THE DEAD MAN’S KNOCK
1107 Words
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Dead Man’s Knock
Three slow knocks echoed through the
apartment.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Lana couldn’t moved.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the door.
On the phone, Ethan’s voice sharpened
immediately.
“ Lana?”
“ There- someone’s at my door.”
The silence on the other end lasted less than
a second.
“Do not open it.”
Another knock came.
Slower this time.
Almost patient.
“ Lana Carter.”
The voice from the hallway was calm.
Familiar.
Too familiar.
Her blood ran cold.
It was the same voice from her mother’s old
house .
The same voice that had spoken from the
darkness upstairs.
Ethan had it through the phone.
His voice changed instantly.
“ I ‘m on the way.”
The call ended.
Lana stood alone in the middle of her
apartment .
The stranger spoke again.
“ I only want to talk.”
She said nothing.
A soft chuckle came through the door.
“You’re just like your mother.
Lana’s hand shook.
“ Who are you?” She finally asked.
Silence followed.
Then——
“ You already know my name .”
Victor Mercer.
The dead man.
The man in the photograph.
The man with the second key.
Lana back away from the door.
Another knock echoed.
Then footsteps.
Slowly walking away.
She waited.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Nothing.
Gone.
Again.
Ten minutes later, Ethan burst
through the apartment door.
He stooped the moment he sew her.
“ Are you okay?”
Lana nodded.
Barely.
He checked the windows.
The locks.
The hallway outside.
Only when he was satisfied did he
Finally seat down.
“ He left this.”
Lana handed him the photograph.
The one showing her outside the coffee
Shop.
The warning written across the back.
Trust him and lose everything.
Ethan read it silently.
His expression darkened.
“ He wants you to doubt me.”
“Should I?”
The question slipped out before she
Could stop it.
Ethan looked at her.
For a moment neither of them spoke.
Finally he answered.
“ If I were you, I probably would.”
The honesty surprised her.
“So why shouldn’t I?”
He leaned back on the chair.
“ Because if I wanted to hurt you, I have
Plenty of chances.”
Lana couldn’t argue with that.
Because he was right.
The next morning, Ethan arrived with news.
Not good news.
“Victor Mercer really dead eleven years ago.”
Lana frowned.
“Then who have we been seeing?”
“I don’t know.
Claire , who had joined them for breakfast
Shook her head.
“Nope.”
“ What?”
“I officially refused to participate in ghost
mysteries.”
Ethan almost smiled.
“ He is not a ghost.”
“ Good.” Claire said.” Because ghost are where
I draw the line.
Lana looked at Ethan.
“ What did the report say?”
He placed a file on the table.
“ Car accident.”
Lana opened it.
The photograph attached showed a young
Victor Mercer.
The same face.
The same cold eyes.
Date of death.
May 17th, 2015.
Lana froze.
May 17th.
Her mother’s birthday.
“That is not a coincidence.”
Ethan nodded.
“ No it isn’t.”
Later that afternoon,Lana returned to her
Mother’s journal.
They had to be answered somewhere.
Hidden between the pages.
Halfway through the journal, she found a
folded piece of paper.
A letter.
Not addressed to her.
Addressed to Ethan.
Her heart skipped a beat.
“ Ethan.”
He looked up.
“This is for you.”
His expression changed immediately.
Slowly, he opened it.
The handwriting belonged to Evelyn Carter.
Lana’s mother.
Ethan read silently at first.
Then stopped.
His face lost color.
“ Ethan?”
He looked up.
“She knew.”
“ Knew what?”
He swallowed.
“ My father wasn’t killed of the secret.”
Lana frowned.
“ Then why?”
Ethan looked down at the letter again.
“ He stole it.”
The room fell silent.
Claire blinked.
“ What?”
Ethan’s voice was barely above a
whisper.
“ My father betrayed them.
Lana stared at them.
The words didn’t make sense.
The man her mother trusted.
The man in all photographs.
The man Ethan had spent years
defending.
“No.” Ethan whispered.
“ That can’t be true.”
But the letter remained in his hand.
Unchanged.
Unforgiving.
That evening, Lana stopped onto her
apartment balcony.
The city lights stretched endlessly below.
A few moments later , Ethan joined her.
Neither spoke at first.
Finally ,Lana broke the silence.
“ You know something?”
“What??
“I don’t think you are your father.”
Ethan looked at her.
“ You don’t know him.”
“ No.”
She smiled softly.
“ But I know you.”
For a moment neither looked away.
The world around them seems quieter.
Smaller.
Simpler.
Then Lana’s phone vibrated.
An unknown message.
She opened it.
A photograph filled the screen.
It shows Ethan and Lana standing together
On the balcony.
The picture had been taken only
seconds earlier.
Someone was watching them.
Right now.
Another message appeared beneath the image.
You’re running out of time.
Then another:
Midnight. Riverside station.
A third message followed.
Bring the key alone.
Ethan read the message over her shoulder.
His expression hardened immediately.
“No.”
“ You’re not going alone.”
“ It’s a trap.”
“I know.”
“ Then why would you go?”
Lana looked down at the silver key in her
hand.
Because running hadn’t worked.
Because hiding hadn’t worked.
Because she was tired of being afraid.
She met his eyes.
“ Because if I don’t go,they will never stop
coming.”
Ethan stared at her for several seconds.
Then he sighed.
“ Then we’re doing this together.”
Lana frowned.
“The message said alone.”
“ I don’t care what the message said.”
For the first time since this nightmare began,
Ethan smiled.
A small smile.
A stubborn smile.
“Aren’t you used to me ignoring instructions
by now?”
For the first time all day,Lana smiled back.
Across the street, hidden inside a parked car,
someone lowered a camera.
A photograph slowly developed in his hand.
Lana and Ethan.
Standing together on the balcony.
Closer than before.
The man smiled .
The game was changing.
And soon they would finally learn the truth.
He placed the photograph beside another
one.
A photograph taken twenty years earlier.
Two people stood smiling at the camera.
Evelyn Carter.
And Richard Hayes.
The man whispered softly to himself.
“ History always repeats itself.”
- Writer
