CHAPTER 2: THE HUNT BEGINS
By midnight, the lake house was no longer safe.
Ethan noticed it first—subtle signs. A distant engine that didn’t fade. Footsteps too synchronized to belong to wanderers. A radio hiss that shouldn’t exist in a place this isolated.
“They found us,” Clara said, her voice tight.
She pulled open a floorboard beneath the kitchen counter, revealing a sealed metal case—the original evidence she had hidden years ago. Drives, documents, recordings. Proof that could dismantle everything.
“We leave now,” Ethan said.
But it was already too late.
Glass shattered downstairs.
Then the front door exploded inward.
Clara grabbed Lily while Ethan moved instinctively toward the noise. He had no weapon—only instinct and desperation.
“Go out the back!” he shouted.
But Clara shook her head. “If we split, they win.”
Three intruders entered the house—silent, professional, masked. They weren’t there to negotiate.
They were there to erase.
Ethan grabbed a glass bottle and slammed it against the table, buying seconds. Clara activated a hidden drive, uploading encrypted files to an unknown server.
“Everything is being sent,” she said. “If we don’t survive, the truth still will.”
A shot rang out.
May you like
Wood splintered.
And the lake house, once a dream, turned into a battlefield.
