She left at 8:00 a.m. sharp, and I waited exactly three minutes before I grabbed my jacket and followed.
I stayed half a block behind her, ducking behind parked cars like some character in a bad spy movie. She walked her normal route toward school, and for a moment I thought maybe Ms. Rodriguez had made a mistake.
Then, three blocks from Riverside Elementary, Lily took a right turn.
My stomach dropped.
She was heading toward the industrial part of town, where the old factories sat empty and rotting. Lily walked with purpose, like she’d done this before. Like she knew exactly where she was going.
She stopped in front of a chain-link fence covered in rust and “No Trespassing” signs. Beyond it stood the old Fairview Textile Factory, a massive brick building that had been abandoned since before Lily was born. Broken windows gaped like empty eye sockets. Graffiti covered the lower walls. Dead vines crawled up the sides like skeletal fingers.
Everyone said it was haunted.
I watched, frozen, as my daughter squeezed through a gap in the fence and disappeared into the building.
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