Chapter 1 - The Eye Above the Stairs
Emma heard Lily crying before she reached the foyer.
Not ordinary toddler frustration.
Fear.
She rounded the corner and saw her two-year-old son standing on the wooden staircase, tears covering his cheeks. Claire stood one step above him in an emerald-green dress.
Her green heel was moving toward the back of Lily’s small foot.
“Mommy!”
Lily pointed upward.
Emma ran.
She reached him before his balance shifted, scooped him beneath the arms and pulled him tightly against her chest.
“STAY AWAY FROM MY SON!”
Lily buried his face against her neck.
Claire remained strangely calm.
“You’re overreacting.”
Emma backed down one stair.
The front door opened.
Ethan rushed inside.
“What happened?”
Emma turned toward him.
Before she answered, Lily lifted his trembling hand and pointed at Claire.
Claire’s mouth tightened.
Ethan stepped forward.
Then Lily changed direction.
His finger moved higher.
Above Claire.
Everyone followed it.
A small black security camera was mounted near the foyer ceiling, aimed directly at the staircase.
Ethan looked at Claire.
“It recorded everything.”
For the first time, Claire looked frightened.
But Lily shook his head violently.
“She talks to it.”
Emma stared at him.
Claire went pale.
Then the camera indicator blinked.
Once.
Twice.
The camera head rotated by itself.
Toward Claire.
A male voice came through its tiny speaker.
“CLAIRE. DON’T SAY ANOTHER WORD.”
Claire recoiled.
Emma instinctively tightened her hold on Lily.
Ethan stopped moving.
Claire looked directly into the lens.
“You said nobody would ever hear you.”
The camera rotated again.
This time toward Ethan.
Emma watched her husband’s face.
His anger vanished.
Color drained from his skin.
He knew that voice.
“Ethan?”
He did not answer.
The camera remained pointed at him.
Then the speaker crackled again.
No words.
Only three slow taps.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Ethan took one step backward.
Emma had never seen him look afraid of anyone.
“Who is that?”
Ethan stared at the camera.
Finally he whispered:
“That camera was disconnected three years ago.”
Emma looked upward again.
The indicator remained bright.
Someone was watching them live.
Someone who knew Claire.
May you like
Someone Ethan recognized.
And apparently someone who had been inside their home long enough to bring a dead security system back to life.
