Chapter 6: The Visitor

The knocking stopped.

The silence that followed was worse.

My mother held my wrist so tightly it hurt.

"Mum..."

"Not a word," she whispered.

Another knock.

Three slow taps.

Then a man's voice came from outside.

"I know you're in there."

My mother's face drained of colour.

She pulled me behind her and slowly walked towards the door.

When she looked through the peephole, she let out a shaky breath.

"It's him."

"Who?"

She didn't answer.

Instead, she unlocked the door just enough for it to open a few inches.

A man in his late forties stood outside, dressed in a dark coat. His hair was streaked with grey, and he looked exhausted.

He wasn't the man I'd seen outside my school.

This man looked... afraid.

"You shouldn't have come here," my mother said.

"I didn't have a choice," he replied.

"They're getting closer."

His eyes suddenly landed on me.

"So... this is Maya."

I took a step back.

"Who are you?"

He reached into his coat.

My heart raced.

Slowly, he pulled out an old silver necklace.

My breath caught.

I knew that necklace.

My brother wore it every single day.

"I believe," the man said quietly, "this belongs to your family."

I stared at the necklace.

"Where did you get that?"

He looked at me with sadness in his eyes.

"Your brother gave it to me."

The room fell silent.

My voice barely came out.

"That's impossible."

The man swallowed hard.

"No..."

He said.

"It isn't."

Those two words shattered everything I'd believed for the last three years.

If he was telling the truth...

Then my brother hadn't died.

He had been alive.