The threats started as unsettling whispers, anonymous letters slipped beneath the orphanage's gate, scrawled in red ink with chilling messages like "Leave while you can" and "You'll pay for what you've done."
At first, Athena dismissed them as empty intimidation tactics. But things quickly escalated.
Packages began arriving, addressed to the orphanage but with no sender. One contained a decaying rat wrapped in a bloody cloth.
Another held a cracked doll with its head missing and a jagged knife plunged into its torso.
Marrie and the staff tried to keep these horrors away from the children, but the fear seeped through the walls like poison.
Soon, shadowy figures were spotted lingering near the gates, eyes scanning the playground as if counting the children.
One evening, a man was seen pacing by the bus stop where the children were dropped off after school.
