Chapter Fourteen
The air changed before we even reached the top of the stairs.
It wasn’t just quiet anymore.
It was wrong.
Not the kind of wrong you could explain away with a noise in the house settling or something falling over. This felt deeper. Heavier. Like something unseen had slipped into the space and didn’t belong there.
I stayed close behind Ethan, my heartbeat loud in my ears with every step we took.
The staircase creaked softly beneath us.
Too loud.
Everything felt too loud.
“Ethan…” I whispered again, barely recognizing my own voice.
“I know,” he replied quietly, not looking back.
But I could tell—
He didn’t know.
Not fully.
And that scared me more than anything else.
We reached the top of the stairs.
The hallway stretched out in front of us, dimly lit by the fa
