Chapter 4 - The Enemy Inside the Door
Annie ran home.
She didn’t wait for the car.
She didn’t wait for the adults.
The moment she heard her grandmother could be in danger, nothing else mattered.
The old apartment building looked different that night.
Darker.
Quieter.
Scarier.
“Grandma!”
Annie pushed the door open.
No answer.
Her heart started racing.
“Grandma?”
Then she heard it.
A cough.
Weak.
Painful.
From the kitchen.
Annie ran.
Eleanor was sitting on the floor beside the cabinet.
Her medicine bottle was broken.
Her hands were shaking.
“Grandma!”
Annie rushed to her.
Eleanor looked up.
“My little bird…”
“You’re hurt.”
Eleanor smiled sadly.
“I’m okay.”
But Annie knew.
Grandma was lying.
Before she could say anything, a shadow moved near the hallway.
Someone was there.
Annie turned.
A man stepped forward.
He wasn’t a stranger.
It was someone she knew.
Someone who had visited their home many times.
Someone Eleanor trusted.
“Annie,” he said calmly.
“Go to your room.”
But Annie didn’t move.
Because she saw something in his hand.
A small bottle.
The same kind of bottle that had been sitting beside her grandmother’s medicine.
And suddenly Annie understood.
The sickness.
The coughing.
The weakness.
Someone had been making her grandmother sick.
Eleanor looked terrified.
“Annie…”
“Run.”
The man smiled.
Too calmly.
“You’re a smart little girl.”
He stepped closer.
“Your grandmother taught you too much.”
Annie grabbed Eleanor’s hand.
“Who are you?”
The man smiled.
“Someone your grandmother should have forgotten thirty years ago.”
Then he looked toward the door.
“And someone Daniel Moretti was never supposed to see again.”
Suddenly headlights flashed through the window.
A black SUV stopped outside.
Someone had found them.
But whose side were they on?
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TO BE CONTINUED...
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