The Fake Sister’s Lies Couldn’t Silence Me Chapter 04
That first night, I sent forty-two messages.
No one replied.
By morning, my phone was at twenty percent.
I couldn’t waste battery on calls anymore. One location ping every hour… that was all I could afford.
[Mom, I’m still here.]
[Brennan, the rain stopped but the water keeps rising.]
[Ms. Hart, I’m not ditching. I really can’t get back.]
[Sloane, if you’re still mad, I’m sorry.]
Green bubbles. ‘Not Delivered’ under every single one.
Only Sloane’s went through. Blue bubbles.
She never replied.
At noon, the Calders were home having dessert. The weekend trip was over. Sloane was fine.
Mom glanced at the empty chair.
“Tessa’s not back yet?”
Brennan didn’t look up from the pie he was slicing for Sloane.
“She’s crashing at some friend’s place.”
“Just ignore her. She wants us to cave and end the blackout early.”
Mom hesitated.
“She hasn’t been home since yesterday.”
Sloane’s chin trembled.
“Mom, do you wish you hadn’t helped me?”
“Tessa has a million friends. Someone’s always looking out for her. She’s fine.”
“You’re all I have.”
Mom pulled her close.
“I’m not blaming you.”
“Tessa needs to learn. That’s all this is.”
I didn’t know they were having dessert without me.
I was recording my seventy-third video for Mom.
[Mom, I’m a little cold.]
[You don’t have to say anything. Just send me a single period.]
[I just need to know my messages are getting through.]
The video progress bar froze, then turned green. Failed to deliver.
I deleted the video and recorded it again.
This time, I made sure my smile looked better.
[It’s fine. I was just kidding.]
[I’m used to the cold. The windows at the group home never sealed properly, and I’d still stay up half the night talking to the girl in the next bed.]
Ten percent battery left.
I couldn’t bring myself to hit send.
The next afternoon, Mr. Harlan was cleaning the bus. He found my torn notebook in the last row.
He spent an hour piecing the pages back together with tape.
Then he found his own page.
“Mr. Harlan has a bad back… don’t let him carry anything heavy.”
“His daughter lives out of state. Remind him to call her on the 15th every month.”
“If a student ever goes missing on a field trip, he’ll count three times.”
Mr. Harlan read the last line twice.
He ran straight to the front office.
“How many students went up the mountain yesterday?”
Ms. Hart froze.
“Everyone came back.”
“Did you count?”
“Sloane said Tessa caught a ride home.”
Mr. Harlan slammed his hand on the desk.
“I’ve been driving that bus for fifteen years. You think I don’t know who gets on and who gets off?”
The administration pulled the security footage.
On camera, every student followed their group onto the red and yellow trails.
I was the only one with a blue tag, walking alone toward a trail that had been closed for years.
The color drained from Ms. Hart’s face.
That trail had been shut down a decade ago. At the end of it was an abandoned mine shaft.
The school called the Calder house. Ten minutes remained on the seventy-two-hour countdown.
In the living room, Mom’s phone started buzzing.
She frowned and picked it up.
“Who’s calling constantly?”
One sentence from the other end was enough to make the coffee cup slip out of her hand.
Brennan was on his feet.
“What happened?”
Mom’s lips were shaking.
“The school says Tessa’s been missing for two days.”
Sloane went white.
But Brennan caught himself.
“That’s impossible.”
“She’s hiding somewhere. She has to be.”
“Tessa can’t go five minutes without talking to someone. There’s no way she’s actually missing.”
He was still talking when the seventy-two-hour timer hit zero.
Brennan deactivated the network block. Instantly, a backlog of queued voicemails and delivery receipts flooded the server.
Mom’s phone went off first. It wouldn’t stop ringing.
Forty-two messages.
Seventy-three videos.
Ninety-nine missed calls.
Every single one a cry for help.
Then Brennan’s phone went off. Then Ms. Hart’s. Then every phone in the school started buzzing at once.
Missed calls. Location pins. All of them from me.
Brennan opened the last voice message.
For a long time, there was nothing but static.
Then my voice, barely above a whisper.
[Brennan, I don’t think I can get out.]
[But you were right. You don’t die just because nobody answers.]
[I’m just a little scared.]
[If I don’t make it back, please don’t be mad.]
[I got over it. The whole socializing thing.]
[After this… I won’t bother anyone anymore.]
The message ended.
Nobody in the room said a word.
Tires screeched outside.
Mr. Harlan burst through the door with two police officers. He slammed the blue trail tag on the coffee table in front of Sloane.
“Who pinned this on her backpack?”
Sloane stumbled back.
Brennan opened his mouth, but the lead officer’s radio crackled. He pressed his earpiece, his face dropping.
“We found her last location.”
“She’s fifty feet underground in the abandoned mine shaft.”
“We’re not picking up a heat signature on the thermal cameras.”
