Chapter Six: The Burned Photo
Ellie left the chapel with Father Michael's words echoing in her head:
"Someone tried to bind what took her."
She needed answers. Not stories. Not whispered warnings.
So she went where the town buried its truths—Maple Hill's historical archives.
The library basement smelled like mildew and regret. Mrs. Travers, the librarian, barely looked up as Ellie signed in and descended the narrow staircase. The archives were in chaos—old files stacked in mislabeled boxes, newspapers curling with age, and dust thick enough to write in.
She found the box labeled 1996 – School & Civic Events and dug through it.
Minutes passed.
Then—
A flyer: Maple Hill Elementary Halloween Festival – October 16, 1996.
In the corner was a grainy photo of children lined up for a costume contest. A vampire, a witch, a robot… and a girl in a yellow coat with her hood up.
Lila.
Ellie leaned in—and her stomach dropped.
She was standing right next to her.
Six-year-old Ellie, dressed as a butterfly, holding Lila's hand.
But her parents had told her she hadn't gone that year. That she'd been sick.
She flipped the photo over. Scrawled in pen: "Lila & Ellie – last seen together."
Her hands shook.
She hadn't just witnessed Lila's disappearance. She'd been with her.
At that moment, something snapped in her memory—a flash of light, the scent of smoke, the way Lila had pulled her toward the trees whispering, "He's calling me…"
Ellie stumbled back from the photo, heart racing. A draft brushed past her neck.
And then she heard it.
A voice, faint and rasping, coming from the shadowed end of the archive hallway.
> "You promised you wouldn't forget me…"
She turned, but no one was there.
Then—at the end of the hallway—something moved. A flicker of yellow. A figure standing just behind the rows of filing cabinets.
Ellie stepped closer, instinctively pulling out her phone to shine the light.
And saw something lying on the floor:
A burned photograph, edges blackened, center intact—showing her and Lila standing at the well.
Neither of them was smiling.