Chapter 04: Secret Journal
1555 Words
I didn’t sleep.
Couldn’t.
I lay twisted in sweat-damp sheets, ears straining for sounds that weren’t there, heart hammering like something was about to crack open.
Even with the motel lights dimmed and the curtains pulled shut, I felt eyes on me. That picture… the one of my mother laughing, Ethan as a child, and the man who looked just like him, burned in my memory like a hot coal pressed to my chest.
I sat up, my legs curled under me. The photo on the nightstand stared back like it was daring me to ask more questions.
Who was that man?
Why didn’t my mother ever tell me?
And why the hell did Ethan have to lie?
His voice echoed in my head.
“Because your mother made a deal. And you were part of the price.”
What kind of mother does that?
My stomach twisted. I didn’t want to believe it. But something deep in my gut whispered… it could be true.
And if it was, then everything I thought I knew… my childhood, my mother, her death, was a lie wrapped in smoke and silence.
***********
A knock came.
Three soft taps. A pause. Then two more.
Room 7. Again.
I froze. Same rhythm as before. Not loud. Not threatening. Just… deliberate.
The kind of knock that says, “I see you.”
I should’ve ignored it. Should’ve curled back into bed and pretended none of this was happening.
But I couldn’t.
I tiptoed to the door connecting both rooms, heart thudding. The lock had rusted, barely holding. With one deep breath, I slid the bolt free and slowly turned the knob.
The door creaked open an inch.
“Hello?” I whispered.
No answer.
Just darkness.
The room was mostly shadow, but I could make out the shape of a figure sitting in a chair by the window, facing me.
A woman.
Still. Watching.
Not startled by my presence. Like she’d been waiting.
“I know who you are, Daisy,” she said, voice low, raspy, like it had been scraped across gravel. “I’ve watched you grow.”
My pulse slammed into my ribs. “What… what do you mean watched me?”
She leaned forward, the hallway light catching her face.
Wrinkled. Tired. Familiar.
Too familiar.
“You’re her daughter,” she said softly. “You look just like Vera did at your age.”
My mother’s name on this stranger’s lips chilled my blood.
“You knew her?”
She nodded once. “We were sisters.”
You’re lying.
But even as I said it, I saw the truth in her cheekbones. The same sharp edges as my mother.
The same wary look.
“I’ve stayed out of your life,” she continued, “but when I heard the fire was being investigated again… when I heard Ethan had found you…” Her eyes darkened. “I knew it was time.”
“Time for what?” I asked.
She looked past me, eyes distant, as if watching ghosts dance behind my shoulder.
“To stop hiding,” she said. “To tell you what your mother buried in ash and silence.”
She stood slowly, the chair creaking behind her. Walked to the edge of the doorway between us and paused.
“I checked into Room 7 for a reason, Daisy. This wasn’t just any motel. It belonged to someone who owed your mother, before the fire. Before the deal. This was where Vera stayed the night before everything changed.”
I stared at her, chilled. “You’re saying I didn’t end up here by accident?”
“There are no accidents when you’re part of a curse.”
She reached into her bag and handed me a small, leather-bound notebook. Faded. Smelled like smoke and secrets.
“Your mother wrote everything down,” she said. “She knew they’d come for her one day.”
“Who?”
“Those who made the deal.”
My hands trembled around the journal. “What’s in this?”
“Your real inheritance…” she said slowly, watching me like she was measuring my ability to handle the truth. “It’s not just money, Daisy. It’s something older. Darker.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s a curse. And it’s already in the wrong hands.”
My stomach twisted. “Are you saying someone took it?”
“Not took. Claimed. Controlled. They’ve been feeding off it for years. Your father tried to stop them. That’s why they silenced him.”
She tapped the journal gently. “The answers are in there — names, places, the deal your mother made… and what it cost.”
I stared at the leather cover like it might bite me. “So this… curse… it’s not just some story, is it?”
Her eyes locked with mine. “It’s real. It’s blood. And it’s binding.”
I staggered back. “Wait, what?”
She grabbed my hand—cold, papery, but strong. Her grip felt more like a warning than comfort.
“You’ll understand soon,” she said. “When Ethan’s mother sees you… when she realizes who you are.”
Her voice dipped lower. “She won’t say much. She won’t have to. You’ll see it in her eyes—the way her mouth tightens, the way her silence cuts deeper than words ever could.”
I swallowed hard, but my throat was closing. Like my body already knew the danger my mind hadn’t caught up to.
“No one will tell you the full story,” she said. “Because they all have something to lose if you learn it.”
My throat felt tight. I couldn’t breathe.
“What happened the night of the fire?” I asked.
She looked me dead in the eye. “Your father tried to save you.”
Tears burned behind my eyes. “He’s dead.”
A pause. Then: “That’s what she wanted you to believe.”
“No,” I whispered, backing away. “No—”
“They locked him away, Daisy. Because he knew too much. Because he refused to let your mother pay the price.”
“Are you saying my father is still alive?”
“I don’t know where they took him,” she whispered. “But Ethan might. His father was part of it. His mother too.”
I turned and ran.
Out the door. Down the hallway.
I didn’t care that it was nearly dawn, didn’t care that I was barefoot.
I just needed air.
Distance.
Answers.
***********
Two blocks down, I stopped, hunched over, gasping, the early morning chill biting through my skin.
My thoughts spun, wild and tangled.
Ethan. His mother. The fire.
My father—maybe alive. Maybe imprisoned. Maybe imprisoned.
The journal pressed to my chest like it could hold me together when everything else was falling apart.
And then it hit me.
That damn contract.
Still folded neatly on the table back at the motel.
Still waiting for my signature like some devil’s bargain dressed in silk and ink.
I hadn’t looked at it. Not properly.
Because deep down, I was afraid.
Not just of what it might demand, but of what signing it would mean about me. About how far I was willing to go.
Was I ready to give Ethan more power over me?
Was I ready to play into his hands… just to get closer to the truth?
The answer burned behind my ribs.
I didn’t trust him.
But I trusted this fear even less, the fear of not knowing. Of living in the dark while they held the matches.
And if that paper was the only way through the fire…
Then maybe it was time I stopped running from the flames.
I walked back.
Feet numb. Mind heavy.
The sun had barely begun to rise. Pale light crawled across the motel parking lot as I slipped back into my room. It smelled like cheap soap and old secrets.
The contract sat where I left it, untouched, patient, like it knew I’d come back.
I stared at it for a long time before I moved.
Slid open the journal from my mother’s sister. Flipped a few pages. Read just enough to feel my stomach turn.
Sacrifices. Names. Warnings.
And then… Ethan’s name, scrawled in the margins.
I closed it fast.
Grabbed a pen from the nightstand. I looked at the signature line.
My hand shook as I move the pen over the signature line.
It was a declaration.
I didn’t know if it would damn me or save me but either way, I wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines anymore.
I signed—angry, determined strokes that might as well have been blood.
The moment the pen left the paper, the air seemed to change, heavier, older.
I could almost hear my mother’s voice in the back of my mind: Don’t let them make you choose in fear.
But it was too late.
I had already chosen.
This wasn’t just about a deal anymore.
And I knew, whatever I chose next would change everything.
Then I sat back, my heart pounding.
The deal was done.
And somewhere, I could almost hear the match being struck.
- Writer
