I knew what I saw. It wasn't a hallucination. My body still ached with the phantom pain born of sheer terror.

My sanity clung to an impossible truth: there were two mothers. One who held me in grief, and another who moved like a broken toy and smiled with too many teeth.

Cedric's hands gripped my arms tightly. "Kelly, you're shaking. What exactly happened?" His eyes were full of concern, but tinged with something else—I recognized it as fear.

I backed away slightly, forcing myself to take a deep breath. "I just... I just need to be alone for a minute, Ced. Please."

I couldn't tell him yet. It sounded too crazy. He was already so fragile right now.

He hesitated, his gaze searching my face. "Okay, Kelly. But... don't do anything stupid." He squeezed my arm once more before turning and heading back to his room, leaving me alone in the silent, oppressive hallway.

Alone again. My conviction hardened.

The "Other Mom" was real. She was here, in this house, living among us, waiting to consume us.

Annabelle knew. Annabelle had tried to warn me. I had to find out exactly what she knew.

I crept back into Annabelle's room. The laptop still sat on her desk. I woke it up, the screen still displaying that cryptic note: "Beware of the Other Mom."

I searched around, hoping to find more clues or hidden files. Nothing. I went through her drawers, her closet, her books. Just the usual teenage clutter.

I remembered the day Annabelle disappeared. It was a Friday. She had gotten into a screaming match with Mom about curfew, like always, and stormed out.

We thought she'd be back by morning. When she didn't show, we called her friends. No one had seen her. We called the police and filed a missing persons report. We figured she was just being rebellious, maybe shacked up with a new boyfriend just to spite us. We believed she'd eventually call. She was just mad.

But now she was dead, stuffed inside that ottoman.

My search yielded nothing, and frustration gnawed at my heart. I sat on Annabelle's bed, burying my face in my hands. Suddenly, a jarring, loud noise shattered the silence.

Annabelle's phone. It was sitting quietly on her nightstand, gathering dust like an antique.

The phone was ringing, playing her custom ringtone. It was distinct, loud, and unmistakably hers.

My heart sank. Who was calling? Her phone had been dead for days, maybe weeks.

I stared at the screen. The caller ID glowed brightly: Annabelle.

I reached for it, my hands shaking violently. My fingers fumbled, slick with cold sweat.

This was impossible. Annabelle was dead.

I answered, my voice a raspy sob. "Annabelle?"

A burst of static. A harsh, buzzing interference, like signal jamming.

Then, a voice came through. Annabelle's voice.

But it was distorted, shrill, and frantic, as if spoken through a broken walkie-talkie.

"Kelly! Listen! She's coming! The Other Mom! She's not... she's not real! She's evil! She killed me! She burned down the house! Kelly! The Other Mom killed us! She burned down the house! She's hunting us! She wants to keep us quiet! She wants to protect Mom! Don't let her win! Wake Mom up! The truth! She's the weakness! The truth will make her disappear! Tell Mom we love her! We never blamed her! Tell her... tell her..."

The call abruptly cut off, replaced by a digital dial tone.

My hand slipped, and the phone clattered to the floor.

It was a message from Annabelle. A pre-recorded message.

I scrambled to pick the phone up, my heart pounding like a war drum. I checked the call log.

It wasn't a phone call. It was a scheduled message, set to play at a specific time, on a specific date.

Annabelle had planned this. She knew. She had foreseen her own death. She left a warning, a desperate SOS broadcast from beyond the grave.

I gripped the phone tight, my fingers digging into the plastic casing. Every single word echoed in my mind.

She killed us all.

She burned down the house.

Five years ago. We're all dead.

What did that mean? I couldn't comprehend it at all.

I plugged Annabelle's phone into her laptop and transferred the audio file. My fingers flew across the keyboard, opening an audio editing software. I extracted the track, running noise-reduction filters and pitch correction. I listened to it again carefully.

The distorted voice became clearer.

"Kelly... please... listen carefully. She killed us. Five years ago, Mom killed us. This isn't real. She had a mental breakdown. The 'Other Mom' is just a manifestation of her guilt. She's trying to stop you from remembering the truth. She hunts us, makes us disappear, so Mom never has to face what she did. Kelly, wake Mom up. The truth is her weakness. Tell her we love her. Tell her we never blamed her. She needs to know. You need to know too. She's coming for you, Kelly. She's coming... for both of you..."

I paused the audio. My chest heaved violently. My hands were shaking uncontrollably. I was cold and clammy all over.

I'm dead? We're all dead?

But I'm clearly alive. What on earth did Annabelle mean?

And then I heard it. In the audio. A faint, wet, scratching sound, almost like a guttural whimper. It was layered underneath Annabelle's frantic message.

I rewound it, isolated that specific sound, and amplified it.

It was distinct, and non-human. A low snarl, a hungry, wet sniffing. It was the sound of an intense, predatory hunger.

I played it over and over, confirming the horror.

It was there, embedded in Annabelle's final message. My body trembled uncontrollably. The chill in the room deepened.

My gaze drifted past the laptop screen, toward my own reflection in the mirror.

In the mirror, Christine was standing right behind me. Her head was tilted, her mouth slightly ajar, mimicking the wet sobbing sound from the recording. Her eyes were wide, pitch black, and utterly devoid of life.

"Mom!" I screamed, spinning around so fast the chair screeched against the floor. My heart hammered wildly, feeling like it would burst from my chest. "Why are you in here?"

Christine stood there, expressionless. Her eyes seemed to absorb all the light, turning into two black voids. "Kelly, what are you listening to?" she asked, her tone flat and completely void of emotion.

An icy chill shot down my spine. I slammed the laptop shut, pressing down hard on the lid. "Nothing, Mom! Just... just listening to some old songs. Trying to relax." I forced a smile, trying desperately to act natural and hide the terror churning inside me.

A flicker of emotion crossed Christine's face, softening briefly. Her eyes seemed to redden, welling up with tears. She sighed deeply, a low, sorrowful sound, before turning and slowly walking out of the room.

"I'm going to check on Cedric," she murmured, her voice filled with that familiar grief. "He hasn't eaten all day."

I watched her go, my eyes glued to her retreating back. Her posture seemed to sway, her shoulders slumping further, her steps unnaturally light, almost as if she had no bones.

A horrifying thought, a grotesque image, suddenly struck me: her body, her very form, seemed to ripple gently like disturbed water. She was so thin, so gaunt, her clothes hanging off her, making her appear ethereal and fragile.

This wasn't the mother I knew, at least not entirely. The contradiction terrified me.

My heart raced.

It's not her. Annabelle's voice echoed in my head. She's not real.

When Christine reached the end of the hallway, she stopped, her back still to me.

Her body seemed to grow, to stretch, her shoulders broadening, her spine extending upward. Her limbs thinned out, becoming impossibly long. Then, she slowly turned her head, her face still mostly hidden in shadow. But her smile... it was unnaturally bright, curving upward far beyond what any human was capable of, revealing a mouthful of impossibly sharp teeth.

"Kelly, don't you love your mother?" she hissed, her voice low and raspy, echoing through the silent house.

I froze, my body rigid with terror. I couldn't breathe, couldn't move, my vocal cords paralyzed. The sight before me was inconceivable, absolute horror.

"Kelly! What's wrong?!" Cedric's voice, laced with panic, pierced the silence. He stood in his doorway, his eyes wide.

The terrifying figure vanished. My grief-stricken, fragile mother, Christine, suddenly stood in the hallway, looking at Cedric with deep concern.

"Kelly is just a little on edge, honey," she said in that gentle, loving voice again. "She's just under too much stress."

My mind was a chaotic mess.

How could she vanish and reappear? How could Cedric not have seen her?

I wanted to scream, to point at her, but the words caught in my throat. It was all too impossible.

Christine walked toward me, gently cupping my face in her hands. "You're so pale, sweetheart. Let Mom take care of you." She brushed her thumb lightly across my cheek, a familiar, reassuring gesture. "We have to be strong right now. For Annabelle." Her eyes were filled with tears, grief radiating from her very pores.

But just then, she moved, and her sleeve slipped up slightly.

In that split second, I saw it.

It wasn't burned skin, but just below her forearm, where it should have been smooth, there was something. A subtle ripple, a shimmering distortion, as if her skin were merely a thin veil hiding something fluid and transient beneath. It vanished instantly, covered up by her sleeve.

"Kelly, are you feeling okay?" Christine asked, her voice brimming with concern. Her smile was too bright, too stiff.

A chill ran down my spine. Unable to speak, I forced a nod.

Her smile widened, morphing into a grotesque, sinister grin. She leaned in close, her breath carrying a strange, sweet, metallic scent. "Sweetheart, do you want to join Annabelle and Cedric?"

Her hand gripped my arm tighter and tighter, with a force that was impossibly strong. Her fingers dug into my flesh like talons. I struggled desperately, but I was powerless against her; her strength was inhuman.

"Let me go! Please!" I screamed, tears bursting from my eyes.

She dragged me along. Her touch burned, her grip unbreakable. I kicked, I fought, my nails tearing at her skin, but it was utterly futile.

"Cedric! Help me!" I shrieked, my voice hoarse.

Cedric stood frozen in the hallway, eyes wide open, staring blankly ahead, completely oblivious to what was happening right in front of him. He looked dazed, lost, not even blinking.

Christine dragged me right past him, down the hallway, and into the living room. The ottoman sat quietly in the center of the room, as if waiting for something.

The same ottoman. The same horrific space where Annabelle's body was found.

I fought with everything I had, but she held me tight. The image of Annabelle's contorted corpse flooded my mind.

I was next.

She forced me to the ground, my back slamming hard against the solid floor. The lid of the ottoman was open like a gaping, bloody maw. She shoved me in, folding me up, my body emitting a sickening crack as my bones protested.

A sharp, intense pain struck, radiating through my ribs. I gasped desperately, my lungs crushed and unable to take in air. My vision began to blur. Darkness began to encroach.

I was suffocating. I was going to die. Just like Annabelle.