CHAPTER 2 — What Was Hidden
The room turned colder.
Evelyn carefully widened the cast further, her hands steady despite the tension tightening in her shoulders.
Inside the plaster, wrapped in layers of gauze—
was a small sealed medical capsule.
But it wasn’t standard hospital material.
It looked homemade.
Modified.
And inside it… something dark moved.
Noah whimpered.
“I told you,” he whispered. “It scratches when I sleep…”
Daniel’s face went pale. “What the hell is that?”
Marissa finally stepped forward.
Slowly.
Measured.
Her voice stayed soft, but her eyes sharpened.
“This is a setup,” she said. “Someone planted that. Not me.”
Evelyn looked up at her.
For the first time, there was accusation in her calm.
“Who had access to him after the fall?”
Silence.
Then Daniel’s throat tightened slightly.
“You… you were with him most of the time.”
Marissa blinked once.
Just once.
But Evelyn caught it.
That fraction of hesitation.
That slip.
Evelyn reached carefully into the opening with a gloved hand.
The capsule made a faint clicking sound.
And then—
a tiny vibration pulsed through it.
May you like
Noah started shaking harder.
“It’s alive,” he whispered.
