Chapter: Chapter 54: when silence screamsI waited until the house went quiet.Not asleep just that strange, careful quiet Gregory liked, where everything felt watched even when no one was speaking. Doors closed softly. Footsteps measured. The kind of quiet that wasn’t peace, just control dressed up as calm.I sat on my bed with my phone on my hand I tried Zayden’s number again.Straight to nothing.Not voicemail. Not ringing. Just… dead. Like the line had been cut somewhere far away and decided not to tell me.“Okay,” I whispered to no one. “Okay.”I told myself not to panic. I told myself this was what he said he’d do. That he warned me. That I should’ve seen this coming.Didn’t help.I scrolled up through our messages instead. The old ones. The dumb ones. The ones that weren’t about danger or threats or disappearing acts.You always frown when you think too hard.That’s because you talk too much.Liar. You like it.My chest tightened.I pressed my lips together hard, like that would
最終更新日: 2025-12-27
Chapter: Chapter 53: Familiar handsThe timer on my phone kept ticking even after the screen went dark.I didn’t follow the coordinates.Not that night.I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, pipes clicking, wood settling, the distant hum of generators that had always been there and somehow now sounded like surveillance.Morning came anyway. It always does. Cruel like that.By the time I dragged myself downstairs, the house had already slipped back into its polished routine. Curtains open. Sunlight filtered just right. Breakfast laid out like a staged photograph. Nothing out of place. Nothing broken.Except me.Gregory was on a call, voice low and calm, pacing near the window like a man who believed he’d won. Evelyn stood at the counter, stirring tea she wasn’t drinking. She looked tired. Smaller.Then the doorbell rang.Once.Clean. Confident.I froze halfway down the stairs.Something in my chest tightened, the way it always did right before impact.Evelyn glanced toward the door. “Were you ex
最終更新日: 2025-12-23
Chapter: Chapter 52: A seat at the tableBy morning, the house was quiet again.Too quiet.The kind of quiet that felt fake, like someone had swept broken glass under a rug and hoped no one would walk barefoot. I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, replaying the night over and over until it blurred into something unreal. Marcus’s face. His voice. The way he’d said my name like he already owned it.Vivienne… let’s go.Except I didn’t go.Because footsteps had echoed in the hallway. Because a door had opened somewhere. Because the moment cracked and slipped away and he was suddenly gone, like smoke pulled back into the dark.No one came to check on me.No one asked why my door was unlocked.No one noticed that I hadn’t slept.I stayed exactly where I was, wrapped in my blanket like it could protect me from memories.When the knock finally came, it was gentle.“Vivi?” my mother’s voice. Soft. Careful. “Your father wants everyone downstairs tonight.”Tonight.I didn’t answer right away.“Din
最終更新日: 2025-12-23
Chapter: Chapter 51: falling apart quietly For a second, or maybe a whole minute. I wasn’t sure, I just sat there on the carpet staring at the screen like it was lying to me. Because it had to be lying. It had to be some sick joke, some hacker, some random idiot pretending to be Marcus. . ,or something Because of the alternative, the idea that Zayden was out there somewhere, taken, trapped, hurt, alone.My chest twisted so sharply I had to bend forward and grab my knees.A tiny sound came out of me. Not even a cry. More like air escaping, weak and terrified.“No… no no no…”My fingers shook so much I almost dropped the phone again. The message glared back at me like it was proud of what it’d done.He didn’t leave by choice.I pressed a hand to my mouth because my throat felt raw, like something was lodged there. And then everything inside me cracked open in one awful, quiet burst.I didn’t scream.I didn’t wail.I didn’t even sob.I just… folded.My body leaned against the bed frame, forehead pr
最終更新日: 2025-12-16
Chapter: Chapter 50: Goodbye without goodbye Evelyn’s scream sliced through the house so sharply that my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. I froze with the phone still pressed to my ear, Zayden’s fading “Vivienne, listen to me” echoing in my head like it was trapped inside a tunnel.Another scream.Louder.Shakier.“Vivienne!”I dropped the phone, literally let it crash to the carpet because something inside me snapped clean open. I rushed to the door, yanking uselessly at the lock my father had installed like I was a prisoner in my own house.“Mom!” I shouted, slamming both palms against the wood. “Mom, what happened?!”No answer.Footsteps thundered down the hallway, too fast, too heavy. I didn’t even think I backed away from the door like whoever was coming might break it down.The lock clicked.Not gently.Not slowly.It twisted like someone’s hand trembled.Then the door creaked open and Evelyn’s face appeared in the crack.She was pale. Not tired-pale. Not worried-pale.Terrified.
最終更新日: 2025-12-07
Chapter: Chapter 49: Call me back The tap on my window didn’t stop.One…Two…Pause.Three.Like some creepy Morse code I didn’t want to decode.I pressed myself against the wall. The shadows outside didn’t move away. They just stayed rooted there, staring up at me My father had locked me in, but apparently the monsters lived outside now.I swallowed hard and forced myself toward the dresser, keeping my eyes flicking between the window and the half-lit hallway under my door. Everything felt wrong. Too quiet. Too dark.My phone buzzed again.Not the unknown number this time.Zayden: V, answer me.I didn’t answer, not yet. My hands were shaking too much.“Think,” I whispered to myself, even though my thoughts were doing anything but that. “Think, Vivienne.”My father was still storming somewhere downstairs. Evelyn’s voice floated faintly through the house, anxious, trembly, trying to argue with him. I had no idea if they knew someone was outside or if I was the only one aware of it.
最終更新日: 2025-12-04
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