Chapter 7: Lily’s Secret

👉 Previous Decision: You escaped the cabin and returned to your studio, where Julian Finch confronted you, attempting to destroy the master tapes.

Julian struggled, trying to wrestle the master tape from the TEAC deck. Arthur held firm, his muscles straining. Lily, startled by the sudden commotion, began to whimper, her small hands clutching Arthur’s shirt.

“Let go, Arthur!” Julian hissed, his breath hot against Arthur’s ear. “This isn’t just about us anymore. This is bigger than anything you’ve ever imagined.”

As they grappled, Lily, in her distress, squirmed out of Arthur’s carrier. Her tiny feet found the floor. She crawled toward an old, dusty floor vent near the wall—a spot where she used to hide her small plastic toys.

Her small hand, guided by instinct, reached into a gap in the floorboards. She pulled, and a rectangular object slid out. A cassette tape.

It was an old, forgotten secondary backup. Six months ago, Arthur had installed a hidden cassette recorder beneath the floor, rigged to automatically copy every broadcast, every studio conversation, as a fail-safe. He’d forgotten about it entirely.

Julian froze, his eyes widening. He saw the cassette in Lily’s hand, saw the faded label Arthur had scrawled on it: “BUNKER #4 – RAW.”

His grip on the master reel loosened. “No,” he whispered, his face going pale. “You can’t have that.”

Arthur looked at the cassette, then back at Julian’s shocked face. An unedited room recording from the night Julian vanished. The night of the original killer tape.

The bulk-eraser clattered to the floor, forgotten. Julian’s shoulders slumped, defeat etched onto his features.

“You really don’t know, do you?” Julian said, his voice flat. He looked at the cassette, then at Arthur, a terrible realization dawning in his eyes.

This tape, the one Lily had just found, changed everything.