compartment in the bottom desk drawer. He found a piece of wood in the garage and stained it almost the exact color match of his desk. The piece was used as a divider in the wooden desk drawer to be disguised as the back of the drawer.
Everything was only temporary until they could think of another idea. His mom barely came into his room anyways, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. He definitely didn’t want Olive to see any of it. It was bad enough that his time with Olive was shortened from being out so much.
CHAPTE R VI Pas t Memories
T he strange dreams and nightmares kept on coming. It was only five years ago that a little girl named Sam Jennings was kidnapped and taken from a plaza just a couple of cities away. Authorities ended up finding the girl on the side of the road in the country an hour away from where she was taken. The man that took her was never found. Cody was roughly the same age as Sam and remembered the incident well.
The first dream always had floating questions in it like Was this event connected with the black car? Why was the sick and twisted man that took her never found? And was there ever a black car in any of the details of that case?
Cody had a nightmare about another situation earlier in his life. He was younger at the time, and the incident struck fear into his heart. He would plead with his stepfather at the time to not leave him in the car in gas stations while he went and paid for the gas. His stepfather did that often, and Cody always feared he would be taken. This was right around the time the girl went missing. He hated when his stepfather would stop at a gas station, and he would actually cry. In the dream, while Cody’s former stepdad went to pay, a man jumped in the car and drove off with Cody strapped in the backseat.
Another nightmare was about running from someone. In these dreams, it was as if his feet were trapped in quicksand. He could never outrun the person chasing him. Cody was somewhat athletic and could run very fast, but in this dream, he was slow. That nightmare would wake him up sweating and panicking.
The dreams were so real and continued.
Another one was about sitting with his grandfather, whom he called Papa. He was close to his Papa, and they would laugh together playing card games. His Papa had lost his battle with cancer a couple of years ago, and Cody did not handle it very well. His conversations in the dream were about asking his Papa about good and evil.
Cody’s grandpa would explain to him that there were a lot of bad people in the world and to always be on guard. He explained to his grandson that when he passed, Cody was the man of the house, and it was his sole duty to protect his sister and mama. His Papa had moved in with them right after Olive turned two.
In another dream, Cody was just sitting across from his Papa, asking him if he could help out with this mysterious black vehicle that tried to pick him up. While it seemed like his Papa would open his mouth and respond to the questions, he didn’t. He just had a worried look on his face and pointed toward the ground. Cody didn’t understand what his Papa was trying to say to him, and before he knew it, the dream was over.
The last nightmare was about all the police sketches of the man who took the girl from five years ago. The dream showed a bunch of sketches on Cody’s desk in his room, and the window was open. A strong wind blew the sketches all over the room. The nightmare ended with him standing in his room and catching one of the sketches with his left hand. It was different from the others. The drawing that he caught showed a completely different person. It was a drawing done by Cody himself. Who was this man in the drawing?
CHAPTE R VII Th e Church
I t was Sunday, and Cody was on his own for the day. Zach’s mother needed him all day and also thought the two needed to be separated for a day. The weather was actually pretty decent for an end-of-winter day. Spring was officially