanted an answer to more. Where was Suzie? Where was her daughter? Faith stopped at the park and sat on a bench. A man was playing catch with a young boy. She didn’t once see the boy catch the ball, but the pair seemed to be having so much fun.

“It’s a nice day out,” a woman said, joining Faith on the bench. Her long dark gray hair had been tied back in a bun. Her green eyes looked Faith over briefly. She wore a brownish dress that was loose and faded. “You’re Faith Corwell?”

Faith nodded.

The woman smiled. “We haven’t met. I’m Daena Harold.” She frowned. “Have strange things been happening at your house too?”

“I think so,” Faith said.

“You don’t know, or you don’t know if you want to believe it?” Daena asked with a small smile. She didn’t wait for an answer. “It’s the lake’s doing.” She said it as though this was an entirely normal thing to say.

“How is it the lake’s doing?” Faith asked carefully. If she hadn’t heard others in town blaming it on the lake, she might have wondered about Daena.

Daena leaned closer. “Things like this have happened before,” she whispered, a strange sadness in her eyes. She stood. “I should be going. It was nice meeting you.” She walked away along the park.

Faith watched the woman go. What had that meant? These things had happened before. What things? What was happening? A headache was creeping in. Faith left the park and went home. The house was still empty when she got there, and the door to Suzie’s room was open. A bad feeling settled over Faith as she sat back at the desk, a feeling there was something about this town. She ignored that feeling.

The phone stayed silent, and so did Faith while she stared at it. After a while, she made coffee, then waited some more. The phone rang, the sound abrupt in the silence. Faith picked it up, again before the first ring had finished. Her heartbeat was loud in her ears. There was silence from the phone.

“Hello?” Faith said.

Nothing. When the silence didn’t end, she set the phone back down. She looked out the window at the sunset. Faith heard a creak and a small thud and looked back at the hall. Suzie’s door had closed.