Amelia POV

The house was unnervingly quiet that night, its silence thick like velvet, muffling even the faintest sounds. I lay on my small, neatly made bed, staring at the cracked ceiling. Rebecca’s sudden kindness haunted me more than her cruelty ever did. Her smile replayed in my mind like a broken record, sweet but layered with something sinister beneath.

I turned over, trying to escape my thoughts, when a soft knock echoed through the room. My heart jumped. It was late—too late for ...