Is That Mom

Part 4 of Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Ethan's Growing Determination

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Part 4:

Ethan’s Decision to Investigate

The night was silent, the house blanketed in darkness except for a faint glow seeping through the crack beneath Ethan's door. Inside his room, the world outside seemed to disappear, leaving only the soft hum of his laptop and the steady, rhythmic clicking of the keys. Ethan sat at his desk, his face illuminated by the screen, his eyes locked in concentration as he scrolled through endless pages, searching for any trace of the unfamiliar place in the photograph.

The image was etched in his mind, burned into his thoughts: his mother’s smile, warm and serene, with a backdrop of a place he couldn’t name. He had spent hours staring at it, trying to piece together the mystery, but each attempt only left him more confused. And now, as he sat there in the dark, he felt a sense of urgency, a need to dig deeper, to find answers no matter how obscure they were.

He opened a new browser tab and typed in a search query, something he had tried a dozen times before but was hoping would yield different results this time. The results were the same—a mix of unrelated articles, vacation photos, and useless links. Frustration bubbled up inside him, but he pushed it down, refusing to give up. He couldn’t afford to.

As the night wore on, Ethan found himself drawn to old, forgotten corners of the internet—the kinds of places most people never bothered to visit. He skimmed through dusty blogs, obscure forums, and pages that hadn’t been updated in years. He knew he was grasping at straws, but he also knew that the answer wouldn’t be in plain sight. If there was a secret, it would be buried, hidden where no one thought to look.

His fingers hovered over the keyboard, hesitating for just a moment before he typed in a new phrase: “hidden communities, off-the-grid towns.” He didn’t expect much, but he needed to try. He scrolled past more unrelated results, but then something caught his eye—an old forum thread from the early 2000s. It wasn’t recent, but the title intrigued him: “Anyone heard of the hidden village? Off-the-map, no records, nothing?”

Ethan’s heart skipped a beat. He clicked on the link, his pulse quickening as the page loaded. The thread was filled with comments, most of them speculative, but a few seemed to suggest that there were, indeed, places that didn’t show up on maps—small, isolated communities that kept to themselves, where no one asked questions and outsiders were unwelcome. It was all vague, almost like folklore, but it was something. A lead, no matter how faint.

He read through the comments, one after another, trying to piece together the fragments of information. There were mentions of strange towns hidden in the mountains, villages tucked away in forests, and even rumors of places where people went to disappear, where no one could find them. It all sounded far-fetched, but Ethan didn’t care. He needed to believe there was something real here, something that could lead him to his mother.

Then, near the bottom of the thread, he found a comment that made his breath catch. It was from someone named “OldTraveler,” and it read: “Saw something like that once. A woman in a place that wasn’t on any map. Didn’t stay long enough to find out more, but it’s real. Hard to find, though. People don’t want to be found.”

Ethan’s mind raced. Could this be it? Could this be connected to the place in the photo, the place his grandmother refused to talk about? He clicked on OldTraveler’s profile, hoping to find more information, but it led to a dead end. The account hadn’t been active in years, and there were no other posts, no way to contact them.

For a moment, Ethan felt a wave of despair. What if this was just another wild goose chase, another thread that led nowhere? But then he remembered the look on his grandmother’s face when she saw the photograph, the way she had paled and tried to change the subject. She knew something, and she was scared of it. That was enough to convince him that he was on the right track, even if he didn’t have all the pieces yet.

He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. He needed to be smart about this. If there was a chance this lead could take him closer to the truth, he couldn’t afford to let it slip away. He went back to the forum and started searching for any other mentions of hidden communities, off-the-map towns, anything that might give him a direction. It was like sifting through sand, looking for a single grain of gold, but Ethan was determined. He would search all night if he had to.

As he continued his search, his phone buzzed on the desk, breaking the silence. He glanced at the screen and saw a text from one of his friends, asking if he was okay. They had been worried about him, but Ethan couldn’t bring himself to respond. They wouldn’t understand, and he didn’t have the energy to explain. This was his burden to carry, his mission to complete.

The hours ticked by, and the night outside deepened. Ethan’s eyes were heavy, but he refused to stop. He knew he was getting closer, even if it was just a feeling, a gut instinct that urged him to keep going. He opened yet another blog, another page that seemed to be forgotten by time, and started reading. The words blurred together, but he forced himself to focus, to keep looking for anything that might give him a clue.

Finally, just as he was about to give up and close his laptop, he found it. A blog post from years ago, buried deep within an old website. The post was written by someone who claimed to have stumbled across a remote village during a hiking trip, a place that wasn’t on any map. The details were vague, but there was a description of a woman the author had seen there—someone who didn’t seem to belong, someone who looked out of place, lost.

Ethan’s heart pounded as he read the words. Could this woman be his mother? It was a long shot, but he had to find out. He scrolled to the bottom of the page, looking for a way to contact the author, but the blog had been inactive for years, just like the forum account. Another dead end.

But Ethan refused to let it deter him. If there was even a small chance that this lead was real, he had to follow it. He jotted down the details, the name of the village, the general location, anything he could find. He would do more research tomorrow, dig deeper, but he already knew what he had to do. He needed to find this place, no matter how hard it was, no matter what it took.

As he closed his laptop, the room felt colder, the shadows deeper. But there was a spark inside him now, a flicker of hope that he hadn’t felt in a long time. He glanced at the photograph one more time before setting it down on the desk, his resolve hardening. Whatever secrets were hidden there, he was going to uncover them.

The house was still silent as he lay down to sleep, but Ethan’s mind was buzzing with possibilities, plans, and questions. He knew this was just the beginning of a long journey, and he had no idea where it would lead him. But he didn’t care. He was ready to face whatever lay ahead, even if it meant confronting the darkest parts of his family’s past.

And as he drifted off to sleep, the last thought in his mind was of his mother, and the hope that somewhere, somehow, he was getting closer to finding her.