Chapter 28 - The Wall of Faces
The first Caretaker stepped aside without another word.
He didn't invite us inside.
He simply waited.
As though he already knew curiosity would outweigh fear.
Rick remained frozen in the street.
His eyes never left the doorway.
I crossed the threshold first.
The air inside the black house felt strangely warm.
Not like a normal home.
More like a room filled with running machinery hidden somewhere behind the walls.
The realtor followed close behind while the elderly woman whispered a quiet prayer before entering.
Every wall from floor to ceiling was covered with photographs.
Millions of them.
Children.
Teenagers.
Parents.
Grandparents.
Entire families.
Every photograph captured the exact same moment.
Each person looked upward.
Toward a ceiling vent.
Some looked confused.
Others frightened.
Many smiled, believing they had discovered nothing more than a loose metal grate.
I recognized several faces from old newspapers I had searched days earlier.
Missing persons.
Unsolved disappearances.
Cold cases stretching back nearly seventy years.
None of the photographs showed what they found inside the vents.
Only the moment before.
The Caretaker noticed where I was looking.
"They all believed they were discovering the truth."
"Weren't they?"
"They discovered the next question."
He pointed toward another wall.
Instead of photographs, hundreds of clocks hung side by side.
Every clock displayed a different time.
None of them moved.
Beneath each clock was an address.
Cities from around the world.
Tokyo.
Chicago.
Berlin.
Sydney.
São Paulo.
Thousands of locations.
Thousands of houses.
"This wasn't one project," I whispered.
The Caretaker smiled.
"It never was."
Rick suddenly barked toward the staircase.
Heavy footsteps echoed from the second floor.
Not one pair.
Many.
Slow.
Measured.
Approaching together.
The Caretaker didn't react.
"They've decided to meet you."
The footsteps stopped directly above our heads.
Then, one by one...
The photographs covering the ceiling began falling to the floor.
Behind them were dozens of hidden ventilation grates.
May you like
Something inside every vent had begun breathing.
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