Eli Sheets stared at the old rundown house in disbelief. When his Uncle Sal left him the property, he didn't know what to expect, but peeling paint and a sagging porch weren't it. He wondered if it was a renovation nightmare or a new life. A new life both he, and his three-year-old daughter, Molly, desperately needed. As a single dad, Eli lived for his little girl's happiness, but it was always at the expense of his own.
Diana Forrester didn't see Eli Sheets coming. Her new neighbor was young, handsome, and a doting dad, but his lonely eyes reminded her of her own. No matter how much she enjoyed Eli's company, the mirror reminded her love had tried to kill her once, and she refused to give it another chance.
Haunted by his uncle's disappearance a decade ago, Eli wasn't sure he could find the courage to walk through the dilapidated doors of 617 South Beltrane Avenue and uncover the secrets waiting there. It was an unexplained voice of reason late at night that convinced him he had to. Uncle Sal would enlist the help of a three-year-old clairvoyant to lead her daddy to the answers, and to show him love was worth a second chance.
The screen on my phone flickers, a warning message appearing that shouldn't exist:
WELCOME TO COASTAL SIMULATION V.2.4
STATUS: RUNNING
USERS CONNECTED: 4
WARNING: REALITY PROTOCOLS COMPROMISED
.
.
.
DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?
I blink, and it's gone. But something else isn't right.
My parents' room is empty, their bed untouched. Jake's gaming console displays a town that looks exactly like this one, but he swears he's just watching TV. And that couple on the beach, Ethan and Lily? They appear in a photograph from 1924, looking exactly the same.
The house is watching. The town is changing. And the whispers in the walls keep saying only one thing:
"Time is running out."
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