Chapter 7 - BLACKWATER HOUSE “WE BURIED SOMEONE THAT NIGHT—BUT I NEVER SAW HER FACE.”
Margaret’s confession followed them through the storm as Daniel drove toward an abandoned property nearly forty miles outside the city. Blackwater House had once belonged to the Hale family, hidden beyond dense woods and an iron gate swallowed by vines.
Margaret explained that eighteen years earlier she secretly helped Anna flee after discovering what her husband was planning. She gave Anna money, a car, and the address of Blackwater House, believing nobody knew about the property.
She had been wrong.
Three days later, the house burned.
Authorities found a body inside, but Margaret’s husband personally handled the identification. Years later, another death certificate appeared under Anna Carter’s name—the funeral Emily remembered. Someone had constructed Anna’s death twice.
“Why?” Emily demanded.
“To make every person searching for her stop searching,” Daniel answered.
Inside the abandoned house, dust covered the floor like gray snow. Emily found scratch marks beneath a staircase and followed them toward a hidden basement door.
Daniel pulled it open.
A metal chair stood in the center of the room.
Beside it was an old camera.
Emily noticed something carved into the wall.
E.C. — TRUST THE RED DOOR.
“My initials,” Emily whispered.
May you like
Then footsteps sounded upstairs.
They were not alone.
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