Is That Mom

Part 9 of Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

The Road to the City

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Part 9:

A Desperate Plan

Ethan sat in the cramped room, the pile of letters and photos now strewn haphazardly across the table. His hands rested on the key, fingers running over its ornate grooves as if by touch alone he could unlock its secrets. The fatigue that had weighed him down earlier was gone, replaced by a growing sense of urgency, almost desperation.

He couldn’t let this go—not now. The key, the letters, the photos—they all connected. He knew it. He just hadn’t put the pieces together yet. His mind raced as he revisited each fragment of his mother’s life he had uncovered, trying to trace a line through the chaos. The figures in the photos, the names in the letters—they had to mean something. And that man, the one who had warned him to stop—what did he know? What was he afraid of?

Ethan stood up abruptly, pacing the room. His thoughts were a whirlwind, and the stillness of the room only amplified the storm inside him. He couldn’t just sit here, waiting for answers to come to him. He had to act. He had to follow the leads, no matter how faint they were. The key was his only tangible clue, and it had to fit somewhere. He was certain of it. He just needed to find the lock.

But where? He thought back to the antique shops, the locksmiths—places that had all given him the same dead ends. The frustration clawed at him. He was missing something, something right in front of him, but he couldn’t see it yet.

The letters. The photographs.

Ethan hurried to the table, sifting through the papers, his movements growing more frantic. There had to be a clue in here, some hint of where to go next. As he rifled through the documents, his eye caught on a name—a location, referenced multiple times. It was a place he hadn’t recognized before, buried within the cryptic language of the letters. But now it stood out, glaring in its significance.

“Red Hill.”

He whispered the words aloud, the syllables unfamiliar but charged with meaning. The letters had mentioned it, again and again. His mother had been there, or at least talked about it often enough for it to matter. Ethan grabbed his phone, typing the name into a search engine. The results were vague, but there was a location in a remote area, not far from where some of the older photos had been taken.

It was a long shot. But it was something.

His pulse quickened as a plan began to form. He’d go there, to Red Hill, and figure out what was so important about the place. Maybe the key would fit something there, or maybe the people who had been with his mother knew more. Either way, he couldn’t sit around waiting for answers any longer. He had to move, to act, before the fear that had been building in his chest could paralyze him.

But even as the adrenaline surged through him, a voice in the back of his mind warned him to stop. To reconsider. The man in the alley had told him to leave it alone, to walk away before he got in too deep. And Ethan was starting to understand why. There was something dark and dangerous beneath the surface of all this, something that had swallowed his mother whole. And if he wasn’t careful, it would swallow him too.

Still, Ethan couldn’t walk away. Not now. Not when he was this close.

He threw a few essentials into a bag—clothes, the letters, his phone, and of course, the key. The rest of his things were meaningless now. He had one goal: Red Hill. That’s where the answers would be.

As he zipped the bag closed, Ethan caught his reflection in the cracked mirror on the wall. His face was drawn, eyes tired but burning with determination. Or was it obsession? He couldn’t tell anymore. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except finding the truth, no matter the cost.

And it was a cost, he realized—one he was already paying. The isolation, the distance he had created between himself and the rest of the world, was growing more pronounced. He hadn’t spoken to anyone who wasn’t part of this mystery in days. Not Sarah. Not even a random stranger. He had shut everyone out. And a part of him wondered if he would ever be able to let them back in.

But that, too, didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was finding out what had happened to his mother. Why she had kept so many secrets. And what this key unlocked.

Ethan slung the bag over his shoulder, his heart pounding with the anticipation of what was to come. He was ready to take the next step, even if that step led him deeper into danger. Even if it led him to a truth he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Because he was no longer searching for closure. He was hunting for answers. And he would find them, no matter where they took him.

With one last glance around the room, Ethan stepped out into the night, leaving behind the person he had been just a few days ago. That version of him—hopeful, trusting, believing in simple truths—was gone.

Now, there was only the mystery. And Ethan was prepared to follow it, no matter the cost.