A Niece’s Desperate Call
My six-year-old niece called on a stormy night.
“I’m alone, starving. Please help, Uncle.”
I rushed to my parents’ house, where she was meant to be cared for. What I found there made my blood run cold.
That night, just after my wife and son went to bed, the phone rang in the dark.
I answered, and on the other end was Zoe, my six-year-old niece. Her voice shook as she whispered:
“Uncle, they’ve locked me up. I’m so scared.”
Then the line went dead.
Panicked, I called my parents—the ones entrusted with Zoe after my younger brother vanished. But the phone rang endlessly, with no reply.
My chest tightened. I grabbed my keys and sped through the storm. When I reached the house, everything was dark. The doors were locked tight.
I smashed a window to get in.
And what I saw inside froze the blood in my veins.
