EPISODE 13: THE FIRST DAUGHTER
802 Words
Maya couldn’t breathe.
“You were the first.”
The words echoed through the hallway.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Her mother stood motionless.
The thing behind her had disappeared.
Her eyes were human again.
“Maya…”
“Don’t.”
Maya raised her hand.
“Don’t call me that.”
Her mother began to cry.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because you remembered.”
Maya stared at her.
“What did I remember?”
Her mother looked toward the ceiling.
“The night you were born.”
The house went completely silent.
Then Maya heard a baby’s cry.
Her own cry.
It came from somewhere beneath the floor.
Maya’s knees weakened.
“I was born here?”
Her mother nodded.
“You and your sister.”
Maya swallowed.
“Twins.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you tell me I was the second?”
“Because the house wanted you to believe it.”
“Why?”
Her mother stepped closer.
“Because the first daughter belongs to the house.”
Maya shook her head.
“No.”
“You were born first.”
“And my sister?”
“She was born seven minutes later.”
Maya closed her eyes.
The memories came rushing back.
A cold room.
A candle.
Her mother’s screams.
Two babies crying.
A woman standing beside the bed.
And someone whispering:
“One for the house.”
Maya opened her eyes.
“Who was the woman?”
Her mother looked terrified.
“Your grandmother.”
Maya stared at her.
“My grandmother made the house?”
“No.”
Her mother pointed down the hallway.
“The house made her.”
A loud c***k split the silence.
The floor opened.
A staircase appeared beneath them.
It descended into darkness.
Ellie looked down.
“We need to leave.”
Maya didn’t move.
“My sister is down there.”
Her mother grabbed her wrist.
“No.”
“She’s alive.”
“Maya, please.”
“She called me.”
“She always calls.”
“Who?”
Her mother whispered:
“The first daughter.”
Maya pulled her hand away.
“You said I was her.”
Her mother shook her head.
“I said you were the first.”
A terrible smile appeared on her face.
“But the house doesn’t care about blood anymore.”
Maya looked toward the staircase.
“What does it want?”
Her mother answered:
“Your choice.”
A child’s voice floated up from below.
“Maya…”
Maya stepped onto the first stair.
Ellie grabbed her shoulder.
“Don’t go down there.”
Maya looked at her.
“I’m not leaving her.”
“You don’t know what she is.”
“She is my sister.”
The voice came again.
“Maya…”
This time it sounded exactly like her.
Maya descended.
One step.
Two.
Three.
The darkness swallowed her.
Ellie followed.
Behind them, Maya’s mother remained at the top.
“Maya!”
Maya turned.
Her mother was crying.
“Whatever you hear down there…”
She paused.
“Don’t answer when she asks you to remember.”
The staircase suddenly stretched longer.
Much longer.
Maya looked down.
At the bottom stood a little girl.
The same girl from the photograph.
She smiled.
Then she said:
“Finally.”
Maya reached the bottom.
“Are you my sister?”
The little girl nodded.
“I’ve been waiting seventeen years.”
Maya’s heart broke.
“Why?”
The girl looked behind Maya.
At the darkness.
“Because you left me here.”
Maya froze.
“I never left you.”
The girl smiled wider.
“You did.”
Then every light on the staircase turned on.
Maya saw the walls.
They were covered with photographs of her childhood.
Her first birthday.
Her first day at school.
Her first lost tooth.
Her first day away from home.
But in every photograph…
The little girl was standing somewhere behind her.
Watching.
Maya whispered:
“How?”
The little girl stepped closer.
“Because every time you remembered something…”
She touched Maya’s scar.
“I remembered it too.”
Maya pulled away.
The scar above her eyebrow began burning.
The little girl smiled.
“Now it’s time for you to remember everything.”
The house shook violently.
And Maya suddenly remembered the night she was born.
She remembered the red door.
She remembered her grandmother.
She remembered her mother screaming.
And she remembered herself—
standing beside the bed.
Not as a baby.
As a seven-year-old girl.
Watching her own birth.
Maya screamed.
The little girl laughed.
“You’ve finally remembered.”
Then the voice of the house whispered:
“Welcome home, first daughter.”
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