As I drew closer, I could see that both of the car's front doors were wide open. I couldn't make out what kind of car it was. As far as I could tell, no one was sitting inside, and I couldn't see anyone standing around.

Normally I would have slowed down in case someone was in trouble or hurt. But after everything that had been happening, the empty car was unnerving. I sped up just a little and passed it.

Morgan watched the car out the window as we drove by, and now she turned around in her seat to look behind us.

"What was that?" For some reason she was whispering. "Did you see that? Out in the field?"

"What?"

"Wait. Go back, go back. What was that? Something was out in the field."

I really, really just wanted to go home. I wasn't looking forward to confronting Shawn—I still had no idea what I was going to tell him about where I'd been last night. At least when I reached my house, though, I could call my sister and make sure Haley was safe. But I was born and raised in a small rural town, and in small rural towns you don't just pass a car on the side of the road without making sure everything's okay. What if someone needed help? If I was hurt on the side of the road and someone just drove by, I'd feel awful.

I slowed down. I started to loop the car around to make a U-turn.

"Hurry," Morgan whispered. She tapped the window, pointing into the darkness beyond the abandoned car. "Out there. Shine the lights out there."

When I was about fifty yards from the parked car, I turned the wheel so the headlights would shine in the general direction Morgan had been pointing.

It was a hay field. Pretty much just like any of the other thousands of hay fields in northern Colorado. The stubble was short. It had been cut recently. Big round bales of rolled hay were scattered as far as my headlights reached.

"There! There!" Morgan yelled through her whispering voice. "Just turn back a little."

I maneuvered my car so the headlights pointed toward the part of the field they'd just passed over.

I searched the field again. But still I couldn't see anything. There was just the abandoned car with its doors open and its lights on, and, out beyond, hundreds of hay bales.

"Oh my God," Morgan whispered. "Who is that?"

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