The lock clicks.
That sound—
small, sharp—
it feels louder than everything that happened today.
Keifer freezes.
So do I.
For a second, neither of us moves.
Like if we breathe wrong, whatever is inside might explode.
The trunk smells… old.
Metal.
Dust.
Something trapped for too long.
My fingers hover above the lid.
I don't want to open it.
I want to slam it shut and pretend this never existed.
But my chest is already tight.
My hands are already cold.
So I lift the lid.
Slow.
Inside, nothing jumps out.
No blood.
No weapons.
That somehow makes it worse.
There are files.
Folders stacked too neatly, like someone was scared of disorder.
Loose papers, edges yellowed.
A folded map.
And on top of everything—
an envelope.
Plain.
No name.
Just… there.
Keifer's breath changes.
Not loud.
Not sharp.
Just… heavier.
I don't look at him yet.
I can feel him beside me, though—his whole body gone stiff, like he's bracing for impact.
"This isn't… normal," he says quietly.
I nod, but my throat doesn't work.
My eyes keep going back to the envelope.
It feels like it's watching me.
Like it knows me.
Keifer crouches closer, careful, like the trunk might bite.
His hand reaches out, then stops mid-air.
He pulls it back.
"I don't like this," he mutters.
Not angry.
Not joking.
Scared.
That scares me more than anything else today.
"This wasn't meant for us," I whisper.
Keifer exhales through his nose.
Slow.
Controlled.
"No," he says.
"It was meant for someone he trusted."
That word hits me.
Trusted.
My fingers curl into my palm.
I think of Keigan's shaking hands.
His screams.
His voice breaking.
I swallow.
"Keifer…" My voice comes out smaller than I want.
"If we read this—"
He looks at me then.
Really looks.
His jaw is tight.
Eyes dark.
There's something there I've never seen before.
Fear mixed with guilt.
"We can't unread it," he finishes.
Silence drops between us.
The room feels smaller.
The air feels heavier.
Somewhere downstairs, a door creaks.
I flinch.
Keifer's hand moves instantly—
not touching me, just close enough that I know he's there.
Protective.
Automatic.
I pick up the envelope.
It's thin.
Too thin for the weight it carries.
My hands start shaking.
Keifer notices.
He doesn't say calm down.
He doesn't say it'll be okay.
He just says, quietly:
"Whatever this is… you're not alone reading it."
I nod.
Once.
I hold the envelope between us.
The paper feels warm.
Like it's been waiting.
I take a breath.
And then—
I open it.
To the person who finds this:
I don't know if I'm doing the right thing by writing this. My hands are shaking even now. If you are reading this, it means something has already gone wrong.I need you to know what my life was like inside my father's house and also to reveal some truths that I found there.
My father is not just violent. He is not just a criminal. He is a monster.
I saw him rape women in front of me. Sometimes they were crying.
Sometimes they were begging. Sometimes they were too scared to even scream. I was forced to stand there and watch. If I closed my eyes, he hit me. If I looked away, he dragged me back and made me watch again.
He told me this is what power looks like. He told me that one day I would do the same.
When I refused, he called me useless. He beat me until I couldn't stand properly.
He said a man who can't do this is not a man at all. I never touched anyone. I never could.
That made him hate me more.
I also saw him kill people. Not once. Not twice. Many times.
Sometimes with his own hands.
Sometimes by ordering others to do it.
He made me stand there and watch blood spill on the floor.
He made me hear the sounds people make when they know they are going to die.
Once, he put a weapon in my hand and told me to finish someone.
I couldn't do it.
He beat me so badly that day that I couldn't walk for two days.
He said fear is a disease and I was infected. He is deeply involved in a large drug supply chain. Not street level.
Something much bigger.
People disappear because of him.
One day, I found a card hidden in my mother's room.
It had numbers written on it.
Later, I found a locker hidden behind her cupboard.
Inside that locker were documents, videos, and recordings.
There were videos of him killing people. There were videos of him abusing women. There were videos of him hurting my mother.
I realized my mother had been secretly collecting evidence against him. Inside the locker, I also found a map. It showed a secret room inside our house.
That room contains the real evidence.
The lock to that room can only be opened in two ways:
by entering a specific code
or by an eye scan of the people who created that system
That monster came to know about that, that lock cannot be broken, of tried, it will blast . He searched for those people.
Most of them disappeared.
One of them was already dead.
That's when I understood how dangerous this really was.
I was scared.
If my father ever found out I knew about this, he wouldn't just kill me. He would erase everything first. So I burned the card with the code. I don't know , it was right or wrong. But I did what I found best at that time and now I am regretting.
I locked everything back inside the locker and pretended I never saw it.
After that, something inside me broke. It felt like there were two versions of me living in one body.
One was still me—the scared kid who didn't want to hurt anyone.
The other one was angry, numb, and violent.
That version started taking control.
Once, Kuya Keifer took me to a psychiatrist.
I wanted help.
But after that, the bad version became stronger.
It stopped me from talking.
It stopped me from telling the truth.
It keeps telling me that silence is survival.
I know my bad version will never let anyone touch this, he didn't ever let me tell about this to anyone, he even didn't ever let me write this but somehow I did.
If you are reading this, it means I trusted you enough to give you the key.
Not because I am brave.
But because I am tired of being afraid.
If something happens to me, please don't ignore this letter.
Please don't let this truth die with me.
— Keigan.
Author's Note:
I tried my best to reveal the truth.
This chapter is long, but some truths cannot be rushed. Please read patiently — it will be worth it. 😊