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Chapter One: The red binder

One cold December morning, Clara Jones found an unexpected gift from her Secret Santa on her doorstep. She was surprised to see it arrive early, as it wasn’t supposed to be delivered until December 20, according to the neighborhood Secret Santa event she had joined the previous week.

The package was wrapped in recycled brown paper, tied with a red string, and accompanied by a simple card that read, “To Serena.” The name on the card immediately caught her attention. Startled, she rushed to carry the package to her kitchen table and quickly untied the string. Inside, she found a red binder, which turned out to be a photo album. As she flipped it open, her heart began to race. The pages were filled with photos of her—moments when she had felt utterly alone. The realization hit her like a wave: someone had been silently observing her. Each photo sent a chilling shiver down her spine.

Terrified, Clara decisively threw the album into the trash.

However, as she prepared to sleep that night, the memory of what she had seen resurfaced, and sleep eluded her. She lay in bed, overwhelmed with questions.

“How did someone take so many pictures without me noticing?

Why would they do this? This is so creepy.”

And perhaps most unsettling of all, how did this anonymous person know her real name when she had only introduced herself to her new neighbors as Clara Jones?