I never imagined my life would end up feeling like the beginning of a crime thriller.
My roommate, Lily, and I had lived together for two years. She was the kind of person who lit up a room — always laughing, always making friends wherever she went. The kind of girl you couldn’t imagine ever having enemies.
And then… she vanished.
One Friday night, she said she was heading out to meet a friend. She never came back.
The Search
I called her phone. No answer. I checked with her friends. Nobody had seen her. By morning, I was filing a missing persons report.
The police searched. They questioned me, our neighbors, her coworkers. They even spoke to her family. But days turned into weeks, and the trail went cold.
By the end of the year, her parents had stopped calling for updates. Even the detectives moved on to other cases. But I couldn’t.
I stayed in the house, partly because I couldn’t afford to move, partly because I couldn’t let go.
Five Years Later
It was a warm afternoon when I finally decided to sell the house. I thought clearing out her room would be the hardest part, but most of her things were already gone — donated or boxed up in the attic.
Then I moved her old dresser.
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Behind it, I noticed a small, uneven patch in the wall. At first, I thought it was just a crack in the plaster. But when I pressed on it, the panel shifted slightly, revealing a hidden cavity.
The Hidden Cache
I reached in, my fingers brushing against paper. I pulled out a bundle of photographs and letters, all tied together with a faded red ribbon.
The photos were strange. Lily was in all of them, but the settings were unfamiliar. In some, she stood on a rocky coastline I didn’t recognize. In others, she was in crowded markets, smiling at the camera — yet there was something off. Some of the people in the background weren’t smiling. Some were staring.
The letters weren’t in her handwriting. The ink was smudged, the paper worn. One note, in particular, made my blood run cold:
“Don’t trust them. If I disappear, I chose to leave.”
The Letter With My Name
At the very bottom of the stack was an envelope. My name was on it.
I hesitated before opening it. Her handwriting was instantly familiar, looping and neat:
“If you’re reading this, I’m gone. I can’t explain everything, but I’m safer where I am now. Please don’t look for me.
– L.”
I must have read it ten times. She wasn’t taken. She wasn’t lost. She had left… deliberately.
The Key
When I reached back into the wall cavity, my hand hit something small and metallic. I pulled out a silver key attached to a blue keychain.
Etched into the side were the numbers “14-3.”
I didn’t recognize it — not from our house, not from any place we’d been together. But my gut told me it mattered.
The Beginning of a New Search
That night, I couldn’t sleep. I kept staring at the key, wondering what door or lock it might open. A storage unit? A locker? A safety deposit box?
By morning, I had made up my mind. I was going to find out.
Her note had told me not to look for her. But five years of questions don’t just vanish with a few lines of ink.
And maybe — just maybe — the key would lead me to her.
To be continued…
