Chapter 2 - The darkness lasted only six seconds.But six seconds was enough for panic to become chaos.
Someone knocked over a table.
Glass shattered.
Emily screamed.
Rebecca grabbed David's arm.
Then the emergency lights flickered on.
Red.
Dim.
Unnatural.
Everyone was still standing exactly where they had been.
Except one person.
Thomas.
David's older brother was gone.
David looked around.
"Where's Thomas?"
Nobody knew.
Mark immediately pulled out his phone.
"No signal."
David stared at him.
"How can there be no signal inside a building?"
Mark didn't answer.
He was moving toward the doors.
Locked.
He tried the handle again.
Nothing.
"Everyone stay calm."
David almost laughed.
"Calm?"
He pointed at the coffin.
"I woke up inside my own funeral, Mark."
"Fair point."
Rebecca stepped closer.
"David, we need to leave."
He looked at her.
Something about the urgency in her voice bothered him.
"Why?"
She hesitated.
"Because whoever did this might come back."
David stared.
"You knew this could happen?"
Her eyes widened.
"No."
The answer came too quickly.
David noticed.
He looked at Emily.
His daughter was watching her mother.
Not him.
Her mother.
That made David uneasy.
He walked toward the reception desk.
A guestbook sat open.
He flipped through it.
Hundreds of signatures.
People from work.
Family friends.
Neighbors.
Then one name stopped him.
James Holloway.
David's former business partner.
Dead for eight years.
David's finger froze.
"Why is his name here?"
Rebecca stepped closer.
"What?"
David pointed.
The signature was unmistakable.
James Holloway.
David had seen it hundreds of times.
Impossible.
Mark took the book.
"Could be a coincidence."
"No."
David shook his head.
"I signed contracts with that man for fifteen years."
Mark looked uncomfortable.
David turned the page.
Another signature.
Laura Bennett.
His old accountant.
Missing for five years.
Another.
Daniel Price.
Former head of security.
Dead two years.
All three names were in the guestbook.
David looked at Mark.
"What the hell is this?"
Before Mark could answer, the funeral hall television suddenly turned on.
Everyone turned.
Static.
Then an image appeared.
David.
Sitting at his office desk.
Speaking into the camera.
His face was pale.
His voice was low.
"If you're watching this, I'm already dead."
Rebecca covered her mouth.
David stared at the screen.
The video continued.
"I discovered what they did."
Static.
"They have been moving money for six years."
Another glitch.
"I trusted the wrong people."
The image flickered.
"And the person closest to me..."
David stopped breathing.
The screen went black.
Then one final sentence appeared in white letters.
SHE WILL TRY TO CONVINCE YOU IT WAS AN ACCIDENT.
Rebecca stepped backward.
David turned toward her.
"Who?"
She didn't answer.
"Rebecca?"
"I don't know."
David shook his head.
"Who is she?"
"I don't know!"
Then a gunshot exploded somewhere outside.
Everyone screamed.
Mark grabbed David and dragged him behind a concrete pillar.
Another shot.
Then another.
Glass shattered.
The funeral hall erupted into panic.
David crouched.
"Who is shooting at us?"
Mark looked toward the windows.
"Someone who doesn't want you talking."
David glanced at Rebecca.
She was hiding behind the coffin.
Emily was beside her.
David's heart pounded.
The thought came suddenly.
If someone wanted him dead...
why had they allowed him to wake up?
The gunfire stopped.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Then the funeral doors slowly opened.
A figure stood outside.
Tall.
Wearing a black coat.
Holding something in one hand.
The person stepped inside.
Mark raised his weapon.
"Don't move."
The stranger didn't move.
Instead, he dropped the object.
It landed on the floor.
A phone.
David stared.
The screen was cracked.
There was a picture displayed on it.
David.
Standing beside Rebecca.
And beneath the photograph were four words.
SHE KNOWS EVERYTHING.
Rebecca saw it.
Her face collapsed.
David looked at her.
"Rebecca."
She shook her head.
"No."
"Tell me."
"I can't."
"Tell me!"
The stranger suddenly reached inside his coat.
Mark fired.
The figure fell backward.
Everyone screamed.
Mark ran outside.
By the time he reached the hallway, nobody was there.
Only a pool of blood.
And a small black envelope.
David picked it up.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed a warehouse.
The timestamp on the back was from three nights earlier.
David recognized the place.
It belonged to his company.
Then he noticed the man standing near the warehouse entrance.
His brother Thomas.
David's hand began to shake.
"Thomas was here."
Mark looked at him.
"So?"
David turned the photograph around.
On the back was another message.
YOUR BROTHER IS NOT THE ONE YOU SHOULD FEAR.
David looked at Rebecca.
She was crying.
But David no longer knew whether those tears were grief.
Or guilt.
Then Emily quietly spoke.
"Dad..."
David turned.
She was staring at her mother.
"Mom told me not to tell you."
Rebecca closed her eyes.
David froze.
"Tell me what?"
Emily whispered:
"She said if you ever came back..."
May you like
A pause.
"...I was supposed to pretend I was still grieving."
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