Chapter 2 - The House of Whispering WallsThe Victorian home sat at the end of a dead-end street, swallowed by overgrown oaks. The air inside felt heavy, thick with an unsettling stillness. Luna immediately tensed inside her carrier, low growls echoing from her throat the moment we crossed the threshold.
"I haven't changed anything since Richard disappeared eighteen months ago," Anna said, her voice shaking as she pointed up the grand wooden staircase. "The police searched the house back then, but found zero traces. They concluded he left voluntarily."
I carried a portable multi-gas detector and a thermal imaging camera from my emergency kit. As we mounted the stairs, the air pressure seemed to shift.
"Where does the ductwork lead?" I asked, scanning the hallway walls.
"Directly to the attic space above the master suite," Anna replied. "Richard spent months up there before he vanished. He was an electrical engineer... obsessed with security systems."
We stepped into the master bedroom. It was elegant but suffined with a faint, sweet, metallic scent. I flipped on the gas detector and held it near Anna's pillows.
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Within five seconds, the device didn't just beepāit screamed.
CHAPTER HOOK: The screen flashed crimson red, reading lethal levels of a volatile chemical. But before I could pull Anna back, a distinct, rhythmic tapping echoed from INSIDE the wall directly behind the bed.
