The Mother’s Shadow

Lila, 16, always knew her mother, Ellen, was hiding something. The way Ellen’s eyes darted away when Lila asked about her childhood, the locked attic door in their creaky old house—it was like a wall between them. Lila’s phone was her escape, her group chats buzzing with memes and gossip. But tonight, as rain battered the windows, she craved answers. Ellen was at her night shift at the hospital, leaving Lila alone to snoop.

In the attic, Lila jimmied the lock with a hairpin, heart pounding. Dust choked the air, and a single bulb flickered above. Among boxes of faded photos and 90s CDs, she found a leather-bound diary, its clasp rusted. The first page read: Ellen’s Secrets, 1998. Lila’s breath hitched. Her mom was 18 then, the year before Lila was born.

The diary’s entries started innocently—Ellen’s high school crushes, dreams of leaving their small town, Willow Creek. But as Lila flipped further, the tone darkened. I can’t tell anyone about the bridge. She won’t let me. A chill ran through Lila. What bridge? She googled “Willow Creek bridge 1998” on her phone. A news article popped up: “Teen Girl, Anna, Missing After Bridge Incident.” Anna was Ellen’s best friend, vanished without a trace.

Lila’s phone vibrated, a notification from an unknown app: Read on. She froze. She hadn’t downloaded anything new. The app, labeled “Diary,” opened to a scanned page of her mother’s handwriting: Anna’s shadow follows me. I didn’t mean it. Lila’s hands shook as she read. Ellen described a fight on the town’s old bridge—Anna slipped, fell into the river, and Ellen ran. She’s still here, the entry ended.

The attic grew colder, the bulb flickering wildly. Lila’s phone buzzed again, the Diary app playing a grainy video. It showed a bridge at night, a girl—Anna?—screaming as she fell. The screen glitched, and a new message appeared: Ask her. Lila slammed the diary shut, but the pages flipped open on their own, revealing a photo taped inside: Ellen and Anna, arm in arm, smiling. Anna’s eyes were scratched out.

Footsteps creaked downstairs. “Lila?” Ellen’s voice called, home early. Lila hid the diary under her hoodie, heart racing, and slipped downstairs. “Just grabbing a snack,” she lied, avoiding her mother’s gaze. Ellen’s face was pale, her nurse’s scrubs damp from the rain. “You look spooked,” Ellen said, her voice tight.

That night, Lila couldn’t sleep. The Diary app opened unprompted, now showing a live feed of the attic. A shadowy figure moved, a woman in a 90s dress, her face blurred. Tell the truth, the app typed. Lila whispered, “Who are you?” The screen flashed: Anna. The attic door rattled above.

Desperate, Lila biked to the Willow Creek bridge at dawn, the diary clutched tight. The river roared below, swollen from the storm. Her phone vibrated: Look down. Lila peered over the edge, and for a moment, she saw a face in the water—Anna’s, pale and pleading. The Diary app played audio: Ellen’s voice, sobbing, “I didn’t save her.

I was scared.” It was a confession, recorded somehow.

Lila confronted Ellen that evening, diary in hand. “What happened to Anna?” she demanded. Ellen’s face crumpled. “It was an accident,” she whispered. “We fought—she was drunk, slipped off the bridge. I panicked, didn’t tell anyone. I thought she’d come back.” Tears streamed down Ellen’s face. “I see her shadow everywhere.”

The Diary app buzzed: Justice. Lila uploaded the audio to a local true crime podcast’s forum, linking the 1998 article. Within hours, it went viral. Police reopened Anna’s case, ruling it an accidental drowning, but Ellen faced charges for concealing evidence. As reporters swarmed their house, Lila’s phone went silent. The Diary app vanished.

But late at night, Lila heard whispers from the attic. She found the diary open again, a new entry in unfamiliar handwriting: Thank you, Lila. I’m free. The bulb flickered out, and a cold hand brushed her shoulder. Lila never opened the diary again, but she kept it, a reminder of her mother’s secret—and Anna’s shadow.

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Keywords: family secrets, ghost stories, haunted technology, supernatural mystery, horror fiction.

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