Is That Mom

Part 6 of Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Ethan's Growing Determination

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Part 6:

A New Lead

Back at home, the atmosphere felt strangely charged, like the calm before a storm. Ethan had parted ways with Sara at the diner, and now he was back in his room, the dim light of the evening slipping through his curtains. The air was still, but his mind was buzzing. The conversation with Sara had given him a renewed sense of purpose. She was right—there was no point in sitting around and letting the mystery gnaw at him. If he wanted answers, he had to dig deeper, follow every clue, no matter how obscure.

Ethan sat at his desk, the glow of his laptop screen casting a pale light on his face. He had been here before, on countless late nights, scouring the internet for any fragment of information that could lead him to the truth. But tonight felt different. For the first time, he had someone else invested in this, someone willing to help him shoulder the burden of his questions. That small shift made all the difference.

He pulled up the forums he had bookmarked, the ones filled with rumors and urban legends, whispers of hidden places and forgotten communities. Most of it was nonsense, conspiracy theories and wild speculation. But buried within the noise, there were snippets of truth, hints of something real that kept him searching.

Ethan's eyes skimmed over the familiar words on the screen, half-expecting to find the same dead ends he had hit before. He was about to close the browser in frustration when a particular thread caught his eye. It was from an old blog he hadn’t seen before, dated back over a decade ago. The post was titled, "The Vanished Towns: Hidden Communities of the Past."

Curiosity piqued, Ethan clicked on the link. The blog was archaic in its design, with a dark background and bright, hard-to-read text. It looked like it hadn’t been updated in years. As he scrolled down, he noticed a section discussing various off-the-grid communities—places that had supposedly existed in secret, isolated from the rest of society. Most of the entries were vague, but one stood out. It mentioned a town located somewhere in the Midwest, a place that seemed to fit the description of the mysterious background in the photograph.

Ethan leaned closer to the screen, his heart thumping as he read the post. According to the blogger, there had been rumors of a small, tight-knit community that had cut itself off from the world decades ago. The blog didn’t provide a name or exact location, but it described a cluster of old wooden buildings surrounded by dense, overgrown woods, accessible only by a narrow dirt road that most people had forgotten even existed. The description sent a chill down Ethan’s spine. It was too close to what he had seen in the photograph to be a coincidence.

The more he read, the more convinced he became that this could be the lead he was looking for. The blogger mentioned a few vague sightings of people from this town, but there was never any solid proof that it existed. Most people had written it off as a myth, another ghost story told by those who wanted to believe there were still hidden corners of the world left to explore. But Ethan knew better. He couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling in his gut that there was more to this than just folklore.

As he reached the end of the post, his eyes caught on a line that made his breath hitch. “I once met a woman who claimed she had been there. She wouldn’t give me any details, but she described the place in a way that made me believe she was telling the truth. I asked her why she left, but she just smiled and said, ‘Some things are better left behind.’”

Ethan’s mind was racing. Could this woman have been his mother? Was it possible that she had been to this mysterious town, that she had some connection to it? And if so, why had she never spoken about it? Why had his grandmother been so insistent on keeping it a secret?

The questions tumbled over each other, each one more urgent than the last. Ethan wanted to believe that this was the breakthrough he had been searching for, but a part of him was still hesitant. What if it was just another dead end, another piece of the puzzle that led nowhere? He wasn’t sure how many more disappointments he could handle.

He sat back in his chair, staring at the screen, the words blurring together as he tried to make sense of it all. He could still hear Sara’s voice in his head, urging him to keep going, to push past the fear and uncertainty. Maybe she was right. Maybe this was the lead he needed to follow, even if it was a long shot.

Ethan took a deep breath and opened a new browser tab. He began searching for any more mentions of the town, trying different keywords and phrases. Hours passed, the room growing darker as the sun dipped below the horizon, but Ethan barely noticed. He was lost in his search, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he hunted for more clues.

Finally, he stumbled upon a post on another forum, this one much newer. It was a brief, cryptic message from a user named GhostInTheWoods. The post read: “Anyone else heard about the town that doesn’t exist? Saw someone mention it in an old blog, but no one talks about it anymore. Wonder why. Maybe it’s because they don’t want us to find it…”

Ethan’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly scrolled through the replies, but most of them were jokes or dismissive comments. Only one response seemed to take the question seriously, and it was from a user named LostAndFound, who wrote: “It’s real. I’ve seen it. But you won’t find it on a map, and you won’t get there unless you know where to look. Some things are hidden for a reason.”

Ethan’s hands were shaking as he copied the usernames into a notepad, planning to send them messages. He knew it was a long shot, but if there was even a small chance that these people could give him more information, he had to try. He crafted a quick, polite message to both users, explaining that he was trying to learn more about the town and asking if they could share anything they knew. It was late, and he doubted he would get a response right away, but at least he had done something. At least he was moving forward.

As he closed his laptop, Ethan glanced over at the photograph on his desk. The image of his mother, smiling with that strange, serene expression, seemed to stare back at him, almost as if she was urging him to keep going. Ethan picked up the photo, running his thumb over the worn edges. For the first time in days, he felt a flicker of hope. Maybe he wasn’t chasing a ghost. Maybe there was still a chance he could find the answers he was looking for.

But as he turned the photo over in his hands, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was standing on the edge of something dangerous, something that could change everything he thought he knew. He remembered his grandmother’s words, the way she had tried to brush off his questions, and he wondered if she had been trying to protect him from a truth that was too painful to face.

Ethan placed the photo back on the desk, his mind made up. He was going to follow this lead, no matter where it took him. He would find this hidden town, and he would uncover whatever secrets it was hiding. Even if it meant confronting the past that everyone else seemed so determined to forget.

As he sat there, staring at the photograph, the room around him seemed to fade away, leaving only the flickering light of the laptop and the quiet, persistent hum of his thoughts. Somewhere out there, a piece of his mother’s story was waiting to be found, and Ethan was going to find it.