Chapter 3 – Part 1: The Forgotten School
Chapter 3 – Part 1: The Forgotten School
The beam of the flashlight lingered beneath the teacher's desk.
Leo pressed one trembling hand over his mouth.
He had learned long ago that breathing too loudly could hurt you.
Footsteps scraped across the cracked classroom floor.
Another man's voice echoed from the hallway.
"Did you check Room Four?"
"It's empty."
"What about the basement?"
"Locked."
The first man cursed under his breath.
"The boss wants the kid alive. He's worth too much."
Leo closed his eyes.
He knew that voice.
It belonged to Victor—the man with the snake tattoo winding up the left side of his neck.
Victor was the one who decided whether the children ate.
Victor was the one who smiled before hitting them.
Three years had taught Leo one lesson above all else:
Never let Victor know where you were hiding.
Victor kicked the old desk with his boot.
The impact shook dust from the ceiling.
Leo bit his lip to stop himself from crying out.
Another kick.
Closer this time.
Then a radio crackled.
"Victor."
A voice came through.
"We've got trouble."
"What now?"
"The police are still at the warehouse."
Victor swore.
"What about the woman?"
"We lost her."
There was a brief silence.
Then the voice continued.
"The boss says change locations tonight."
Victor glanced around the classroom one last time before turning toward the hallway.
"You heard him," he barked to the others.
"We move everyone before sunrise."
The footsteps faded.
Only after several minutes did Leo dare to breathe normally again.
Emily Couldn't Sleep
Across the city, Emily sat alone at her kitchen table.
The photograph of the sleeping boy lay beside a cold cup of coffee.
She had stared at it for hours.
Every tiny detail mattered.
The blanket.
The cracked wall.
The yellow star.
She enlarged the image on her laptop until it became grainy.
Something caught her attention.
Near the bottom corner...
A faded sticker.
A smiling blue elephant.
Emily froze.
Her eyes widened.
"No..."
She hurried upstairs and opened an old storage box labeled LEO.
Inside were preschool drawings, birthday cards, and a photo album.
She flipped rapidly through the pages until she found it.
Leo's preschool graduation picture.
Behind the children...
The exact same blue elephant sticker.
Emily immediately grabbed her phone.
Marcus answered after one ring.
"You found something."
"The classroom."
"What about it?"
"It isn't just similar."
She held the photograph next to the album.
"It's the same room."
Marcus was silent.
"I'll meet you in twenty minutes."
Back to the School
The old preschool stood abandoned on the edge of the city.
Its colorful playground had rusted away.
Broken swings creaked in the night wind.
Police tape from an old trespassing investigation fluttered along the fence.
Marcus parked without turning on the headlights.
"We go quietly."
Emily nodded.
"I don't care what happens."
"I'm bringing my son home."
Marcus looked at her seriously.
"You stay behind me."
She didn't answer.
They slipped through a gap in the chain-link fence.
The front entrance was locked.
Marcus tried a side door.
It opened with a soft creak.
Inside, the air smelled of mold and damp wood.
Children's murals still covered the walls.
Smiling suns.
Rainbows.
Animals.
Ghosts of happier days.
Emily's heart ached.
"This is where he learned to write his name."
Marcus shone his flashlight ahead.
Fresh footprints.
Someone had been here recently.
Very recently.
The Hidden Room
They followed the footprints down the hallway.
One classroom looked untouched.
Another had broken desks stacked against the walls.
Then Emily noticed something strange.
"The floor."
Marcus knelt.
One section of the wooden floorboards looked newer than the rest.
Together they pushed aside an old bookshelf.
Hidden beneath it...
A metal trapdoor.
Marcus slowly lifted it.
A narrow staircase disappeared into darkness.
Emily whispered,
"The basement."
Marcus radioed for backup.
Only static answered.
"No signal."
He looked at Emily.
"We're on our own."
They descended carefully.
Each step groaned beneath their weight.
At the bottom...
They found rows of thin mattresses.
Children's shoes.
Tiny jackets.
Half-finished coloring books.
Emily picked up a small stuffed rabbit.
Its ear had been sewn back on with blue thread.
She recognized it instantly.
Tears welled in her eyes.
"I fixed this."
Marcus turned.
"What?"
"When Leo was four, he ripped the rabbit's ear."
She held the toy against her chest.
"I sewed it back together myself."
There was no doubt anymore.
Leo had been here.
Very recently.
A Message on the Wall
Marcus swept his flashlight across the room.
Words had been scratched into the concrete wall.
Not by an adult.
By a child.
The letters were uneven.
Some backward.
Some barely readable.
Emily stepped closer.
Slowly...
She read them aloud.
MOM... I TRIED TO REMEMBER YOUR FACE.
She covered her mouth as sobs escaped.
Below those words...
Another sentence.
PLEASE DON'T STOP LOOKING FOR ME.
Marcus lowered his head.
Neither of them noticed the small security camera hidden inside a broken ventilation grate.
Miles away, in a luxury office overlooking the city, a middle-aged man watched the live video feed.
He smiled coldly.
"So..."
"They finally found the school."
He picked up his phone.
"Bring me the boy."
"And this time..."
May you like
He paused.
"...bring me his mother too."
