Chapter 6 - The Tape in the Ruins
The heavy pounding on the front door rattled the loose hinges, mixing with the sharp glare of police flashlights sweeping across the shattered living room. Lily stood paralyzed near the coffee table, her small fingers clutching the scorched cassette tape so tightly the plastic casing dug into her palm. Her heart drummed a frantic rhythm against her ribs. If the police came inside now and saw the state of the house—the barricaded bedroom, the burned basement, the files—they would take her away. They would believe everything Mark had said about her dangerous sleepwalking episodes.
"Police! We received a silent alarm and a report of a break-in! Open the door immediately!" the voice boomed again, followed by the heavy rattle of the brass knob.
From the backyard, the muffled sound of a scuffle broke the night air. A harsh shout from Mark echoed against the fence, followed by the dull thud of a body hitting the grass. Elena screamed from the patio, her voice cracking with desperation.
Lily didn't waste another second. Ignoring the bleeding scratch on her heel from a piece of broken glass, she bolted down the short hallway toward her bedroom. She slammed the door shut, locking it with a trembling click, and dove underneath her twin bed.
The room was dark, save for the blue flashing lights of the police cruiser spilling through the window blinds. Lily pulled the cassette tape to her chest, her breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps. She needed a player. Her eyes darted around the familiar room until they landed on the old yellow boombox sitting on her desk—the one her uncle had given her before he mysteriously stopped visiting.
Just as the front door downstairs splintered open under the heavy kick of the officers, Lily reached out from beneath the bed skirt, grabbing the heavy plastic tape recorder by its handle.
"Clear the perimeter! Check all rooms!" a gruff voice ordered from the hallway just outside her door.
Heavy boots thudded onto the carpeted floor of the hallway, moving with terrifying speed. Lily slid the cassette into the boombox deck, pressing the play button with a trembling thumb just as the handle of her bedroom door jiggled violently.
The tape hissed with loud, crackling static for a long, agonizing moment. Then, through the mechanical white noise, a familiar voice echoed softly in the dark room, speaking words that rewrote everything Lily thought she knew.
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"If you're listening to this, Lily," the recorded voice whispered, "it means they found you. Don't believe the fire. We didn't start it. They tried to erase us."
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