The Inheritance

Chapter Fouteen - On the Edge

Mike's days had become indistinguishable from his nights. The haunting now followed him everywhere—whether in the flickering of shadows during daylight or the oppressive weight of the darkness when he was alone in his apartment. It was suffocating, relentless, and it gnawed away at his sanity with every passing hour.

It was getting harder to hide the strain from those around him. The pub had become a place where he went through the motions, but his mind was elsewhere—always elsewhere. His staff had begun to avoid him, sensing the unease radiating from him like a fever. Jen kept her distance, offering worried glances but never pushing for another conversation after their last confrontation. His friends, too, had backed off, unsure of how to deal with the changes in him.

And yet, Mike refused to reach out. He couldn't bring them into this—not after what he had discovered, not with the haunting growing stronger by the day.

The journal, the house, the name—Abraham Dunn—was all he could think about. His grandfather had been right. The connection between them all was clear now, and Mike knew what he had to do.

But knowing didn't make it any easier. Destroying the house seemed like such a drastic step, and there was no guarantee it would work. What if it made things worse? What if destroying it only unleashed something more terrible, something he couldn't control?

The thought haunted him, just as the shadows did. Every time he closed his eyes, he heard the voices—Abraham's voice, the voice of the figures that watched him from the darkness.

On a rare morning when the sun shone bright, Mike's phone buzzed. It was his mother. He had ignored her calls for days, but this time something in him snapped. He couldn't keep running. He answered.

"Mike?" Her voice was weak, tired. "I was worried."

"Yeah," Mike said, his voice hollow. "I've been... dealing with something."

"You haven't been yourself," she said. "I can hear it in your voice."

He closed his eyes, leaning back against the wall. "Mom, what if... what if it's like what happened to Grandpa?"

There was silence on the other end. When she finally spoke, her voice was strained, filled with fear she could no longer hide. "It's the shadows, isn't it? They're back."

"Yeah," Mike whispered. "They're back."

Her breathing was shaky. "I thought... I thought it ended with me. I thought it was over."

"I found his journal," Mike said, his voice trembling. "Grandpa wrote about them, and his father before him. It's been happening for generations. And now... it's happening to me."

There was a long pause. When she finally spoke, her words were barely above a whisper. "It's our family, Mike. There's something wrong with us. I tried to protect you, but I couldn't."

Mike's heart sank. "What do I do, Mom? How do I stop it?"

"I don't know," she said. "I don't know if you can."