The man she buried is back and knocking.


Lila’s hand froze on the Airbnb door in Vegas, her pulse hammering in her ears. It was supposed to be a weekend of celebration; Marissa’s bachelorette party, where Lila, the maid of honor, would host her childhood friends. They’d driven in from their hometown near Vegas, while Lila had arrived earlier from a different direction. But a sudden hospital scare—Marissa’s suspected appendicitis—delayed their arrival, leaving Lila alone for the first night. That solitude had spiraled into a nightmare. Now, her friends’ laughter filled the Airbnb behind her, but the knock at the door sent ice through her veins. She opened it, and there he stood—covered in desert dust, eyes burning with fury. The man she’d buried alive.


Before she could scream, he grabbed her, his grip bruising her arm, and dragged her to his truck parked across the street. Her friends’ voices faded as he shoved her inside, the door slamming shut with a heavy thud. “You tried to kill me”, he growled, starting the engine. “Why?”


Lila’s mind raced back to the night before, to the moment that had unraveled her carefully planned weekend. She’d gone to a local bar to kill time, nursing a drink in the dim light, when she saw him. Older now, with gray streaking his hair, but that face... she’d never forget it. It was the face of the man who’d taken her sister, Emily, when Lila was just twelve years old.