The heavy leather album felt like a solid block of ice in my lap as Julian’s polished leather shoes stepped out of the shadows and into the dim living room light. A suffocating panic surged through my entire body, and my heart raced so violently against my ribs I was certain he could hear it from across the room. I tried to slam the book shut, desperate to hide the impossible proof, but my hands were shaking too uncontrollably, my fingers completely paralyzed by a primal, overwhelming fear. Grandma’s iron grip on my wrist tightened even further, her knuckles turning stark white as she instantly dropped her head and stared blankly at the floor, perfectly mimicking a frail, senile old woman who didn’t understand her surroundings. Julian stood there at the entrance, looking impeccably handsome in his tailored cashmere coat, a chillingly calm, pleasant smile playing on his lips. His piercing green eyes darted from my pale, sweat-slicked face straight down to the vintage, yellowed photograph still glaringly exposed on the open page. The silence in the room became absolutely deafening, heavy with an unspoken, deadly tension that made it hard to breathe.
Instead of panicking, stammering, or offering a quick excuse like any normal person would when confronted with an impossible anomaly, Julian’s smile only widened. It stretched across his face, revealing a cold, calculating amusement that made my stomach drop into a bottomless, horrifying pit. He walked over slowly, each deliberate step on the wooden floorboards echoing like a terrifying countdown, and placed a warm, heavy hand on my trembling shoulder. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, darling,” he murmured, his voice smooth as silk but laced with an undeniable, threatening undercurrent that made my skin crawl. He leaned down, his face inches from mine, and gently traced the frayed edge of the forty-year-old photo with his thumb, his gaze locked onto his own unchanged face. “It’s an amazing resemblance, isn’t it? That was my grandfather. He passed away a very long time ago, right around the time your grandmother… suddenly went missing from the city.” He looked directly at Grandma, his eyes narrowing into slits, a sinister, predatory glint flashing within them that made me want to scream.
The air in the room grew so intensely cold I could almost see my own breath misting in the dim light. Grandma slowly raised her head, her spine straightening, and her eyes locked onto his with a fierce intensity. For a single, terrifying second, the mask of the helpless old woman slipped completely. “Your grandfather died in a house fire in 1985, Julian,” she whispered, her voice no longer rasping or weak, but steady and laced with an ancient, bitter hatred that sent shocks through my system. “But you don’t have his shadow. You don’t have his heartbeat either. I know exactly what you did to my sister back then, and I know you haven’t aged a single day since.” Julian’s charming facade instantly hardened into a stone-cold mask, the doting, wealthy boyfriend completely vanishing, replaced by something ancient, soulless, and utterly merciless. He bent down further until his lips brushed against my ear, his freezing breath sending a horrifying, paralyzing chill running straight down my spine. “You really shouldn’t have dug up the past, Sophia,” he whispered, his grip on my shoulder tightening with agonizing, supernatural force until it deeply bruised. “Because now, you and your precious grandmother are going to have to join it.” Suddenly, the lightbulbs overhead flickered violently and shattered, plunging the entire house into an absolute, pitch-black darkness, and a cold, heavy hand clamped tightly over my mouth, cutting off my scream before it could even begin.
To be continued in C0mments 👇
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