<p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Chapter 3:The Tape</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Mara’s small rental house felt colder than usual. The walls seemed to breathe in the shadows, exhaling a damp, musty scent she hadn’t noticed before. Maybe it was the fog, or maybe it was the way she kept glancing at the kitchen clock, waiting for it to strike 3:03.</p><p><br></p><p>She set the evidence bag on the table and pulled the tape out. Mara Vex — 3:03, the label whispered. Her name—written in a tight, cramped hand that gave her chills.</p><p><br></p><p>She fetched her old Walkman from a box of city-case relics—souvenirs she’d promised herself she’d never need again. She popped in the tape, pressed PLAY, and waited.</p><p><br></p><p>The hiss of static filled the room. Then, a voice—raspy, like a match striking—began to speak:</p><p><br></p><p>“Mara Vex, you shouldn’t have come here.”</p><p><br></p><p>Pause.</p><p><br></p><p>“But you did. And now it’s time to remember.”</p><p><br></p><p>Another pause, longer this time, as though the speaker was thinking.</p><p><br></p><p>“3:03 is the hour of reckoning. The hour the town forgot. But not all of us forgot. Some of us remember. Some of us pay.”</p><p><br></p><p>A rustling sound—like paper, or maybe dry leaves. Then a child’s voice, faint but distinct, overlapping with the first:</p><p><br></p><p>“She’s coming for you, Mara. She’s coming.”</p><p><br></p><p>A burst of static, then silence.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Mara felt her pulse quicken. She rewound the tape and played it again, this time with the volume down. She listened for background noise, hoping for a clue—a passing car, a ticking clock, something to place the recording.</p><p><br></p><p>But there was nothing except that voice. The way it said remember struck her like a knife. Remember what?</p><p><br></p><p>She grabbed her notebook and scribbled notes:</p><p><br></p><p>Who is she?</p><p>Who made this recording?</p><p>What happened at 3:03?</p><p>What did the town forget?</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door—soft, hesitant. She rose, hand on her gun, and peered through the peephole.</p><p><br></p><p>A young woman stood on the porch, drenched from the rain. Her hair was a tangled mess, eyes red from crying. She held a cassette tape in one hand and a trembling umbrella in the other.</p><p><br></p><p>“Detective Vex?” the woman asked, voice shaking. “My name’s Eva. I think I’m in danger. I—” She glanced over her shoulder, eyes wide with panic. “They know I talked to him. Thomas Greaves. Before he… before he died. He said—”</p><p><br></p><p>A sudden, sharp crack split the air. Eva’s eyes went wide, her mouth forming a silent scream. Blood bloomed on her blouse, and she crumpled to the porch as a second shot rang out.</p><p><br></p><p>Mara dove to the floor, gun drawn. Outside, the night swallowed the shooter in darkness. She crawled to Eva, but it was too late—her pulse had already gone still.</p><p><br></p><p>Rain soaked the ground, mingling with Eva’s blood and the cassette tape that lay next to her.</p><p><br></p><p>Mara grabbed the tape, heart pounding. Another message. Another clue. And somewhere out there, someone was hunting her.</p><p><br></p>
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