In the following day, she went to her grandmother. She entered the house alone, without Markus or Marlene knowing. The grandmother was sitting in the garden, quietly knitting something. She approached her and said:
_"Grandma… I need your help."
The old woman lifted her eyes and said:
_ "I knew you would come."
Selene told her everything. About the messages, the video, the mysterious person, Markus's threats. The grandmother fell silent for a moment, then said:
_"There's only one safe place… your father's father's old cabin, deep in the woods. No one knows about it except me."
Selene said:
_"I need to take her there."
The grandmother nodded:
_" I'll help you."
At dawn the next day, Selene slipped out of the house, holding the sleeping Lilia's hand. She packed a small bag with some food, two blankets, and Lilia's favorite book. She said nothing. They simply walked into the darkness. They crossed the back alleys, and from there the grandmother picked them up in her old car without saying a word.
The car drove along rough roads, cutting through the forest as if it were moving through the earth's ribs. After an hour, they reached the stone cabin, small and covered in moss and quiet. The grandmother led the two girls inside and said:
"Stay here. Don't open the door to anyone. And if something happens… take this."
She handed her a small, rusty key tied with a red string. The grandmother said:
"This key… opens what's left of the secret."
Then she left. Selene sat beside Lilia, looking out from the cabin window at the tangled forest, whispering to herself:
"Let everything begin now."
The night was dense, pressing against the forest as if it were a faceless beast. The old cabin stood there, unmoving, yet groaning in its silence, as though remembering stories that had never been told. Selene sat by the window, wrapped in a wool blanket, staring into the thick darkness beyond the glass. Every rustle of wind, every creak of wood, every sting in her chest felt like a warning of something nameless drawing near.
Lilia had fallen asleep with difficulty. She slept only after crying for a long time, begging to go back home, saying she didn't like the forest and that the trees whispered to her in a strange voice. Selene tried to calm her, held her until she drifted off, but she kept thinking about those words… "The trees whisper?"
To be continued...