You’re
Late

One child came home. One child kept the chair.

Thirty years ago, seven-year-old Jonah Mercer disappeared into the woods off Old Mill Road. Three days later, he came back.

Now children at Mill Creek Elementary are drawing the same impossible things: a boy in blue, a dark wooden chair marked RESERVED, and a man who is late.

The drawings lead Jonah to Evan Whitlock, a seven-year-old boy who vanished when Jonah did and whose place in the world has somehow been erased.

As Evan’s name begins to return, the force that erased him starts reaching for Jonah.

The door is ready now.

File 001 is no longer closed.

The chair waits. Evan Whitlock has his name again. The wrong hour keeps repeating.

Night Vendor will still leave the story inside the book. The file gives you only enough light to decide whether you want to enter.