Chapter 49: She's Gone.

BRAN

Immediately he stepped into the house, he knew that there was something wrong.

It wasn’t just the fact that the gate was missing, that the walls supporting the gates weren’t there anymore, or the fact that three dead bodies awaited them in the yard. No, it was the fact that when he’d stepped into the main house, he’d heard nothing.

Nothing at all.

The sounds that usually came from the cook when she was busy in the kitchen, the children training at the back of the house, Corey’s cousin watching TV upstairs, none of it.

There was just nothing.

He supported Corey over to a couch and walked away, telling him that he’d be back shortly as he ran up the stairs, going straight to Maria’s room. His heart caught in his throat when he pushed the door open and saw that her room was empty. He stalked into her closet and checked, praying that she was miraculously hiding in there because she didn’t want to see him, but she wasn’t in there too.

Her bed, clothes, everything was in there. But she w