Chapter 3 - The Midnight Experiment"Step back! Now!" I shoved Anna into the hallway, shutting the bedroom door behind us.
"What is that sound?!" Anna gasped, hyperventilating. "Is the house falling apart?"
"That wasn't structural noise," I whispered, watching Luna stare intently at the top corner of the bedroom doorframe. "That was deliberate rhythm. Anna, what chemical was Richard working with before he disappeared?"
Anna pressed her palms to her temples, tears streaming down her exhausted face. "He... he was working on an industrial solvent patented for military insulation. He kept samples in the basement. But why would that be in my bedroom air?"
I looked down at Luna. The cat wasn't looking at the bed. She was looking up at the ceiling vent.
"Luna wasn't just saving you from gas," I realized with a shudder. "The gas isn't a malfunction. It's being manually vented into your room at 3:00 AM every night. Someone is timed to your sleep schedule."
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To prove my theory, I set up a continuous infrared wildlife camera pointed directly at the headboard and the ceiling vent, synchronizing it to stream to my smartphone. We decided to bait the trap that very night.
CHAPTER HOOK: At precisely 2:58 AM, as we watched the live feed from the safety of the downstairs kitchen, the camera screen flickeredāand a gloved hand emerged from a hidden panel in the ceiling.
