Chapter 1 - The Broken Frame
"Daddy, please listen to me!" Mia’s voice cracked through the kitchen, sharp and drenched in fresh, frantic panic as she shoved her small finger toward the hallway.
"What's wrong? Tell me, Mia. Just take a breath and talk to your mother and me," David snapped back, his chair scraping loudly against the hardwood floor. His patience was wearing dangerously thin after three hours of searching the neighborhood.
"You're not listening! You never look at the real screen!" Elena slammed her palm onto the dining table, her white silk blouse rustling aggressively as she glared at David. "Our daughter is terrified out of her mind, and you're treating this like a stubborn temper tantrum!"
"I am not treating this like a tantrum, Elena! I am exhausted!" David shouted, his hands slamming down beside his coffee mug. "She's been crying for an hour about shadows, and the police are already driving up and down the street looking for a missing kid who doesn't even exist!"
"She does exist!" Mia sobbed, clutching her worn plush bunny so hard her tiny knuckles turned bone white. "She walked right past the linen closet just like I did, Daddy!"
David rubbed his temples, his dark beard bristling as he let out a harsh, exhausted breath. "Mia, sweetheart, nobody else walked down that hallway tonight. The front door was bolted from the inside. The windows are locked. Nobody came in."
"Wait. What happened there?" David whispered, his voice catching in his throat as his eyes locked onto the security monitor mounted by the pantry.
On the grainy black-and-white screen, two identical little girls in white t-shirts walked side by side down the empty corridor.
"Daddy... there's something else," Mia whispered softly, her eyes widening in sheer terror as she pointed directly into the pitch-black storage room.
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David froze, his blood running cold as he saw the doorknob of the dark toy room slowly turn from the inside.
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