The Crack In The Wall (Chapter 1)

Chapter 1 To “ The Crack In The Wall”

⸻

Chapter 1
Once again, Lena was abruptly awoken from a sound sleep by her parents arguing and the crash of dishes in the living room. Still groggy, she couldn’t quite make out what they were fighting about or even what was being said. She sat there silently, counting the seconds until her dad would storm out, slamming the door behind him. Moments later, she knew she’d hear the familiar sound of his old work truck roaring to life—the kind of engine that made sure everyone in the neighborhood knew it was coming.
Sure enough, the door slammed so hard it rattled her bedroom window. Lena flinched but didn’t move. She pulled the thin blanket tighter around her shoulders, staring at the shadows on her ceiling as the sound of the truck faded into the distance. A heavy silence settled over the house, but she knew better than to believe it would last.
Then, as if to answer her thoughts, Lena heard her mother trudging around the house. She was muttering under her breath, picking up random objects only to slam them down again in different spots. Now that the two voices weren’t clashing anymore, Lena could finally make sense of it.It was the same argument as always. When was Dad going to stop making excuses and start looking for a better house?
She reached for the small notebook under her pillow, fingers tracing the worn edges. It wasn’t much, but writing had always been her escape. With the faint glow of her phone screen as a light, she flipped to a blank page and let her pen hover. The words didn’t come easily—not yet—but she stayed there, hoping they would.
She stared at the page for what felt like forever, the lines blurring as her mind replayed the fight in broken pieces. Her mother’s voice still carried through the walls, lower now but no less sharp, like the hiss of a snake coiled too tight. Lena pressed her pen harder against the paper until a small ink blot bloomed in the corner.
What’s the point? she thought. Anything she wrote tonight would just feel like noise.
The sound of glass shattering in the kitchen made her flinch so hard she nearly dropped the notebook. Her breath caught as her mother let out a choked sob, followed by the scraping of a chair across the floor.

Lena froze, unsure whether to stay hidden or get up. She hated the part of her that wanted to keep still, to pretend she hadn’t heard. But she also knew what happened the last time she walked in on nights like this.
Her fingers tightened around the notebook. Maybe tomorrow would be better. Maybe tomorrow there would be fewer raised voices and slammed doors, fewer reasons to sit awake in the dark with a pen she couldn’t bring herself to use.
For now, all she could do was pull the blanket over her head and wait for the house to grow quiet again.

For now, all she could do was pull the blanket over her head and wait for the house to grow quiet again.

But then her eyes caught it—the crack in the wall near the corner of her room. It had always been there, thin as a pencil line, harmless.

Except tonight… it seemed wider.

She blinked, telling herself it was her imagination. Just a trick of the light. But as she stared, she could swear she saw it move—splintering slowly, almost like something inside the wall was pressing to get out.

Lena’s breath hitched.

The silence wasn’t so quiet anymore.