“My older brother gives me ‘sleeping tea’ every night… until one night I pretended to drink it and discovered the secret hidden inside our house.
‘Every night, my brother gives me tea and says it will help me sleep… but one night I pretended to drink it and discovered something so terrifying that my heart nearly stopped: it wasn’t valerian he was putting in my cup, but a secret carefully hidden behind every wall of our house.
Ever since Mom died, Daniel has changed. His smile became strange, his footsteps quieter, and our house—the huge old house where we grew up—started to feel like a prison pretending to be a refuge.
I wanted to believe his concern was simply a brother’s love, that the cups of tea were just his way of caring. But then came the dizziness, the nights when I couldn’t stay awake, and the mornings when I woke up feeling like pieces of my memory were missing. Every time I closed my eyes, it felt like time disappeared.
Then one night, I saw it: his trembling hand taking something out of his pocket and dropping it into the hot water while he watched me in a chilling silence.
‘It’s just valerian,’ he whispered, with that smile that no longer seemed like his.
But that look… that look did not belong to the brother I knew.
I pretended to sleep. I pretended to believe him. I pretended my body was giving in like on every other night, while my heart pounded so loudly I could almost hear its echo against the walls.
What I saw next—when the clock struck nine and Daniel’s footsteps approached my room—changed my life forever.
That night, I discovered the truth Mom had tried to tell me before she died—a secret that had been hidden for many years in the corridors and silence of our house.
And now I understand why Daniel never allowed me to enter the basement…’
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