Chapter 5 - THE LAST RECORDING“GET DOWN!”
The father threw himself toward his son as the security technician pulled a weapon. One of the guards slammed into the man before he could raise it fully. They crashed into the wall, sending a table and framed photographs across the floor.
The dark-haired woman carried the boy into the adjoining room and locked the door.
Police arrived minutes later.
The technician was arrested. The hidden basement equipment was seized, and investigators discovered years of recordings. The red-haired fiancée admitted she knew someone was watching the family, but claimed she had been threatened into silence. Nothing excused what she had done to the child, and the father refused to let her return.
Weeks passed.
The mansion grew quieter.
The little boy began sleeping through the night again. His father removed every hidden camera and hired an independent security team. The dark-haired woman remained close to the child, not because anyone ordered her to, but because the boy trusted the person who had run toward him when everyone else hesitated.
One evening, father and son sat together on the staircase.
“I should’ve believed you,” the father whispered.
The boy took his hand.
“You believe me now.”
His father swallowed hard.
“Always.”
For the first time in weeks, the child smiled.
It should have been the ending.
But that night, while investigators examined the final files from the basement, they discovered one recording dated three days after the technician’s arrest.
The mansion appeared empty.
Then a figure entered the basement.
The person wore a dark coat and kept their face away from the camera.
They placed something on the desk.
A photograph.
It showed the father, his late wife, and their newborn son outside the hospital years earlier.
Written across the photograph were five words:
YOU ARRESTED THE WRONG MAN.
The investigator immediately called the father.
But before he could answer, the little boy appeared at his bedroom doorway.
His face was white.
“Dad?”
“What is it?”
The boy slowly raised the old phone that had belonged to his mother.
The screen was glowing again.
A new message had arrived.
May you like
HE’S ALREADY INSIDE THE HOUSE.
From somewhere downstairs came the slow sound of a door opening.
