CHAPTER 8 — Olivia's Last Recording
The damaged cassette tapes from the hidden lunchbox were finally restored.
Most contained interviews with rescued children.
But one tape had no label.
Rebecca pressed PLAY.
Static filled the room.
Then...
Olivia's voice.
Calm.
Steady.
"If this recording survives..."
"...it means they found me."
Everyone listened without breathing.
"I discovered something I never wrote in my journal."
"The Ghost Circle doesn't have one leader."
"It has twelve."
"Twelve people who have never appeared together."
"They call themselves..."
"The Council."
A chair scraped loudly across the floor.
One FBI analyst turned pale.
"The Council..."
He had seen the symbol before.
Not in a criminal file.
Inside classified government archives.
Olivia continued.
"I learned one more thing."
"There is a thirteenth member."
"The Founder."
"No one knows their name."
"No photographs."
"No fingerprints."
"No DNA."
"They exist only through orders."
Then...
Her breathing changed.
Someone was coming.
Footsteps.
A door opening.
Olivia whispered one final sentence.
"Ethan..."
"If they can't find the girls..."
"They'll come for you."
The recording ended with a loud crash.
Silence.
Emma quietly reached into her pocket.
"I've seen this symbol."
She drew it from memory onto a piece of paper.
A simple circle.
Inside...
A mountain.
Above it...
A white flower.
Rebecca's heart nearly stopped.
That symbol wasn't just the Ghost Circle's emblem.
It had been carved beneath the white flowers appearing outside the cabin.
Someone leaving those flowers wasn't simply honoring Olivia.
They were sending messages.
May you like
Someone inside the Ghost Circle...
Was secretly helping them.
