The kitchen was warm but tense, the fire in the hearth crackling low as the family sat quietly around the table. Aaron moved his stew around with his spoon, pretending to focus on his meal. Across the table sat Jacob, Ruth, and the daughter, smiling faintly, eating silently. He glanced around once more, his brow furrowing. The boy-the little boy he had seen before-was nowhere to be found.
Aaron cleared his throat, settling his spoon down. "Where's the boy?" he asked, spoon halfway to his mouth. Ruth simply blinked at him, expression blank.
"What boy?" Ruth said.
Aaron's heart gave a small, sharp thud. "The little one," he said slowly. "I saw him yesterday. At the kitchen table and around the house. And in the photo on the wall." Jacob leaned back slightly in his chair, his face unreadable for a long moment. Finally, he set down his spoon with a soft clink.
"I shouldn't have asked you to join me outside earlier to cut wood with the boys," Jacob said, his voice low and almost apologetic. "I'm sorry." Aaron stared at him, the words twisting strangely in his mind. "What does that have to do with anything?" he asked, his voice rougher than he intended. " First the barn, and now the boy... what's happening here?" Jacob's gaze hardened just slightly.
Aaron pushed his chair back with a screech of wood against the floor. "I think... I need some air," he muttered. He left the table without waiting for permission, stepping into the dim hallway where the shadows clung to the edges of the wall. The old boards creaked under his boots as he moved towards the dining room. The framed photograph still hung near the doorway, the one he had noticed before.
The boy was gone.
Only three figures stared back from behind the glass- Jacob, Ruth, and the daughter. The small, grinning boy he remembered so clearly had vanished without a trace. Aaron backed away slowly, feeling the house around him seem to close in, the walls creaking, the floor shifting, the very air pressing down. And somewhere, faint but growing closer, came the soft, hollow sound of knocking.