ng low over the Ap

iler door open. The

d outside her door. They wore

ood at the front. He held a lopsided carrot cake on a pla

irthday." The voices were off-ke

r hands slipped out of her poc

nto the mud, walki

wrinkles around his eyes de

ge of her mother being hit by

blood, s

w hard. All twenty candles

rs clapped

organ. The corners of her mouth twitched upwa

was the first time they

ided string bracelet into Chloe's hand. A mechan

o each of them. She commi

ersed. The trailer park retur

e cake inside. She shut the door. The

ck on the wall. Twelv

e tap. She splashed freezing water onto

d box, and took out the rosewood box. She plac

s photograph and the

d a black pen from a drawer. S

. Dates. Coordinates. She tore out p

ailer grew dark. Chloe di

. Her hand shook slightly, but her

the wall ti

idnight, the

the page. Her mother's death date, her grandmother's birt

h hands on the rosewood box. Her in

e dial to the

it to the r

ed the fi

n the dark room. The interna

n her throat. She lifte

or sat a tiny black USB drive

the parchment

flickering candlelight. A sequence of words, written in a specialized h

the Beaumont family.

edges of the paper. The parchment cru