It was worse.

A single dusty photo had been slipped inside, and what it showed surpassed anything I could have imagined.

It was an old photo of the farm, unrecognizable to me, showing a barn overgrown with vines… but something was off. The barn in the photo… was still standing. The one we had visited last fall? It had burned down two years ago.

I swallowed hard. Dad noticed my confusion and lowered his face slightly.
“You don’t remember this place, do you?”
“No…” I whispered, my voice hoarse. “I’m trying to understand.”
“Your little brother shouldn’t have seen this,” he added, almost ashamed.
“Seen what?” I pressed.

He didn’t answer. He flipped the photo. And there it was. In a corner, near the barn, a shadow stood. It wasn’t a person, nor anything familiar. A strange, almost supernatural figure, tall and dark.

A shiver ran down my spine. I turned to my brother, at the top of the stairs, his small body barely visible.
“Don’t open it,” he said, almost pleading. His voice was hoarse, his eyes wide, filled with an indescribable fear.

“What did you see, Tim?” I asked softly.
He stared at the photo, then shook his head slowly.
“I can’t say.”
“Why?”
His eyes seemed lost, absorbed by something that kept him from speaking. He shivered and whispered:
“Daisy knows the truth.”

It made no sense. What truth? Tim isn’t the type to say things like that, especially not with such seriousness. Usually, he jokes or laughs at everything. But now… nothing was funny.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Not the photo itself, but Tim’s behavior. Something had happened at the farm. Something we didn’t know. Something that had scared him so much he couldn’t sleep inside anymore.

That night, I went to bed, but sleep wouldn’t come. I kept thinking about the photo, the shadow, and my mind kept returning to the barn fire. Why had we gone back to the farm that fall? Why had Dad taken us there after all these years?

The next morning, I found myself at the edge of the property. The barn was now just ashes and rubble. But the air itself seemed charged with something. I moved forward slowly, my heart pounding. The wind picked up, and I heard a whisper, barely audible. I turned around: no one behind me… except Daisy. The cow, standing still where the barn had been. I froze.

I stayed a long time observing her. Her gaze was heavy, as if she carried an invisible secret. Then I understood… I had to know what Tim knew. I had to know what Daisy knew. The toolbox. The photo. The shadow in the corner. Everything was connected.

That evening, I couldn’t resist anymore. I knocked on Tim’s room. The door was open, and I heard him murmuring from the barn. I entered quietly and saw him curled up next to Daisy.

“Tim, what happened?”
He didn’t answer, staring into nothing. Then he murmured: “I won’t tell them anything.”
I took his hand. “Tell me. Please. I need to understand.”

Tim closed his eyes, and for the first time, I saw a crack in his resolve.
“I didn’t want to… I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
“What do you mean?”
“I shouldn’t have let it out… but when I saw it… I couldn’t stop.”
“See what?”
“The shadow. The one in the photo. It was real.”

My blood ran cold. “What was in the toolbox?”
“Something… in the barn. The fire wasn’t an accident.”

The next day, I opened the box. Inside, strange remains: pieces of old fabric, a faded photo, and a symbol carved into the wood. I didn’t understand its meaning. But one thing was certain: Tim couldn’t sleep inside for a reason, and Daisy was watching over him for a reason.

Since that day, Tim has changed. He still whispers, but no longer out of fear. It’s out of understanding. We never spoke about the box again. Some truths are too heavy to be told. Sometimes, you just have to trust the silence.