Chapter 2: A: Camera Feed Discovery

👉 [Previous choice]: You chose Option A – Dispatch local officers immediately while live-streaming her home security feeds.

I watched the live feed from my home security cameras, my breath catching in my throat. On the small screen, a hooded figure moved through Clara’s bedroom, a strange, almost ritualistic slowness to his movements. He carried a small, ornate box.

My dispatcher headset crackled in my ear. “Units are two minutes out, Holloway. Keep eyes on him.”

“Copy that,” I muttered, my voice tight. My sister’s antique mirror, a large, ornate piece that had always hung in her room, reflected the shadowy figure. It pulsed with a faint, almost imperceptible light.

He stopped before it, not looking at his reflection, but staring into the glass as if it were a window to somewhere else. He ran a gloved hand over the frame.

“He’s in the attic now,” I reported, watching the feed switch to the upper floor. He paused at Clara’s old writing desk, rummaging through papers.

He pulled out a small, leather-bound journal. My sister Clara’s journal.

“He’s leaving something,” I whispered. He pressed a small, dark disc into the floorboards beneath the mirror, then drew a chalk-like symbol on the dusty attic floor. It looked like a twisted knot.

“Officers are on scene, Maya. They’re entering the property now,” my supervisor’s voice cut through.

The man on screen froze. He didn’t look back at the mirror. He moved with sudden, urgent speed towards the attic window.

He disappeared from view just as I saw the first patrol car lights flash outside my digital camera’s view. The door to Clara’s room swung open and two officers stepped inside.

“Clear!” one of them called out, his voice a distorted echo through my headset. “Suspect is gone.”

I leaned back in my chair, exhaling slowly. The strange disc and symbol were still there, clear as day on the feed. He hadn’t just ransacked the place. He was performing some dark work.

My shift supervisor, Captain Evans, walked up to my console. “Holloway, you alright? That was a close call.”

“I’m fine, Captain,” I said, though my hands still trembled. “But something feels… off.”

“We’ll send a CSI team in the morning,” Captain Evans promised. “Just try to finish your shift.”

I knew I couldn’t wait until morning. The mirror, and the call that came from it, were too tangled.