CHAPTER 2: THE MAN OUTSIDE THE WINDOW
Ethan’s breath caught in his throat.
A man stood beneath the streetlight across from his house, his face hidden under a black hood. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t knocking. He was simply watching.
Then Max growled.
It was a low, dangerous sound Ethan had never heard from him before.
Ethan grabbed the rusted box, shoved the envelope and silver key into his jacket, and stepped backward. His phone buzzed again.
A text from the same unknown number appeared:
"Your father didn’t die from cancer."
Ethan’s blood went cold.
Before he could respond, the porch light flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then the power went out.
The house fell into darkness.
Max lunged toward the front door, barking wildly. A second later, the doorknob began to turn.
Someone had a key.
Ethan’s heart pounded as he dragged the chair against the door. The lock clicked. The door pushed open an inch… then stopped against the heavy furniture.
A man’s voice hissed from the other side.
"Give us what he hid, Ethan. This doesn’t have to end like your father."
Ethan froze.
They knew his name.
They knew his father.
And they knew about the box.
He backed into the hallway, clutching the silver key, when something inside the envelope slipped out and landed on the floor.
It was a bank receipt.
Dated three days before his father’s death.
At the bottom was a handwritten address:
Storage Unit 17. Route 9. Don’t bring family.
Ethan looked toward Max.
"You knew," he whispered.
Max barked once, then ran to the back door.
Ethan followed him into the rain, escaping just as the front door burst open behind them.
By midnight, Ethan reached the abandoned storage facility on Route 9. Unit 17 was covered in dust, untouched for years.
The silver key fit perfectly.
Inside, under a tarp, was not money.
Not jewelry.
Not documents.
It was a hospital bed.
A wall of photographs.
And one final video cassette labeled:
"For Ethan — When The Chair Is Found."
With shaking hands, Ethan pressed play on the old TV in the corner.
His father appeared on screen, pale but alive, staring directly into the camera.
"Ethan… if you’re watching this, it means Max did his job."
Ethan staggered back.
Then his father said the words that shattered everything:
"The man who raised you is not your real father… and the people coming for you are your real family."
Behind Ethan, the storage unit door slowly creaked open.
And a woman’s voice whispered from the darkness:
May you like
"Hello, son."
To Be Continued...
