😨 CHAPTER 2 — THE SECRET HIDDEN INSIDE THE WALL
Thirty-four nights.
That's how long Rada tried to warn us.
The thirty-fifth night...
She stopped barking.
Instead...
She attacked the wall.
Not wildly.
Not like an anxious dog.
Like an animal desperately trying to rescue someone.
Chunks of wallpaper flew across the room.
Her paws bled.
She refused to stop.
"That's enough," Ethan whispered.
"If she's willing to hurt herself..."
"...we're opening that wall tomorrow."
Our contractor, Mike, laughed when he arrived.
"So the dog hired me?"
He grinned while unpacking his tools.
Five minutes later...
He wasn't smiling anymore.
He knocked across the wall with his hammer.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Then...
THUNK.
He stopped.
His eyebrows slowly rose.
"That's odd."
He tapped again.
Solid.
Solid.
Hollow.
"There shouldn't be empty space here."
My heart started racing.
Mike marked a square on the drywall.
"Stand back."
The saw screamed as white dust filled the room.
Within minutes...
A section of drywall came loose.
Behind it...
There was another wall.
Older.
Made from rough wooden planks.
Hidden behind the modern drywall.
"Someone built over this," Mike whispered.
"But why?"
He carefully removed one of the boards.
A cold draft escaped.
Then darkness.
Not a pipe.
Not insulation.
A narrow hidden cavity.
Mike shined his flashlight inside.
"What is that?"
Something metallic reflected the light.
He reached in.
Pulled out...
An old steel lockbox.
Covered in dust.
No lock.
No label.
No markings.
Just decades of silence.
My hands shook as Ethan opened it.
Inside...
Bundles of yellowed letters.
Black-and-white photographs.
A faded baby blanket.
And one leather notebook.
The first page read:
"If you're reading this...
I'm probably gone.
Please don't let them erase what happened here."
We looked at each other.
Every letter carried the same signature.
— Margaret Hayes.
Neither of us recognized the name.
Until Mike quietly asked...
"Wait..."
"Didn't the previous owner's wife disappear in 1986?"
The room went completely silent.
Because our real estate agent had never mentioned any missing woman.
Not once.
That evening Ethan searched old newspaper archives online.
At first...
Nothing.
Then one tiny article appeared.
LOCAL WOMAN MISSING.
CASE CLOSED.
NO BODY FOUND.
My pulse quickened.
The photograph beside the article showed a smiling young mother.
She looked hauntingly familiar.
Lily walked into the room.
Stopped.
Stared at the newspaper.
Then whispered something that made every hair on my body stand up.
"I've seen her."
Ethan frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Lily pointed toward the bedroom upstairs.
"The lady standing next to Rada."
Nobody said another word.
Because Lily had never seen that newspaper before.
May you like
And she described the woman...
Perfectly.
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