Chapter 15 · The Nursery Door

The tape doesn't stop.

Mara's face stays on the monitor, grainy and overlit, like someone forgot to turn down the lab floods. Her mouth moves but there's no sound now, just static hiss and the faint click of the ancient deck trying to spin something that isn't there anymore. Jessa leans forward and taps the screen edge. Nothing.

"That's it?" I say. My voice comes out flat. "Don't let Rowan remember the nursery. That's all we get?"

Jessa rewinds. The image judders backward, Mara's head tilting in reverse, her hand lifting off the lab bench. Then forward again. Same three seconds. Same warning.

"There's more on the disk," Jessa says. "But the timestamp jumps. She recorded over something. Or someone did."

Rowan hasn't moved. She's standing two feet from the monitor, head tilted like she's listening to something none of us can hear. Her fingers twitch once. The lights in the corner of the room flicker, just a stutter, but I feel it in my teeth.

"Rowan," I say.

She doesn't turn.

"Rowan."

Her voice comes out quiet. Too quiet. "I know that room."

Jessa's hand freezes on the keyboard.