CHAPTER THREE — SIGNS OF DISAPPEARANCE

Elara didn’t realize she was still standing in the middle of the hallway until her phone buzzed again. She almost dropped it. Her fingers were stiff, cold. The last message she received: “Found it”, still echoed in her mind like a whisper lodged in her ear.

She lifted the phone.

Damon.

She stared at the screen in disbelief.

It wasn’t a call.

Just his name on the screen, stamped onto the voicemail history from earlier in the day.

She didn’t even remember missing it.

She opened her call log.

She had called him three times today. He hadn’t answered any of them.

She clicked his contact picture. The familiar image stared back, Damon in his signature controlled expression, like the camera had no right to ask him for more.

She hit the call button.

It rang once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then, the robotic voice.

“The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable.”

She ended the call and dialed again.

Same result.

She walked toward the staircase, pacing now, phone against her ear as she tried once more.

Unavailable.

She lowered the phone and held it in both hands, as if warming it might force his voice to come through. Damon never turned off his phone. Even when he didn’t want to be reached, he muted it or forwarded calls. Off meant something was wrong, or something was planned. And Elara didn’t know which one scared her more.

She took a slow breath and walked toward Damon’s private office again. Her heels clicked softly against the marble, each sound too loud for her liking. She tried to look at the safe again, but her chest tightened the closer she got.

She stopped at the doorway.

The safe door was still ajar, a tiny opening that felt like a doorway into someone else’s secrets.

Her phone buzzed again.

This time it was a call from the estate security room.

“Mrs. Moretti?” a man said, his voice nervous, too quick. She recognized it, Anders, one of the newer security staff.

“Yes?” she answered.

“Ma’am… are you in the main house right now?”

“Yes,” she said slowly. “Why?”

He hesitated. “I’m in the control room and… something isn’t right with the system.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are no logs for the last two hours.” His breath hitched slightly. “It’s like the system shut its eyes.”

Her throat tightened. “That’s not possible.”

“I know. I’ve never seen anything like it. The mansion’s cameras show everything’s normal, but… the system isn’t letting me access playback.”

“Anders,” she said quietly, “someone was in Damon’s office.”

He went silent.

“Someone opened the safe,” she continued. “Someone walked around the upper floor.”

Another long silence. Then: “Ma’am, I need you to stay where you are. Don’t move around the house.”

She looked around the hallway. Shadows stretched across the walls. The robots remained still, but their presence felt more unsettling than protective.

“Anders, is anyone else in the house?” she whispered.

“No motion detected,” he said quickly. Too quickly.

“But you just told me the system isn’t reliable.”

He didn’t respond.

“Anders,” she repeated sharply.

“No motion detected,” he said again, but this time his voice carried fear instead of certainty.

She walked back toward the main living area, her steps slower, quieter. Every sound felt amplified, the soft hum of the refrigerators, the occasional click from the heating system, the distant mechanical buzz of the service robots.

She held her phone tightly. “Do we have external logs? Did anyone enter through the gate?”

“Gate logs show nothing unusual,” Anders said.

“And the perimeter cameras?”

“Everything looks normal.”

Normal.

Normal was a lie.

Nothing about tonight was normal.

She stepped into the living area and turned toward the window. She could see the outline of the garden lights beyond the glass, flickering faintly. The darkness outside looked too calm.

Her fingers were trembling now, not from panic, but from the pressure of trying not to panic.

“Anders,” she whispered, “does Damon have any private exit logs? Anything not linked to the main system?”

“No, ma’am. He keeps everything centralized.”

“That’s not true,” she murmured. “He keeps everything controlled.”

She walked to the bar counter and gripped the edge, forcing her breath into a steady rhythm. For the first time, she wished Damon were home, not because she missed him in the way wives missed their husbands, but because Damon understood this world. Danger didn’t scare him.

He wasn’t reachable.

His safe had been opened.

Someone had been in the house.

Someone had sent her a threat.

Something was unfolding around her, and she wasn’t prepared.

“Mrs. Moretti,” Anders said suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. “You need to come down here.”

“To the control room?”

“Yes. Please. Right now.”

She felt the urgency in his voice. He wasn’t asking out of protocol. He was afraid.

“Alright,” she said, straightening. “I’m coming.”

She started toward the hallway leading to the downstairs control wing. Her pace was brisk but careful. Every corner felt sharp, too dark. Every shadow felt like it had depth.

She reached the stairwell that led to the lower level. The lights flickered as she touched the railing.

“Anders,” she said into the phone, “what exactly am I coming to see?”

“There’s something the system just pushed through,” he said. “A message.”

“What kind of message?”

“I don’t know yet. It came in scrambled. It’s the first thing the system has produced in the last hour.”

She was halfway down the stairs when her phone vibrated violently in her hand.

Another alert.

Not a text.

Not a call.

A system notification.

She stopped moving.

“Anders… did you send me something?”

“No, ma’am. I didn’t… ”

Her screen lit up with a red message.

LOCKDOWN INITIATED.

Her heart dropped into her stomach.

“Anders,” she whispered, “what is this?”

The control room alarm blared in the background of his call. “I didn’t trigger it!”

Elara’s breath shortened. “Then who did?”

“I—I don’t know. The house just shut itself down. All exits sealed. All windows secured. The system locked me out.”

She moved down the last steps.

“Anders,” she said quietly, “tell me the truth. Is someone else inside this mansion?”

He didn’t answer immediately.

She gripped the phone tighter.

“Anders.”

“Mrs. Moretti…” His voice cracked. “Something triggered the lockdown from inside the house.”

She turned slowly, eyes scanning the dim hallway behind her.

Something…

or someone.

Her screen flashed again.

LOCKDOWN COMPLETE.

Elara swallowed, her pulse throbbing in her ears.

“Anders,” she whispered, “I am not alone in this house.”