The moment I heard that voice, every muscle in my body froze.
My heart was racing so violently I could barely breathe.
No.
It couldn’t be.
There had to be some mistake.
The voice belonged to Mark.
My younger brother.
The same man who had spent the last seven days helping police search for Ethan.
The same man who sat beside me while I cried.
The same man who promised me over and over:
“We’ll find him. I swear.”
My hands trembled uncontrollably as the video continued.
The camera shook.
Ethan looked terrified.
Then Mark’s voice came from somewhere behind him.
“You shouldn’t have written that.”
My stomach dropped.
Ethan quickly turned the camera toward himself again.
“Mom,” he whispered urgently, “if you’re seeing this, you need to know I’ve been keeping a secret for months.”
A chill ran down my spine.
Months?
What secret?
I leaned closer to the screen.
Ethan swallowed hard.
“I didn’t know who to trust anymore.”
Suddenly, footsteps echoed nearby.
Heavy.
Slow.
Getting closer.
The camera briefly pointed toward a doorway before Ethan quickly moved it away.
His breathing became frantic.
Panic surged through me.
I wanted to reach through the screen and pull him out of whatever nightmare he was trapped in.
Then Ethan spoke again.
“The night Dad died…”
I froze.
My father had died in what police ruled an accident nearly five years earlier.
Nobody had ever questioned it.
Nobody except Ethan.
“The night Dad died wasn’t an accident.”
My entire body went numb.
The room felt colder.
Smaller.
Harder to breathe in.
Ethan glanced behind him once more.
Then he pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
“I found something hidden in Dad’s old toolbox.”
His voice cracked.
“Something he left behind.”
The screen briefly showed a photograph.
The image was blurry, but I could make out three people standing together.
One of them was my husband.
One was Mark.
And the third person…
The third person made my blood run cold.
Because it was someone the police claimed had disappeared years ago.
Someone who was supposed to be dead.
I nearly dropped my phone.
Then the video suddenly paused.
A notification appeared.
The file had been corrupted.
“No!” I shouted.
My hands were shaking as I desperately tried to replay it.
Again.
And again.
Nothing.
The rest of the footage was gone.
I immediately called the teacher.
She answered on the first ring.
“Did you see it?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Who was the third person?”
The line went silent.
Far too silent.
When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.
“I don’t think we should discuss that over the phone.”
My heart pounded even harder.
“What are you talking about?”
“Someone came to the school today.”
My stomach twisted.
“Who?”
The teacher hesitated.
Then she said something that sent a chill down my spine.
“The man from the photograph.”
I nearly collapsed.
“That’s impossible.”
“That’s what I thought too.”
The teacher sounded terrified.
“He asked if anyone had contacted you.”
The room spun around me.
“What did you tell him?”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
Her breathing grew shaky.
“Because before he left…”
She stopped speaking.
“Before he left, what?”
A long pause followed.
Then she whispered:
“He told me if you ever watched Ethan’s video… both of us would regret it.”
At that exact moment, someone knocked on my front door.
Three slow knocks.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
I looked toward the window.
A dark figure was standing outside.
Watching the house.
And then my phone lit up with an unknown text message.
It contained only six words:
“I know you’ve seen the video.”
To be continued in C0mments ๐
Watch movie:
*Content is hosted on a partner site.
