The scratching continued.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

Like fingernails dragging across wood from somewhere inside the walls.

Nora stood frozen in the narrow passage.

Adam gripped her hand.

“Don’t move.”

The scratching stopped.

For several seconds, there was complete silence.

Then something whispered from the darkness ahead.

“Come closer.”

Nora shook her head.

“No.”

A soft laugh answered her.

“You want to know who I am.”

“Yes.”

“Then come closer.”

Adam pulled Nora backward.

“We’re leaving.”

He turned toward the hidden door.

But there was no door anymore.

Only a solid stone wall.

Adam touched it.

“No…”

He hit the wall with his fist.

“Open!”

Nothing happened.

Nora looked around.

The passage seemed longer than it had been seconds earlier.

The drawings on the walls appeared to stretch endlessly into darkness.

“Adam…”

“I see it.”

“No. Look at the drawings.”

He turned.

Every drawing had changed.

The little girl was no longer standing alone.

A second figure had appeared beside her.

A woman.

And behind the woman stood a tall black shape.

Nora’s stomach tightened.

“That’s my aunt.”

Adam stared.

Their aunt had died three years earlier.

Yet there she was in the drawings.

Again and again.

Always beside the little girl.

Always looking terrified.

---

A whisper came from behind them.

“Her name was Margaret.”

Nora turned.

The little girl stood at the end of the passage.

She looked different now.

Her dress was clean.

Her hair was neatly tied.

She looked like an ordinary child.

Except for her eyes.

They were completely black.

“Who are you?” Nora asked.

The girl smiled.

“Ella.”

“You said my aunt knew you.”

“She did.”

“How?”

Ella looked toward the drawings.

“She tried to save me.”

“From who?”

The girl’s smile disappeared.

“Him.”

The black figure in the drawings seemed to move.

Nora stepped backward.

“What is that?”

Ella whispered:

“My father.”

Adam frowned.

“But you said your father killed your mother.”

“He did.”

“Then why is he here?”

Ella looked at him.

“He never left.”

A cold wind moved through the passage.

Nora shivered.

“Where is he?”

Ella pointed toward the ceiling.

“He lives above you.”

Adam looked up.

Nothing.

Then something scratched the ceiling.

Scrape.

Scrape.

Scrape.

Nora’s breathing became shallow.

Ella whispered:

“He knows you’re here.”

---

Suddenly, the hidden door appeared again.

Adam grabbed Nora.

“Run!”

They rushed toward it.

Ella didn’t move.

Nora looked back.

“Come with us!”

Ella shook her head.

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“This is where he keeps me.”

Nora stopped.

“Then we’ll get you out.”

Ella stared at her.

“You can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re already inside.”

The door slammed.

Darkness swallowed the passage.

---

Nora woke up on the hallway floor.

Morning sunlight came through the windows.

Adam was lying beside her.

She shook him.

“Adam.”

He opened his eyes.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

They looked around.

The bookshelf was back against the wall.

There was no hidden door.

No passage.

No drawings.

Nothing.

Adam stood slowly.

“Was it real?”

Nora looked at her hands.

There was dirt underneath her fingernails.

Then she saw something lying beside her.

A small red ribbon.

She picked it up.

A child’s voice whispered from somewhere inside the house.

“Don’t trust him.”

Nora looked at Adam.

“Who?”

The voice answered.

“Your brother.”

Adam’s face went pale.

---

They spent the morning searching the house.

Nora found an old photograph inside a cabinet.

It showed their aunt as a young woman.

Standing beside a little girl.

Ella.

Nora turned the photograph over.

There was a handwritten sentence.

I promised her I would come back.

Adam looked at it.

“Why would Aunt Margaret know Ella?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe Ella was real.”

“Maybe.”

He pointed to the photograph.

“Look at the date.”

Nora read it.

October 1968.

She stared.

“That can’t be right.”

“Why?”

“Ella would be almost seventy years old.”

Adam looked at the picture.

The girl appeared to be about eight.

“Maybe that’s not Ella.”

Nora looked closer.

The eyes.

The dark hair.

The small scar above her eyebrow.

It was the same girl.

Exactly the same.

Nora whispered:

“She hasn’t aged.”

---

They searched the attic.

Old boxes filled the room.

After nearly an hour, Nora found a journal.

The cover was black.

Her aunt’s name was written inside.

Margaret Vale.

Nora opened it.

The first pages were ordinary.

Shopping lists.

Family notes.

Names.

Then the writing changed.

The pages became darker.

October 3, 1968

I saw the girl again.

October 8

She says her name is Ella.

October 15

She is trapped inside the walls.

October 21

I tried to free her.

October 22

He stopped me.

Nora turned the page.

The next sentence was written so hard the paper had almost torn.

He is not a man.

Nora stopped breathing.

Adam leaned closer.

“What does that mean?”

She continued reading.

He wears the face of a man.

He speaks like a man.

But there is nothing human inside him.

The next page was covered in black ink.

Only one sentence remained visible.

He needs someone from the Vale bloodline to open the final door.

Nora looked at Adam.

“We need to leave.”

He nodded.

They hurried downstairs.

But the front door would not open.

Adam pulled the handle.

Nothing.

He tried again.

Locked.

“We didn’t lock it.”

“I know.”

He kicked it.

Nothing happened.

Nora looked through the window.

The road outside had disappeared.

There was only forest.

Dense.

Dark.

Endless.

“What is happening?”

A clock on the wall suddenly began ticking.

It had not worked since they arrived.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

The hands moved backward.

Then stopped at 2:13.

Nora whispered:

“The time.”

Adam looked at her.

“What?”

“That’s when I hear the crying.”

The lights flickered.

Then the house whispered:

“Nora…”

---

A door upstairs opened.

Adam looked toward the staircase.

“What room is that?”

Nora’s face went pale.

“The blue room.”

They heard footsteps.

Slow.

Heavy.

Coming down the stairs.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Adam grabbed a kitchen knife.

Nora picked up a fireplace poker.

The footsteps stopped.

A man’s voice came from the darkness.

“Adam.”

He looked at Nora.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes.”

The voice came again.

“Come upstairs.”

Adam shook his head.

“No.”

“Your sister is waiting.”

Nora whispered:

“I’m right here.”

The voice laughed.

“No.”

Silence.

Then:

“The girl beside you isn’t your sister.”

Adam looked at Nora.

His eyes filled with fear.

“Nora?”

“What?”

“Tell me something only you would know.”

She stared at him.

“What?”

“Our mother’s last words.”

Nora froze.

Their mother had died in the hospital.

Only the two of them had been there.

Nora whispered:

“She said…”

She swallowed.

“She said, Don’t let the house take you.”

Adam’s expression changed.

“That wasn’t what she said.”

Nora stared at him.

“Yes, it was.”

“No.”

He stepped backward.

“She said, Take care of your sister.”

Nora’s blood ran cold.

“I remember both.”

“You couldn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I was the only one who heard her.”

Nora stared at her brother.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

Then Adam slowly raised the knife.

“Nora…”

She backed away.

“Adam?”

“I think…”

His voice trembled.

“I think you aren’t my sister.”

The house went completely silent.

Nora’s heart shattered.

“Adam, it’s me.”

He shook his head.

“Prove it.”

“How?”

“Tell me something.”

“I know everything about you.”

“Then tell me what happened to my first tooth.”

Nora answered immediately.

“You swallowed it.”

Adam froze.

Nora continued.

“You cried because you thought the tooth fairy wouldn’t find you.”

His grip loosened.

“You’re Nora.”

She nodded.

“Yes.”

The knife dropped to the floor.

Suddenly, the walls began shaking.

A deep voice echoed through the house.

“Good.”

Nora looked up.

“What?”

The voice laughed.

“Now I know which one to take.”

The floor cracked beneath Adam.

He screamed.

Nora grabbed his hand.

“Hold on!”

Something pulled him downward.

His fingers slipped.

“Nora!”

She screamed and held tighter.

“Don’t let go!”

Adam disappeared beneath the floor.

Nora fell onto the broken boards.

“ADAM!”

There was no answer.

Only darkness beneath her.

Then a little girl’s voice whispered beside her.

“Now you understand.”

Nora turned.

Ella stood there.

“Where is my brother?”

Ella looked down into the darkness.

“He is where I was kept.”

“How do I get him back?”

Ella stepped closer.

“You must open the final door.”

“How?”

Ella pointed toward the wall.

A new doorway appeared.

It was painted blue.

Nora stared.

“What’s behind it?”

Ella’s black eyes filled with tears.

“My father.”

Nora took a deep breath.

“Then I’ll find him.”

Ella shook her head.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because if you open that door…”

The girl’s voice became barely audible.

“…he will come out.”

Nora stared at the blue door.

Behind it, something began knocking.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then a man’s voice whispered:

“Daughter.”

Ella covered her ears.

“Don’t answer him.”

The door slowly opened.

And Nora saw a tall shadow standing on the other side.

It smiled.