He even took a shower before heading to his room, turning on the air conditioner there as well, setting the temperature low.
As I passed by his room, I felt a chilly draft blowing out through the crack in the door.
Inside, it was pitch black. Dad had pulled the curtains all the way shut, giving off a strange sense of him loving the darkness.
I saw everything, but I didn’t dare say anything. I silently returned to my own room.
Once Dad had fallen asleep and there was no sound, I grabbed a shovel and quietly headed to the backyard to dig up the empty grave!
The grave wasn’t very deep and in just about ten minutes, I had it open.
When I pulled the diary out of the backpack, I quickly stuffed it into my clothes, then hurriedly filled the hole back up before running back to my room.
I shut the doors and windows, hiding in my room with eager anticipation as I opened the diary.
It was indeed written in Dad’s handwriting.
The first twenty or so pages were his records of everything that happened in Pinehill.
In the diary, he wrote that he had entered Pinehill without much trouble and on the way, he had met another exploration team and joined them.
They had planned to visit the uncharted ruins of the ancient Elwood City, so they changed their route halfway through.
For a long time after that, Dad didn’t write in his diary again. There was a large blank section in between.
When he finally resumed writing, I saw that he had written something horrifying in blood.
“Evelyn! If you can see the diary left by your dad, run! Your mom is no longer your mom… Run, do you understand!”
The trembling blood-red words were deeply etched into my heart. I shuddered in fear and the diary fell to the ground.
Immediately, a photograph slipped out.
The background of the photo was a dusty, twilight-colored desert landscape. In the distance, the ruined remains of the ancient Elwood City stood.
Amongst the swirling sand and dust, a female corpse was buried. The face of the corpse had been gnawed away by beasts, making it unrecognizable. But the clothes on her body were familiar to me and the bracelet on her hand was unmistakable. It was the same bracelet I had bought for my mom when I went on a trip with my classmates four years ago, engraved with a laser-etched message that subtly expressed my love for her. But how could that bracelet be found in Pinehill?
Who was that female corpse?