CHAPTER 6: The Game Had Already Begun
The photograph shook in Lily's hands.
Her twin sister stared straight into the camera.
She looked frightened...
But alive.
Detective Harris turned the photo over.
A GPS coordinate was scribbled on the back.
"It's only forty miles from here."
Within minutes, four police vehicles raced toward the abandoned location.
Lily begged to come.
"No," Emma insisted. "You've already lost too much."
But while everyone argued...
Lily noticed something no one else did.
Hidden in the corner of the photograph was the same tiny rainbow symbol from The Rainbow House.
It wasn't just a clue.
It was a message.
Rose wanted Lily to find her.
The convoy arrived at an abandoned orphanage just before midnight.
The building had been empty for nearly fifteen years.
Broken windows.
Rusted swings.
A faded sign still read:
St. Mary's Children's Home.
Detective Harris pushed open the front doors.
The halls echoed with silence.
Dust covered every floor.
Then...
A child's laughter drifted from upstairs.
Everyone froze.
It sounded so close.
Officer Ramirez rushed toward the second floor.
Room after room was empty.
Until they reached Classroom 7.
In the center of the room sat a single wooden chair.
A pair of chains hung from its arms.
But no one was there.
Only a small teddy bear.
Emma gasped.
"That's Rose's..."
She had sewn one ear back on after it ripped when the twins were toddlers.
The bear had been left there on purpose.
Someone had been watching them.
Suddenly...
Every classroom door slammed shut at once.
BANG!
The lights flickered.
The old intercom crackled to life.
A distorted male voice echoed through the building.
"Congratulations."
"You found the first clue."
"But you're already too late."
Every officer reached for their weapons.
The voice continued.
"For fourteen years..."
"I raised one daughter."
"You raised the other."
"Now let's see..."
"...which family she chooses."
Lily felt her stomach drop.
The voice wasn't asking for money.
It wasn't asking for revenge.
It was turning the sisters into a game.
Then every television monitor inside the orphanage switched on.
Rose appeared on the screens.
She wasn't crying.
She wasn't begging for help.
Instead, she looked directly into the camera.
"If you're watching this..."
"...don't come after me."
"He wants Lily."
The screen suddenly glitched.
A masked man stepped into view behind her.
His face remained hidden beneath a black hood.
Only one thing was visible.
The black raven tattoo on his wrist.
He leaned close to the camera and smiled.
"Lily..."
"I've waited your entire life to meet you."
The feed cut to black.
Seconds later...
A loud explosion shook the orphanage.
The entire first floor erupted in flames.
Detective Harris shouted,
"Everyone out! NOW!"
As smoke filled the hallways, Lily looked back one last time.
On the classroom wall, someone had painted a single sentence in bright red letters.
"The fire fourteen years ago was only the beginning."
Outside, firefighters battled the growing flames.
But Detective Harris wasn't watching the fire.
He was staring at a file that had just appeared on the hood of his patrol car.
No one had seen who left it there.
Inside was a list of names.
Doctors.
Police officers.
Judges.
Politicians.
Every person connected to the twins' birth.
Most of the names had one word stamped across them:
DECEASED.
Only three names remained uncrossed.
Emma.
Lily.
And...
Rose.
Detective Harris looked up in horror.
"This was never a kidnapping."
"It's a systematic hunt."
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"And someone is eliminating every witness..."
"...until only the twins are left."
