A poor mom hears a strange crackling sound as she tries to slip a pair of cheap shoes onto her baby’s tiny feet. Assuming the seller had deceived her, she checks it and finds a note hidden under the insole. This note leads her to a series of unbelievable events just days later.
The foggy Saturday morning echoed with people’s voices in the heavy air as Mary made her way through the maze of tents crowded with customers at the Antiques Junk Sale flea market.
She was down to her last $10 and had gone on a special mission to find her beloved two-year-old daughter Sasha a pair of cheap shoes. As a single mother, Mary braved a lot of struggles to make ends meet. She had to take care of her disabled mother and little daughter on a small allowance and a meager part-time salary from her waitressing gig.
This flea market was Mary’s regular haunt, and as she marched across the tents, something out of the ordinary caught her eye.
Approaching one of the stalls, she noticed a pair of baby shoes that seemed almost new and made from what looked like expensive leather and high-quality materials. Mary paused, staring at the pair of tiny red shoes, and hesitated…
“Such beautiful shoes? They look so new and expensive… Are these really for sale for a steal?” Mary wondered if this was some kind of scam. But the seller observed Mary’s doubtful expressions and quickly hurried out to convince her to buy the shoes.
“A wealthy man visited this morning and sold a bag of baby clothes and these shoes wholesale, dear,” the seller told Mary.
“He told me he was busy and had no time to sell them…So I got them for a terrific deal. There are some branded clothes mixed in with his stuff…do you want to take a look?”
Mary’s interest was piqued as she lifted the tiny shoes off the display. She ran her fingers through the fine glossy red leather. The pair looked new and was in near-perfect condition. So without further thought, Mary bought the shoes and left for her house, pleased with her purchase.
“Hey, sweetie! Look what mama got for you…brand new shoes!” Mary chuckled as she slipped the shoes onto her baby girl’s tiny feet.
But something didn’t feel right, and Mary immediately stopped as her hands trembled while trying the other shoe on.
A strange crackling sound emanated from the insole, and Mary’s heart raced. She thought the seller had deceived her with a damaged shoe and firmly pressed the insole to see what it was. She heard the strange crackle again and felt something hard under the padding.
“What’s this bump?” thought Mary as she gingerly pulled the insole out. Her eyes widened with alarm when she found a crumbled note, folded several layers over, with small, cramped handwriting scribbled on its surface.
Mary’s eyes quickly scanned the writing on the note, and when she finished reading it, her gut churned with fear.
“Please, help me. I’ve been imprisoned in this house for almost three years. A psycho has chained me forcibly in his house. Here is the address….”
Mary couldn’t believe her eyes or process what this message meant. A cold sweat drizzled across her forehead, and it didn’t make any sense to her.
“Who could’ve written such a thing? Who is this person, and when was this message written? Are they alright?” Several thoughts haunted Mary. Her eyes darted around the room as she quickly put her daughter to sleep. Mary was terrified by the message and bolted with the note to her elderly mother, Doris.
“But mom…who would leave such a message in a shoe? I’m sure something is really wrong. We need to find out,” Mary panicked as she showed the note to her mother.
“Oh, come on, darling! It just seems like a bad joke,” Doris’s calm voice cut through Mary’s fear.
“You know kids these days. They pull nasty pranks on everyone, and I’m sure this note must be a similar stupid joke from those kids. Just forget about it…You’re overthinking. Just throw that thing in the trash and get the dinner ready.”
But Mary couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, and a sense of uneasiness had settled deep in her mind.
Mary was restless all day and convinced her mother to bring the note to the cops’ attention.
“You’re just wasting time, dear. I’m sure this is some prank,” Doris insisted during their drive to the station in their old Mustang. But Mary’s heart wouldn’t allow her to remain tight-lipped about the strange note.
A report was filed, and the cops assured Mary they would find some lead about the person who left the message. A few days later, she got a call from the station while walking with her mother and daughter in the park.
Mrs. Browne, this is officer Dan. We searched every inch of the address mentioned on the note but found nothing suspicious. We didn’t find anybody forcibly imprisoned there…I feel it was just a prank or some mistake, as your mother said,” the sheriff told Mary.
“But officer, it was written somebody was imprisoned in there….”
“Mrs. Browne, we checked the house, and we found nothing. I think whatever was written on that note was some ugly prank to defame the owner of the house. Have a good day, Mrs. Browne!”
But Mary’s heart wouldn’t allow her to forget about the note. A train of doubts occupied her mind as she pushed her mother’s wheelchair across the park.
“What if the cops didn’t check properly? What if they’d missed something that was hidden in plain sight?” Mary asked her mother.
“I don’t know why, but I’m getting this strange feeling that something is wrong. Should I go out there and find out on my own, mom?”
“Are you out of your mind? Even if we consider the possibility that it wasn’t a joke, we shouldn’t meddle in the affairs of the wealthy. And it’s just a goddamn baby shoe. Do you think it’s wise to brew trouble for yourself based on some random note you found in a silly old shoe?” Doris yelled at Mary. She was afraid her daughter would invite trouble for herself by trying to help someone trapped in the unknown.
“Look, sweetie…Let’s just forget about it, okay? It’s risky, and we already have plenty of our own problems to deal with. It would’ve been better for that person to contact the police than leaving a silly note in a shoe if they genuinely were in trouble.”
“But mom? We still don’t know what happened to that person. We need to find out….”
“I said no. We filed a report, and the cops found nothing. I want you to just get over it now,” Doris yelled at Mary. Suddenly, her eyes widened with alarm as Mary freaked out.
“Mary, run…go get her,” screamed Doris as Mary turned around and saw her little daughter Sasha running toward the busy road outside the park’s main entrance.
Mary’s heart raced as she bolted behind her daughter and froze in panic after hearing the roaring sound of wheels screeching on the road. Fortunately, a passer-by had jumped in on time and risked his own life to save the little girl before she was hit by a speeding car.
“Thank you so much…I really can’t imagine what could’ve happened…thanks for saving my daughter,” Mary cried, thanking the stranger.
As she and Doris expressed their gratitude to the man for risking his own life to save the girl, he said, “You know…it’s only when we care about the problems of those around us that we can truly call ourselves human! I just did what any sensible person would do. Have a good day!”
Those words struck Mary so deeply that despite her mother’s insistence that they should stay out of the affairs of the rich, she knew she had to help the person who had left the mysterious note in the shoe.
Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, Mary waited for her mother, Doris, to fall asleep before sneaking out of the house that evening.
She had already planned her next move—to visit the address mentioned on the note and investigate if anyone was being held captive against their will.
As Mary drove to the house in her car, her heart began racing. She found herself outside a huge mansion with many guard dogs inside.
She knew there was no way she could risk going in there, so she waited a little away from the main gate for the owner. Moments later, a tall man wearing blue denim and a mahogany overcoat exited the main entrance in his car.
“It must be him,” thought Mary. Her heart pounded with fear as she followed the man’s car down the deserted country road.
“Mary, what are you doing? Just go home…this is a huge risk…just turn around and leave…You already have a hell of problems, and you don’t want more,” Mary could hear her mind warning her. But her heart told her to keep going.
“I’m not letting him get away with whatever he’s doing. I have to find out where he’s kept that person captive,” Mary fought her mind back.
As she followed the man, she looked around and realized she was in the middle of a dense forest. It was getting dark, and she realized this was not a trip she wanted to make alone. And when she least expected it, the man suddenly stopped the car.
“Oh, Sh—! Did he find out that I’m following him??” Mary gasped and broke into a cold sweat.
She pulled over and immediately called the police station. But due to the weak signal, her call wouldn’t get through, and her battery died before she rang 911.
“I can’t lose sight of him…I’ll have to go after him,” she thought and started following the man again.
The drive in the dark woods seemed like an eternity. After what felt like hours of driving, the guy’s car finally came to a halt in front of a small cabin in the woods.
Mary quickly pulled over and crept behind a tree as she watched the guy get out of his car with some grocery bags and disappear inside the wooden cabin, slamming the door shut behind him.
She was afraid to follow him without being seen, so she hid behind the tree and waited. An hour passed, and Mary began to worry. She could not call the cops, and there was no time to think.
Eventually, Mary mustered the courage, ran toward the cabin, and pressed her ears on the wooden wall. But there was a pin-drop silence, and all she could hear was her heart throbbing in fear.
Mary knew she had to act fast and looked around the cabin for a way to get in. Every window seemed sealed, as though even a gust of wind was not allowed to seep inside. Just as she was about to look again, the door suddenly creaked open.
Mary bolted from the spot and hid behind a tree as she watched the man leave in his car. She sighed with relief, knowing she could now buy enough time to break into the cabin and help the captive escape.
Mary hurried to the shack as soon as the man’s car disappeared from her sight and checked for a way to get in, but in vain. The door was secured with double locks and would not easily break open.
“Jesus, how will I get in there?” Mary gasped and walked around, and suddenly, she bumped into something and fell to the ground with a heavy thud on what felt like a wooden door.
“What’s this?” she exclaimed.
Mary quickly cleared the mossy rubble and was startled when she saw a cellar door secured with a big, rusty lock. She lay down, pressing her ears on the door, and heard a sharp scraping sound, followed by a rattling noise of chains.
“That’s it! Someone’s in there!” Mary gasped.
“Hey…Can you hear me? Hey….” Mary shouted. But there was no answer.
She sprinted towards her Mustang, returned with a hefty crowbar, and began hacking at the lock with all her strength until it shattered. The door unlocked, and as Mary slowly pushed it open and stepped foot inside, her heart almost skipped a beat. What she saw in there paralyzed her with fear.
“Help! Help us!” a woman started crying as soon as she saw Mary climb down the creaking wooden stairs.
“Shhhh…It’s okay!” Mary whispered to the trembling woman.
“I found your note in the shoe, and I’ve come to help,” she said as she worked her shaky hands to free the woman and the little girl. They had been held captive, chained to the wooden walls in what looked like a basement secured with soundproof panels. The cramped room was filled only with a bed, a small TV, a table fan, and a handful of toys, the air thick with the stench of rotting wood and mold.
“Hurry up! We have to get out before he comes,” Mary quickly untied them.
However, Mary was in for a massive shock as they were about to leave through the cellar door through which she’d just entered. It was closed. Mary mustered all her strength to open the door, but it was jammed.
“Is there any other way?” Mary asked the woman, and just as they were looking around for a way out, they heard loud footsteps approaching down the basement.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the kidnapper, a tall, muscular man, blocked their way with a menacing stare as the woman and the girl hid behind Mary.
“You shouldn’t have come here, gorgeous. Now you’ll all pay the price for trying to escape.”
Mary knew she had to think fast if they wanted to make it out alive. Her eyes bolted across the basement, looking for anything that could help her. But the room was bare except for a few wooden boxes, the TV, and some old furniture.
“Did you think I didn’t know you were following me?” growled the man as he advanced toward Mary.
Just as he was about to grab her hair, he suddenly let go as his mouth opened wide. His eyes bulged as though they were about to fall off the sockets, and his hand went up to his head, oozing crimson blood.
The woman had struck a hard blow on his head with the crowbar. The man fell on the floor and squirmed in pain, giving the three a chance to run.
“Faster…don’t stop…keep running before he comes. My car is nearby,” Mary told the woman as they followed her to the car. But to her shock, the keys were missing.
The three bolted across the woods, but the man was hot on their heels.
“Where do you think you’re going? I know every inch of this forest,” he said, hurling a small log at the little girl’s leg and knocking her down. He grabbed the girl and threatened Mary and the woman, forcing them back to the cabin.
“You’re not going anywhere with what belongs to me,” he said, locking them back in the basement.
Mary burst into tears as they’d lost their only chance of escape. She hoped the cops would find them soon and knew time was running out. To make things worse, the kidnapper acted strange whenever he checked on them.
“Does that hurt, honey? Please forgive daddy, alright?” the man told the little girl as he dressed a minor injury on her leg.
He then started dancing to an old melody on the gramophone and forced the woman he’d kidnapped to dance with him. It didn’t add up to Mary, and she just kept staring at the guy, trying to figure out what was happening.
“Here, eat this and use the restroom soon because I’m going to tie you all up,” the kidnapper served them dinner and went away.
“Is he her father?” Mary whispered, unable to fathom what was happening around her.
“He’s not her father! And he’s not my husband either,” replied the woman, sending shivers down Mary’s spine.
“I have no idea who this creep is,” the woman trembled, her voice barely above a whisper. “We were returning home after visiting my late husband’s grave when our car broke down in the middle of the road. He offered us a ride…And when we woke up, we were tied up and trapped in this room. I didn’t even know we were in the woods until today…It’s been three freaking years.”
“He kept you locked up for three years?” Mary gasped. “But how did you know the address?”
“One day, he took me upstairs to cook him dinner. I found a courier cover in the trash with an address. I took it without his knowledge, thinking that was the address he’d imprisoned us. One day, he was packing all our old stuff, telling me he was donating them. He had already broken my phone…I had no means to ask for help from anyone or contact the outside world. So I scribbled a note asking for help mentioning the address I’d found, and hid it in my daughter’s old shoe…I still don’t know what he wants from us. He keeps telling me I’m his wife and my daughter is his child…and that he’s here to protect us.”
Sweat trickled down Mary’s spine, and she realized something else was missing in the bigger picture…something she could’ve never imagined.
“Are you done eating?” the man’s loud voice shuddered the three as he stormed into the basement. He chained them back to their spots before slamming the door shut behind him.
Mary lost all hope of help. She realized there was no way out and broke down into tears. Just then, she noticed something on the floor — Her phone with a dead battery. She was sure she had lost it in the forest when they tried to escape because the man had searched her pockets before locking her in the basement.
Mary looked around the room and noticed the TV tuner had the same charging cable as her phone.
“Great…I’ll call the cops. Stay right there and just cough if you hear him coming, okay?” Mary told the woman as she hurriedly plugged her phone for charging.
Several minutes later, Mary tried calling officer Dan, but the signal was too weak since they were in the heart of the thick woods.
“Come on…come on,” she panted and rang 911 when officer Dan’s line wouldn’t get through.
“Please help us! A man has kept us locked in a basement…in a cabin in the woods on the outskirts of the town. Please hurry!” Mary told the dispatcher.
“We’re dispatching a team immediately,” said the dispatcher before hanging up the call.
Mary sighed heavily and put her phone in silent mode before hiding it inside the girl’s stuffed teddy. And moments later, she heard faint sounds of police sirens outside the cabin.
“HELP! We’re in here…Help!” Mary screamed at the top of her lungs. The woman and the girl shouted along, but nobody heard them. Since the basement’s walls were sealed with soundproof panels, the cops could not hear them.
The officers combed through every nook and cranny of the cabin, their flashlights illuminating its dark corners. Eventually, the police dog began barking at the secret door on the floor, alerting the cops. Minutes later, the officers broke into the basement and helped Mary and the other two out of there.
“Mrs. Browne, that was really brave of you,” said officer Dan. “We’re glad we found you. And she…Her name is Rose, and that’s her daughter, Sarah. They were in a missing person’s report from three years ago. We thought we’d never find them.”
Later, it turned out the man had lost his family in a car crash and was on a path of self-destruction. Eventually, he was even treated in a psychiatric hospital. He confessed that he’d kidnapped Rose and her daughter after she rejected his advances as he couldn’t resist her uncanny resemblance to his late wife. He had imprisoned her and the child in the basement and, with time, had equipped it so that she wouldn’t escape.
The kidnapper was arrested as Mary sighed with relief when all had ended well. She parted ways with Rose and her daughter over several hugs of gratitude and tears, promising to stay in touch. When she returned home, her mom Doris was mad at her but could not hold back her tears. She was so happy to see her daughter safe and alive and begged her not to take such a risk again.
