[Finish the Tale contest] A mystical visitor

The letter arrived with no return address and only three words: “Don’t trust him.”

The letter arrived with no return address and only three words: "Don’t trust him." This message came to me in the mail when an unfamiliar man appeared on my doorstep, but he claimed to know my husband, who has been missing exactly one year.

Exactly one year ago, early in the morning, my husband went to the nearby store for milk and never returned.
The store owner remembers him, remembers how he bought milk and my favorite chocolate. She even saw how my husband turned onto the path leading to our house. But he never made it home that morning.

The camera in front of the house stopped working at the moment he turned onto the path to our house. And it didn't work for exactly one minute. Just like all the other cameras in our neighborhood. And this had never happened before.

For a year now, I have been waiting for my husband, searching for him. I filed a report with the police, and I go there more often than to work. They know me by face now; I know every officer there by name, whether they have a family, who they live with, and how many children they have.

I have called all the hospitals, not just in our city. Now I know for sure that there are 13,537 hospitals in our country, including the smallest and even underground ones. And don’t ask me how I found out about them.
But the owners of these hospitals call me every time a man who looks like my husband is brought in.

And now, a year later, a man appears on my doorstep who says he has known my husband for a long time and knows where he is. And, saying my husband needs help, he offers to take me to him.

And just as I am about to follow him, without even changing clothes or fixing my hair properly, I receive this short letter.

The letter arrived with no return address and only three words: “Don’t trust him.”

At the end, it is signed “The Hungry Tiger.” That’s how I sometimes called my husband. And only he and I knew about that.

Following that, I received another message, which made my heart beat even faster and nearly jump out of my chest. I looked at the man in front of me.

For a moment, I was scared, but my thoughts of my husband gave me strength and courage.

This publication is not a contest entry. It was written to support the community.

To be continued…