Chapter 4 - The Unseen Listener
The figure in the rain vanished into the dense rose garden bushes instantly.
"Look outside!" Clara screamed, pointing frantically toward the window glass.
"There's someone in the garden right now!"
Mr. Morrison ignored her completely as he gathered Leo into his arms.
"Get out of my way!" he barked, shoving Clara aside violently.
He carried the seizing boy down the hall toward his private medical study.
Clara stood alone in the quiet bedroom with the older toddler, Toby.
Toby was sitting up, staring blankly at the wall painting of his mother.
"Mommy's frame is buzzing," Toby whispered in a tiny, monotonous voice.
Clara stopped trembling and looked toward the large oil painting of Julianne.
She approached the wall cautiously, listening closely in the dark room.
A low, faint electronic humming noise was coming from behind the canvas.
Clara reached her hand behind the heavy gilded wooden frame.
Her fingers brushed against a cold piece of metal glued to the backing.
She gently pulled the object free and brought it under the lamp light.
It was a compact, high-tech audio transmitter with a blinking red LED light.
Someone had been listening to every single conversation inside this bedroom.
Suddenly, a soft voice spoke directly through the tiny speaker on the device.
"Put it back, Clara," the voice whispered through static.
"You are meddling in things you cannot possibly comprehend."
Clara's blood ran ice-cold as she recognized the whisper.
It was not Mr. Morrison's voice.
It was not Mrs. Gable's voice.
It was the gentle, soothing voice of Julianne, the dead wife in the portrait.
May you like
Clara dropped the device onto the carpet in sheer horror.
The bedroom door clicked loudly, locking automatically from the outside.
