Bound shadows

Chapter two: The bottle that called my name

Chapter Two – The Bottle That Called My Name

Annie woke up gasping, her body covered in cold sweat. The dream still clung to her like a second skin. She had seen her father trapped inside a bottle, pounding on the glass, his lips moving but no sound escaping. Shadows circled him like hungry wolves, their whispers sinking into her chest. Her stepmother stood nearby, smiling faintly, while her stepsister’s laughter echoed like broken glass.

“No… it was just a dream,” Annie whispered to herself, pressing her palms against her face. But deep inside, something told her it was more than just her imagination.

The mansion was quiet when she stepped out of bed, but Annie always felt the silence in her home was dangerous. Since her mother’s death, the house had become cold, like the walls themselves were watching her. Her father rarely noticed her pain anymore he was too absorbed in his new wife, blind to the venom in her stepmother’s smile.

Trying to clear her mind, Annie went outside that afternoon, wandering near the old alley by her house. That was when she saw it.

A bottle.

It was lying in the dirt, covered in dust, yet strangely it gleamed under the fading sun. Annie’s first instinct was to ignore it, but her eyes were drawn to it as though something inside was calling her. Reluctantly, she bent down and picked it up. The glass was icy cold, and for a brief moment, she thought she heard something a faint whisper, almost like her name.

Her heart skipped. She shook her head quickly and shoved the bottle into her bag, telling herself she was being foolish.

But that night, the whispers grew stronger.

“Annie…”

The voice was soft, almost tender, but there was an edge of hunger beneath it. She sat up in bed, her chest rising and falling too fast. The bottle sat on her desk, faintly glowing in the dark.

“No… no, this isn’t real,” she muttered. She grabbed it and ran downstairs, her bare feet cold against the marble floor. Without thinking, she opened the front door and flung the bottle out into the night.

She locked the door, pressing her back against it, trying to breathe. “It’s gone. It’s gone…”

But when she climbed the stairs and opened her bedroom door her heart stopped.

The bottle was sitting on her desk again.

Her lips trembled. She wanted to scream, but her voice was caught in her throat. She thought of her father, of running to him, but she remembered the dream he was trapped too. He couldn’t save her. And her stepmother? Her stepsister? They would only mock her. No… she had no one.

The whispers came again, louder now, echoing in her skull.

“Annie… Annie… we’ve been waiting for you.”

She froze as the bottle rattled violently on its own, glowing brighter.

Her heart hammered in her chest, but the truth was undeniable.

The dream wasn’t a dream.

It was a warning.