CHAPTER 3 — The Woman Who Died First
Emma spun around.
No one was there.
Only the basement wall, cracked and black with age.
Then the diary opened by itself.
A new sentence appeared on the page.
“She always runs upstairs first.”
Emma’s breath caught.
A second later, every light in the house went out.
She grabbed the pocket watch and bolted up the basement stairs. Behind her, something moved slowly—too slowly to be human, too steady to be a prank.
When she reached the kitchen, her phone finally had signal.
One voicemail.
From her mother.
Emma pressed play.
Her mother’s trembling voice whispered,
“Emma… if you found that house, leave now. Your grandmother wasn’t born there. She escaped from there.”
Emma froze.
Then came the words that shattered her completely.
“And the first girl who disappeared in 1927… had your face.”
A floorboard creaked behind her.
Emma turned.
At the end of the hallway stood a woman in an old white dress.
May you like
Her face was identical to Emma’s.
But her eyes were completely black.
