My hands shook as I stared at the photograph.
A little girl with braided hair.
Me.
There was no doubt.
I recognized the dress.
The smile.
Even the tiny scar on my knee.
But the other two children...
I couldn't remember them.
Not at all.
"Who are they?" I whispered.
Ethan didn't answer.
He was staring at the boy in the picture.
Vanessa was staring at the other girl.
Both looked disturbed.
As if they were trying to remember something they had buried years ago.
Then Ethan slowly sat down.
His face had lost all color.
"I've seen this picture before."
The words hit me like a truck.
"What?"
His eyes never left the photo.
"My grandmother had a copy."
The cafรฉ became silent again.
Vanessa's head snapped toward him.
"My grandfather had one too."
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
I felt like I was standing inside a dream.
Or a nightmare.
"You're saying both of your families had this photograph?" I asked.
Ethan nodded.
Vanessa nodded too.
A terrible feeling settled in my stomach.
This wasn't a coincidence.
Not anymore.
Then Ethan pointed at the back of the photograph.
There was something else written beneath the message.
Something faded.
Something almost impossible to see.
We leaned closer.
Very slowly.
And then we read it.
**Summer Camp Aurora - July 2007**
My heart skipped.
Summer Camp Aurora.
The name felt familiar.
Painfully familiar.
Like hearing a song you haven't listened to in years.
Fragments of memories flashed through my mind.
A lake.
A wooden cabin.
Children laughing.
A necklace.
Someone is crying.
Thenโ
A scream.
I grabbed my head.
The memory vanished as quickly as it appeared.
"Maya?" Ethan asked.
I looked up.
Panicked.
"I remember something."
"What?"
I swallowed.
"There was an accident."
Vanessa froze.
Ethan froze.
Both of them looked horrified.
Not surprised.
Horrified.
"You remember that?" Vanessa whispered.
The question sent chills through me.
"What happened at that camp?"
Neither answered.
Then Ethan stood up.
"We need to go."
"Go where?"
"To Aurora."
I stared at him.
"The camp closed almost twenty years ago."
"I know."
"Then why go there?"
His eyes locked onto mine.
Because for the first time since I met him...
He looked certain of something.
Completely certain.
"Because whatever happened there is the reason someone brought us back together."
The words hung in the air.
And deep down...
I knew he was right.
But before we could leave, my phone buzzed again.
Unknown Number.
A new message.
This one contained only a single sentence.
A sentence that made my blood turn cold.
"Do not go back to the lake."
Then, a second message arrived.
"The third child never drowned."
.
What do you think happened at Summer Camp Aurora?
A. A child disappeared.
B. Someone faked their death.
C. The mysterious sender is the third child.
D. All of the above.