Chapter 7: The Boy Upstairs
The laughter echoed through the dark house.
Soft.
Playful.
Completely out of place.
Every hair on my arms stood up.
Lily clutched my hand so tightly that her fingernails dug into my skin.
"Mom..." she whispered.
"I know."
Agent Hayes raised her flashlight toward the ceiling.
The beam cut through the darkness, but it revealed nothing except the staircase disappearing into the second floor.
One of the FBI agents motioned toward the stairs.
"I'll check it."
Hayes shook her head immediately.
"No. We stay together."
"But—"
"That's an order."
Another laugh floated down the hallway.
This time it sounded closer.
Almost as if the child were running from one bedroom to another.
Then came the unmistakable sound of a rubber ball bouncing across the floor upstairs.
Bounce.
Bounce.
Bounce.
Lily's face turned pale.
"There isn't a ball in my room."
I looked at her.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."
Hayes frowned.
"He's trying to draw us upstairs."
The younger agent nodded.
"Or separate us."
Hayes turned to me.
"Olivia, has anyone else ever lived in this house?"
"We're only the second owners."
"What about the previous family?"
"They moved to New Hampshire."
"Do you know why?"
I shook my head.
"They never said."
Before Hayes could ask another question, my phone vibrated inside my pocket.
Impossible.
There was still no signal.
Yet the screen lit up.
Unknown Video Request
No number.
No app.
Just a flashing notification.
The phone answered by itself.
The screen filled with live video.
I gasped.
It showed Lily's bedroom.
Someone was standing inside.
A little boy.
He couldn't have been older than seven.
He wore blue pajamas and held a worn teddy bear against his chest.
He looked directly into the camera.
Then he smiled.
"Hi, Olivia."
I froze.
The boy slowly raised one finger and pointed...
Toward the space beneath Lily's bed.
The exact place where I had hidden earlier that morning.
Then the screen went black.
Lily looked over my shoulder.
"I've never seen him before."
Neither had I.
Hayes took the phone from my hand.
"Record this."
One of the agents activated a body camera.
Hayes replayed the clip.
Nothing.
The video had vanished.
Only my reflection stared back from the screen.
"It deleted itself," the agent muttered.
A loud thump shook the ceiling.
Dust drifted down from above.
Then another.
Something heavy was being dragged across the second floor.
Very slowly.
Hayes made her decision.
"We're going up."
The team climbed the stairs in a tight formation.
One agent in front.
Hayes behind him.
Lily and I stayed in the center.
Another agent covered the rear.
Every step creaked beneath our weight.
When we reached the hallway, the dragging sound stopped.
Silence.
The flashlight beams swept across the walls.
Everything looked normal.
Until we reached Lily's bedroom.
The door stood open.
I knew I had closed it.
The room was empty.
The bed remained neatly made except for the blanket hanging slightly over one corner.
Hayes entered first.
"Clear."
The agents searched the closet.
Nothing.
Under the desk.
Nothing.
The bathroom.
Empty.
Then one of the agents stopped beside the bedroom window.
"Ma'am."
Hayes walked over.
"What is it?"
He pointed to the glass.
Written on the inside in large letters were three words.
TOO LATE, REBECCA.
The words hadn't been there earlier.
They looked as though someone had written them with a finger through the thin layer of dust on the window.
Hayes stared at them without speaking.
Then she noticed something else.
The window wasn't locked.
It was open.
Only half an inch.
Fresh air drifted into the room.
The screen had been carefully cut with a sharp blade.
Someone had entered through the window.
Or left through it.
The agent leaned outside.
"No footprints."
"Check the roof," Hayes ordered.
He climbed carefully onto the roof while another agent covered him.
Thirty seconds later, his voice crackled through the radio.
"Nothing up here."
Hayes looked frustrated.
"It doesn't make sense."
Then Lily slowly walked toward her bookshelf.
"Mom..."
Her voice trembled.
"My books..."
Every book had been rearranged.
Not randomly.
They now spelled a message using the first letter of each title.
B A S E M E N T
A cold wave washed over me.
Our basement.
No one had gone downstairs since the power went out.
Hayes immediately turned toward the hallway.
"Move."
We hurried back to the staircase.
As we reached the first floor, a loud metallic slam echoed beneath our feet.
The basement door had just closed by itself.
Lily buried her face against my shoulder.
"I don't want to go down there."
Neither did I.
Hayes slowly reached for the basement doorknob.
It wouldn't budge.
"It's locked."
One of the agents stepped forward with a pry bar from his emergency kit.
"Stand back."
He wedged the tool between the door and the frame.
With one powerful shove...
The lock snapped.
The basement door swung open.
A rush of cold, damp air drifted upward.
Hayes aimed her flashlight down the wooden steps.
The beam stopped on something lying in the middle of the basement floor.
It wasn't a person.
It wasn't a weapon.
It was an old family photo album.
The same one that had disappeared from my bedroom closet nearly a year ago.
Resting on top of it was a handwritten note.
Hayes carefully picked it up and read it aloud.
"You're searching for the wrong ghost."
My heart pounded.
She slowly turned the page over.
May you like
On the back was a single sentence that made every person in the room fall silent.
Ask Olivia what really happened the night Daniel disappeared.
