Grace swung her legs out of bed and stood, listening carefully, heart already starting to race. She didn’t hear anything else. No shouts. No movement.
She tiptoed down the hallway, bare feet skimming the rug, and froze at the edge of the kitchen.
The back door window was shattered. Cold air leaked through the broken pane.
For a moment, she couldn’t move.
Her house. Her quiet little street. Her carefully held-together life.
Glass littered the linoleum. And there, right in the middle of it, was a folded piece of paper weighed down by a stone.
Grace’s pulse thundered in her ears.
“Eli,” she called, her voice sharp but steady. “Eli!”
Footsteps thudded from the living room. He appeared in the doorway a second later, hair rumpled. He took one look at the door, the glass, the stone, and swore softly.
Grace’s breath hitched. “You said?—”
“I know,” he said quickly, holding up a hand. “I know. Stay back.”
He disappeared, then returned moments later wearing his boots, laces still untied and loose.
He crossed the kitchen in three long strides, boots crunching on glass. He crouched, careful not to touch the shards of glass, and reached for the note.
“Eli, don’t?—”
Too late.
He unfolded it, eyes flicking over the contents. His jaw locked.
“What does it say?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said too quickly. He crumpled the paper in his fist. “It’s nothing. Just some idiot trying to scare us.”
Grace stared at him.
She jammed her feet into her sneakers and stepped into the kitchen, glass crunching under her soles. She held out her hand. "Give it to me."
He hesitated—just a fraction too long—before letting her take it.
The message was short. Blocky letters, written with a marker that had bled through the paper.
FOUND YOU
Her stomach turned over.
This wasn’t random. This wasn’t kids. This wasn’t vandalism for fun.
Grace looked up at her brother, voice steady only because she forced it to be. “This is about you.”
Eli dragged a hand down his face. The bravado drained out of him, leaving something older and heavier behind. “Gracie?—”
“Don’t,” she said softly. “Don’t lie to me. Not now.”
He exhaled, slow and resigned. “I didn’t think they’d follow me here.”
Grace wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly aware of how thin the glass between inside and outside really was. How easily someone had crossed it. How quietly.
