Chapter 2 – The Hidden Phone
The silence inside the house became louder than any scream.
I held Sophie against my chest, forcing myself to breathe slowly. Panic would only make things worse.
"Sweetheart," I said softly. "Tell Mommy exactly what you heard."
She wiped her tears with the sleeve of her little sweater.
"Daddy was in his office yesterday. He thought I was coloring outside the door. He said... 'Tonight's the night. Lock them in. Make it look like an accident.'"
Every muscle in my body froze.
"No..." I whispered.
Ryan adored Sophie. He tucked her into bed every night. He kissed my forehead before work. We'd been married for nine years.
There had to be another explanation.
I pulled out my phone.
No signal.
Not one bar.
The Wi-Fi had disappeared too.
That wasn't possible.
Unless someone had shut everything down.
Then I remembered the old emergency phone I kept in the upstairs sewing room. Years ago, after a hurricane knocked out power for days, Ryan had laughed at me for buying a prepaid backup phone.
"You and your disaster kits," he'd joked.
I had almost thrown it away.
Almost.
I grabbed Sophie's hand and hurried upstairs.
Behind old fabric boxes, inside a dusty storage bin, I found it.
The battery still had twenty-three percent.
I pressed the power button.
It came alive.
One bar of service.
Before I could dial 911, footsteps echoed outside.
Heavy.
Slow.
Someone was walking around the house.
Not Ryan.
Someone else.
The footsteps stopped beneath Sophie's bedroom window.
Then...
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
A flashlight beam swept across the curtains.
Sophie buried her face in my shoulder.
"They're here."
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I quickly turned off the phone.
Whoever was outside couldn't know we still had a way to call for help.
