Card making

The 29 Names

Chapter 4: The House That Shouldn't Exist

Nadia couldn't take her eyes off the photograph.

The man in black stood at the rusted gate of Old Crescent House.

His face had been scratched out so completely that not a single feature remained.

Only the house was visible.

Large.

White.

Silent.

The same house from the old photograph.

"Nadia?"

Fatima's voice pulled her back.

"You've gone pale."

Nadia quickly folded the photograph and slipped it into her handbag.

"It's nothing."

Fatima raised an eyebrow.

"You're a terrible liar."

Before Nadia could reply, her manager called everyone into the meeting room.

For the next two hours, she tried to focus on work.

But she couldn't.

Her mind kept returning to the map.

Old Crescent House.

5:00 p.m.

By four o'clock, she had made up her mind.

She wasn't going.

It was obviously a trap.

At exactly 4:12 p.m., her phone vibrated.

A text message.

If you don't come today, another name will disappear.

No number.

No sender.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Another name?

From the list?

She opened the photograph of the twenty-nine names on her phone.

For a moment, everything looked the same.

Then she noticed it.

One name that hadn't been crossed out before...

Now had a thick red line through it.

Nadia covered her mouth.

The list had changed.

Someone was updating it.

She looked around the office.

Who could possibly be doing this?

At 4:45 p.m., she quietly left work without telling anyone.

Twenty minutes later, the taxi stopped beside an old iron gate.

The driver looked at her through the mirror.

"Madam... are you sure this is the place?"

"Why?"

"No one has lived here for years."

Nadia paid him and stepped out.

The taxi drove away almost immediately.

She stood before the gate.

The words on the old stone sign were barely visible.

Old Crescent House.

The gate wasn't locked.

It slowly opened with a loud creak as she pushed it.

The compound was covered with weeds.

Broken flower pots lay scattered across the ground.
The windows of the house were coated in dust.
It looked abandoned.
Yet...
The front door was slightly open.
Someone had been there.
Taking a deep breath, Nadia walked inside.
The air smelled of old wood and forgotten memories.
The living room was empty except for a grandfather clock.
Its hands were frozen at exactly 5:00.
She checked her phone.
It was 5:01 p.m.
The clock suddenly began to tick.
Once.Twice.
Three times.
Nadia stepped back.
A door at the end of the hallway slowly opened by itself.
From inside came a warm yellow light.
She wanted to run.
Instead...
She walked toward it.
The room looked nothing like the rest of the house.
It was clean.
Someone had recently lit a lantern.
On a wooden table sat twenty-nine sealed envelopes arranged in perfect rows.
Twenty-eight were covered in dust.
One looked brand new.
It had her name written across it.
Nadia Ibrahim.
She reached for it.
Just before her fingers touched the envelope...
A deep voice echoed behind her.
"You finally came."Nadia spun around.
A tall man stood in the doorway.
His face hidden beneath a black hood.
He slowly removed the hood.
Nadia gasped.
She knew that face.
She had seen it before.
In an old family photograph.
But according to her mother...
The man had died more than twenty years ago.
End of Chapter 4

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