Chapter 20 - The Unseen Shadow
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It was a quiet Tuesday evening in late October.
The autumn wind howled softly outside my studio, rustling the fallen maple leaves across the driveway. I was packing up my tools for the night when the doorbell chimes rang through the house.
I walked to the front hallway and looked through the peep-hole. Nobody was standing on the porch.
I opened the front door cautiously. The cool night air brushed against my face. Sitting on the welcome mat was a small, square package wrapped in plain brown shipping paper, tied with a thin piece of black twine.
There was no shipping label, no stamps, and no return address. Just my name written across the top in dark, precise ink: CAROLINE.
My heart gave a sudden, uneasy thud.
I brought the package inside, setting it down on the kitchen island under the bright LED lights. I grabbed a pair of scissors and carefully cut the black twine, unfolding the paper.
Inside the box was a single, unlabelled black cassette tape, resting alongside a folded piece of yellowed notebook paper.
My fingers trembled slightly as I unfolded the paper. Written across it in sharp, familiar handwriting was a message that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up:
Caroline,
You think Luke was the one who found out about your sister seven years ago? You think he was smart enough to build that digital bypass on his own?
Look into your father's old business partner before you celebrate your freedom. Luke was just the pawn.
We are still watching.
I stared at the paper, the breath catching violently in my throat.
May you like
Outside, the wind slammed a heavy tree branch against the kitchen window with a sudden, deafening CRACK.
I slowly turned my head toward the dark, uncurtained glass of my backyard, staring out into the pitch-black night, realizing with horror that the nightmare might not have ended at all.
