For several seconds, there was only static.
Then a man’s voice whispered:
“Son, listen carefully. You have less than an hour.”
Daniel began to cry.
“Dad? Is that really you?”
“No time. Go to the old cemetery. Find my grave. Dig beneath the stone.”
“What are you talking about?”
His father’s voice became desperate.
“The thing you released that night isn’t Emily. It isn’t your mother. It isn’t even human.”
Daniel swallowed hard.
“Then what is it?”
His father was silent.
Then he whispered:
“It’s the reason you were born.”
The call ended.
—
3:11 A.M. — THE CEMETERY
Daniel reached the cemetery just before the rain stopped.
His father’s grave stood beneath a dead oak tree.
Something was wrong.
The soil around the grave was freshly disturbed.
And the headstone had been turned backward.
Daniel knelt and brushed away the mud.
There was a message carved into the stone.
I’M SORRY I COULDN’T SAVE YOU.
Below it was a date.
Tomorrow’s date.
Daniel stumbled backward.
A sound came from behind the tree.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
He raised his flashlight.
A little girl stood between the graves.
Emily.
She wore the same blue dress.
Her hair was wet.
Her face was pale.
But this time, she wasn’t smiling.
“Daniel,” she whispered. “You need to listen to me.”
He couldn’t speak.
“That thing is coming for you.”
“What thing?”
Emily looked toward the darkness beyond the cemetery gates.
Then she said something that made his blood turn to ice.
“The thing wearing Mom’s face isn’t the monster.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Then what is?”
Emily stepped closer.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Daniel… the monster is wearing YOUR face.”
His flashlight fell to the ground.
