Chapter 3: The House That Wasn't Empty
Officer Rachel Brooks was first to arrive.
The small blue house sat at the end of a dead-end street. Every light downstairs was off.
Only a tiny bedroom window glowed on the second floor.
Rachel knocked once.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
She tried the front door.
Unlocked.
"Lake County Police!"
Silence.
The officers entered carefully.
The living room looked perfectly normal.
A television still glowed with an infomercial.
Half a cup of coffee sat on the table, now cold.
Someone had been here recently.
Upstairs, Rachel could hear the faint sound of a little girl's breathing through the dispatcher's open phone line.
Bedroom.
End of hallway.
Door half open.
Rachel slowly pushed it wider.
A tiny blonde girl lay curled beneath a pink blanket, clutching an old stuffed rabbit.
Her terrified eyes met Rachel's instantly.
Without speaking, Mia pointed toward the floor.
Rachel crouched.
Nothing.
Then she noticed it.
Fresh mud smeared across the hardwood floor.
Leading...
Under the bed.
Rachel lowered herself slowly.
Her flashlight beam swept across forgotten toys...
Dust...
A single muddy boot.
Then two terrified eyes stared back at her.
Not a grown man.
A teenage boy.
Maybe sixteen.
He lunged.
Rachel barely rolled aside before he exploded out from under the bed and sprinted toward the hallway.
The second officer tackled him halfway down the stairs.
But as Rachel caught her breath...
She remembered Mia's whisper.
The lady in the closet.
May you like
Rachel spun around.
The closet door was moving.
