{"id":138,"date":"2026-08-27T18:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/?p=138"},"modified":"2026-09-03T16:29:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:29:05","slug":"chapter-8-no-more-hiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/2026\/08\/27\/chapter-8-no-more-hiding\/","title":{"rendered":"CHAPTER 8 \u2014 NO MORE HIDING"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n \n
\n \u2190 Previous Chapter<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n \n
\n Next chapter \u2192<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
\n

Before I left for the funeral home, Mara caught my hand. Her fingers were weak and cold.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cYou have to help Rachel.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cBut this time\u2026\u201d She looked at me with exhausted, frightened eyes. \u201c\u2026don\u2019t bring another lie home.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I couldn\u2019t promise.<\/p>\n \n

* * *<\/p>\n \n

At two in the afternoon, the same gray sedan sat across from the funeral home. My phone rang.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cYou here?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cGot the ledger?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I didn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t even know where it was. But lying had become reflex. The only difference was that now I didn\u2019t know how much longer I could keep doing it.<\/p>\n \n

* * *<\/p>\n \n

Behind the funeral home, Rachel stood between the two men. Her wrists were tied. One side of her face was swollen. The moment she saw me, she yelled: \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Hoodie jerked her arm. \u201cQuiet.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I stopped several yards away. \u201cLet her go.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cWhere\u2019s the ledger?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cLet her go.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cGive us what we came for.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Rachel looked at my hands. Then at my face. \u201cYou don\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I said nothing.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have the ledger.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Hoodie turned toward her. \u201cThen where is it?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

He slapped her.<\/p>\n \n

I stepped forward. The big man blocked me. \u201cStay there.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cDon\u2019t touch her.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cBring the book.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I pointed toward the funeral home. \u201cOn my father\u2019s body.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Nobody spoke. Rachel stared at me. Hoodie\u2019s eyes narrowed. \u201cYou hid it on the corpse?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cNot me.\u201d I looked at Rachel. \u201cShe did.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Rachel opened her mouth. Then saw my face. She stopped.<\/p>\n \n

Hoodie squeezed her arm. \u201cThat true?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Rachel held my eyes for a long moment. Then: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

She was playing along. One last lie.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cGo get it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI go alone.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cYou think a funeral home is going to let three strangers search a body?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

The men exchanged a look. Hoodie shoved Rachel against the wall. \u201cGo.\u201d Then: \u201cDon\u2019t make us wait.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I turned toward the building.<\/p>\n \n

* * *<\/p>\n \n

The funeral home was freezing compared with the hot afternoon outside. A staff member led me into the holding area. Dad\u2019s drawer was opened. For the third time in less than a week, I saw him somewhere cold. My refrigerator. The abandoned ice cream shop. Now a funeral home. Maybe this was the only place he should have been from the beginning.<\/p>\n \n

The employee left me alone. The door closed. Just Dad and me.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI told them you had the ledger.\u201d A dry laugh escaped me. \u201cYou think that\u2019s funny?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Dad said nothing. Of course.<\/p>\n \n

I stared at his face. No anger. No judgment. Nothing. That silence hurt more than most of the things he had said when he was alive.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cYou never went looking for us.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I remembered Rachel and me hiding as kids. One time I\u2019d gotten scared and started to crawl out. Rachel covered my mouth. I almost cried. So she crawled out first. Dad laughed because she had lost. I never told him\u2014Rachel had done it so I could win.<\/p>\n \n

Now she was outside. In danger. And I was hiding again.<\/p>\n \n

Behind Dad\u2019s body. Behind a ledger I didn\u2019t have. Behind the lie that Dad had gone home. Behind the lie about when I found him there. Behind $2,450.<\/p>\n \n

I bowed my head. \u201cI never saved you.\u201d My throat tightened. \u201cI used you to save myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

* * *<\/p>\n \n

Knock. I looked up. Knock. Knock. Three sounds from the hall. Then a metal cart rolled past the door. Probably that. Just that.<\/p>\n \n

I looked back at Dad. The one hiding loses before the one looking ever finds them.<\/em><\/p>\n \n

And suddenly I understood something. I had spent all this time believing that if I hid well enough, nobody would find me. The pension plan. Police. Rachel. Neighbors. But maybe Dad had been right. The person hiding didn\u2019t have to be found to lose. Living your whole life inside the hiding place was enough.<\/p>\n \n

I took out my phone. I could still walk back outside. Tell the men I couldn\u2019t find the ledger. Invent somewhere else. Buy another hour. Another day. That\u2019s what I\u2019d done since Dad died. Every lie bought me time. And cost me a person. First Mara. Then Noah. Then Rachel.<\/p>\n \n

I looked at my father. \u201cEnough.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I dialed 911. The dispatcher answered. \u201c911, what\u2019s your emergency?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cMy sister is being held by two men behind a funeral home.\u201d The words came out shaky but clear. \u201cThey\u2019re threatening her.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cAre there weapons?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cAre you somewhere safe?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI\u2019m inside.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cStay inside. Officers are being sent.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I closed my eyes. \u201cThere is something else.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cSir?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cMy father is dead.\u201d A pause. \u201cHis body is here.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI hid his death.\u201d My chest tightened so hard it hurt. \u201cI kept taking his pension after he died. And I lied about when I brought him here.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

The dispatcher pulled me back to the immediate danger and told me to remain inside until officers made contact. For the first time since Dad died, I wasn\u2019t asking someone to help preserve my secret. I was destroying it myself.<\/p>\n \n

* * *<\/p>\n \n

I don\u2019t know how long I stayed in that cold room. My phone vibrated. I didn\u2019t answer. Eventually I heard shouting outside. Running footsteps. Sirens. I stepped into the hallway. An employee hurried past. \u201cThere are police outside.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

By the time I reached the back lot, the big man was facedown on the ground. Two officers had Hoodie against the gray sedan. Rachel stood near the wall with her hands free. She saw me and rushed over.<\/p>\n \n

For one stupid second, I thought she was going to hug me. She slapped me. Hard.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI told you not to come.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I held my cheek. \u201cI didn\u2019t have another choice.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Her hand came up again. Then stopped. \u201cDon\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I stared at her. Her eyes were red with anger and pain. \u201cDon\u2019t say that anymore.\u201d Her voice broke. \u201cWe\u2019ve both said it enough.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I couldn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n \n

An officer approached. \u201cAre you the caller?\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

\u201cWe\u2019ll need a statement.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

I looked back toward the funeral home. Dad was still inside. For the first time, I didn\u2019t think about money. Didn\u2019t think about where to move him. Didn\u2019t think about the next lie.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI have something else to report.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

The officer waited.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI concealed my father\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Rachel closed my eyes\u2014no, closed her eyes.<\/p>\n \n

\u201cI kept receiving pension payments after he died. And I gave false information about when I found him.\u201d I took a trembling breath. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \n

Hot wind moved across the parking lot. No knocking. No refrigerator. No voice coming from somewhere cold.<\/p>\n \n

I\u2019d been hiding since the morning Dad died. Finally\u2014I stepped out.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n

\n \n
\n \u2190 Previous Chapter<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n \n
\n Next chapter \u2192<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2190 Previous Chapter Next chapter \u2192 Before I left for the funeral home, Mara caught my hand. Her fingers were weak and cold. \u201cYou have to help Rachel.\u201d \u201cI know.\u201d \u201cBut this time\u2026\u201d She looked at me with exhausted, frightened eyes. \u201c\u2026don\u2019t bring another lie home.\u201d I couldn\u2019t promise. * * * At two in Read More “CHAPTER 8 \u2014 NO MORE HIDING”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-https-horrorstories-online-index-php-2026-08-27-grandpa-in-the-fridge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horrorstories.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}