Elias frowned. October 20th, 2022. He tried to remember where he was that morning. It was a Thursday. He would have been at his old office job, likely nursing a cold coffee and staring at spreadsheets. But the timestamp—11:42 AM—was the exact moment his life had shifted. That was the day he had received the call about the inheritance, the one that allowed him to quit his job and move into this creaky, isolated house.
Curiosity winning over exhaustion, Elias plugged the numbers into a map. The red pin dropped exactly fifty feet behind his current house, right in the middle of the dense woods he had never bothered to explore. Note 10/20/2022 11:42:38 AM - Online Notepad
He pried it open. Inside was another printed note, dated the same day, but the text was different: Elias frowned
Elias pulled his phone out. 11:42:38 AM. He looked at the date on his phone screen. It was October 20th. It was a Thursday
From the darkness behind him, he heard the soft, unmistakable click of a door latch—his back door—opening.