Anijohn Story House

EPISODE 5: THE LETTER HE LEFT BEHIND

My hands were shaking so badly I nearly dropped the letter.

Even the paper still carried him… that faint scent I used to find comforting.

Now it only tightened my chest.

I forced myself to read.

“If you are reading this, then I am already gone.”

My vision blurred instantly.

I wiped my eyes and continued.

“I wish I could say this in a way that hurts less, but there is no gentle version of the truth.”

“Everything I told you… is real.”

My chest sank.

Some part of me had been begging for it to be a mistake.

A misunderstanding.

A story born from fear.

But Daniel kept going.

“I had nothing once. Not just poverty… something deeper. Something desperate.”

“I met people who looked ordinary, but they knew things no one should know.”

My grip tightened on the paper.

“They offered me everything I ever wanted.”

“And I accepted.”

I paused.

The air in the room felt colder.

“The deal was simple.”

“Everything I desired would be mine… but my life would no longer be my own.”

“A date was fixed the moment I agreed.”

My breath caught.

“At first, I believed I could escape it.”

“I tried everything. Prayers. cleansing. spiritual help. distance. silence.”

“Nothing changed.”

I pressed the letter to my chest for a moment, trying to steady myself.

But it didn’t help.

Because somewhere deep inside, I already felt the direction of the story.

“The worst part is not wondering when.”

I froze.

Then continued.

“The worst part is knowing EXACTLY when.”

My whole body went numb.

“That’s why I started preparing.”

“That’s why I gave things away.”

“That’s why I began saying goodbye in ways you didn’t notice.”

Tears returned without permission.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

The gifts.
The quietness.
The strange calm in his eyes.

It wasn’t peace.

It was preparation.

“That’s also why I bought the coffin.”

My eyes shut tightly.

“Not out of fear…”

“But because I wanted control over the end.”

A broken sound escaped my throat.

Then the handwriting changed.

Heavier. Slower. As if each word hurt to write.

“There is something I never told you.”

My heart stopped.

“I was not the first.”

I stared at the page.

What?

“My father made the same agreement.”

My stomach dropped violently.

“And before him… there were others in my family.”

The room felt like it tilted.

Then came the final lines.

The part that shattered everything.

“If you’re reading this, the cycle is still active.”

My hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

I turned the page slowly.

Only one line remained.

“Because agreements like this… are never meant to end with one person.”

Silence swallowed everything.

I lowered the letter slightly, struggling to breathe.

Cycle?

Family?

What did that even mean?

Then something slipped from the envelope.

A second paper.

Smaller.

Folded tightly.

My fingers shook as I opened it.

And the moment I saw it…

My entire body went cold.

A date.

A future date.

Not his.

Not his father’s.

Mine.

My name was written beneath it.

And below it… just one line.

“He never told you because he loved you.”

My heart stopped.

Because suddenly, everything Daniel did made a different kind of sense.

He didn’t just leave me behind.

He left me inside something that was still alive.

And in the dead silence of that room…

My phone rang.

Unknown number.

Black circle icon.

It lit up again.

And kept ringing.

THE END

EPISODE 4: THE NIGHT HE DISAPPEARED

I didn’t sleep that night.

Every time I drifted off, Daniel’s words dragged me right back awake.

“I already tried for years…”
“Nothing changed…”
“The date can’t be altered…”

By morning, my body felt drained, but my mind was even worse.

Daniel lay beside me in complete silence.

No comfort. No words. No usual warmth.

Just stillness… like he was already somewhere far away.

His eyes stayed on the ceiling the entire night, as though he was waiting for something only he could see.

At exactly 4:12 a.m., I woke up again.

The space beside me was empty.

Cold.

I sat up immediately.

“Daniel?”

Nothing.

The house felt wrong—too quiet, too heavy, like even the air was holding its breath.

I got up barefoot and moved through the hallway.

“Daniel…?”

No answer.

Then I noticed a faint glow downstairs.

His office.

That room.

The one he never allowed anyone near.

My pulse spiked.

And then I remembered.

The key.

My hands shook as I pulled it from the drawer where I had kept it.

For a moment, I stopped.

Something inside me resisted.

But fear won.

Slowly, I went downstairs.

Each step felt heavier than the last.

When I reached the door, I paused again.

The silence behind it felt almost alive.

Then I slid the key in.

Click.

The door opened slowly with a low creak.

And the moment I stepped inside…

Everything inside me stopped.

It wasn’t strange or mystical.

It was… organized.

Painfully organized.

Neat stacks of files.
Documents aligned perfectly.
Receipts. Books.

Like someone who had prepared for every detail of their life.

In the center was a desk.

A laptop still open.

His watch placed neatly beside it.

My hands trembled as I walked closer.

Then I saw it.

A notebook.

Open.

Pages filled with dates.

Hundreds of them.

Most crossed out.

Except one.

The last date.

Circled heavily in red.

My breath caught.

It matched today.

A loud crash suddenly echoed upstairs.

I flinched.

“Daniel!” I screamed, running out.

I rushed upstairs as panic took over.

The house staff were already awake, confused voices filling the air.

One of them pointed.

“Madam… downstairs again!”

My heart dropped.

I turned and ran back.

Each step felt like it was pulling me toward something I wasn’t ready for.

When I reached the living room…

I stopped.

Completely.

Daniel was there.

On the floor.

Right in front of the coffin he had bought days earlier.

The same coffin everyone had dismissed as strange.

Now it stood open beside him.

Perfectly prepared.

My voice refused to come out at first.

Then everything broke.

“Daniel!” I screamed, rushing to him.

The staff followed, shouting for help, calling emergency services.

But even before I touched him…

I knew.

His body was cold.

His eyes slightly open… but gone.

No movement.

No response.

Only silence.

A few moments later, paramedics arrived.

One of them checked him briefly.

Then slowly shook his head.

“Time of death… likely during sleep.”

My world collapsed right there.

Days later, the report confirmed it.

Sudden cardiac arrest.

No poison. No injury. No explanation beyond “natural causes.”

But nothing about it felt natural.

Not the calls.

Not the notebook.

Not the timing.

And definitely not the coffin he chose himself.

The funeral happened three days later.

His family insisted on using that same coffin.

No one objected.

Not even me.

Because it felt like he had already written the ending long before we understood the story.

Watching them lower him into that coffin broke something inside me that never fully healed.

It wasn’t just grief.

It was something deeper.

Like I had witnessed something already decided… unfolding exactly as planned.

After the burial, I told myself it was over.

That the nightmare had ended.

I was wrong.

Because that night…

I finally opened the sealed envelope he left behind.

My hands trembled as I broke the seal.

Inside was a letter.

His handwriting.

The first line froze my entire body.

“If you are reading this, then I am already gone.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

The last episode is dropping later today. I might not post it on any group, follow Anijohn Story House , so that you won't miss it.

EPISODE 3: THE AGREEMENT

The moment I repeated what the caller said, Daniel’s whole expression collapsed.

Not surprise.
Not confusion.

Just… defeat.

Like something inside him had finally given up.

For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.

The rain outside continued gently, but inside the room, everything felt heavier than it should.

I slowly stood up.

“No,” I said firmly. “You’re going to tell me what’s going on.”

Daniel turned away immediately.

“There’s nothing to explain.”

“Stop lying to me!”

My voice broke through the silence.

“I’ve been with you through everything, and now you’re acting like a stranger in my own life!”

He closed his eyes like my words were painful to hear.

“You won’t understand.”

“Then make me understand!”

Without replying, he walked toward the balcony.

Slowly… like every step was a burden.

For the first time since I met him, Daniel didn’t look confident or in control.

He looked drained.

Almost… broken.

I followed him outside.

The rain had softened into a light drizzle. The city lights below shimmered quietly, beautiful in a way that didn’t match the tension between us.

Daniel used to love this view.

Tonight, he barely noticed it.

After a long silence, he finally spoke.

“Do you know what poverty does to people?”

I frowned slightly.

“When someone is desperate enough,” he continued, “they stop thinking about consequences.”

I stayed quiet.

He leaned on the railing, staring into the distance.

“I grew up with nothing,” he said. “Real nothing. Some days, there was no food. My father died broke and exhausted. My mother struggled every day just to keep us alive.”

His voice drifted further away with every word.

“I made a promise to myself that I would never live like that again.”

I stepped closer.

“So you worked hard. You succeeded. That’s not something bad.”

He gave a faint laugh.

But it wasn’t a happy one.

“It wasn’t just hard work.”

Something tightened inside my chest.

“What do you mean?”

His eyes dropped to the black ring on his finger.

He began turning it slowly.

“I met someone,” he said quietly.

“Who?”

“At first, he looked like an ordinary old man. But people were afraid of him. Deeply afraid.”

Daniel swallowed.

“He told me he could change everything for me.”

My heart began to race.

“Daniel…”

“He knew things,” he continued. “Things about my past. My family. My thoughts. Things I never told anyone.”

A cold breeze passed between us.

“At first, I thought it was nonsense,” he said. “Until everything he said started happening exactly as he described.”

I stared at him, speechless.

“He told me I could be wealthy. Powerful. Anything I wanted.”

He paused.

“But nothing comes free.”

A chill ran through me.

“What did he want?”

Daniel finally looked at me.

And the pain in his eyes made my chest ache.

“My time.”

My breath caught.

“What are you saying?”

He exhaled slowly.

“The agreement was simple. I get everything I ever dreamed of… but in return…”

His voice dropped.

“I die on a fixed date.”

I shook my head immediately.

“No. Daniel, stop—this isn’t real.”

But he kept going.

“At first, I didn’t care. I was young, desperate. I thought the future was far away. I thought money would fix everything.”

A bitter smile crossed his face.

“And it did.”

My mind flashed through everything.

The success.
The wealth.
The sudden rise.

All of it.

“I became rich almost overnight,” he said. “Everything worked. Every deal. Every investment. Everything.”

Then his expression darkened again.

“But then I understood the truth.”

I could barely breathe.

“What truth?”

His grip tightened on the railing.

“That the date was never negotiable.”

Silence swallowed everything.

“No matter what I did,” he said quietly, “no matter how far I went… the ending never changed.”

Tears filled my eyes.

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“I do.”

“How?”

He turned to me slowly.

And what I saw in his face shook me.

“Because they already told me the exact day I would die.”

Cold spread through my entire body.

I wanted to reject it.
To call it fear. Stress. Imagination.

Anything but truth.

But Daniel wasn’t guessing.

He believed it.

Completely.

I grabbed his hands.

“We can find help. We can pray. We can go anywhere. This can still change!”

But Daniel only shook his head gently.

“I already tried.”

“For how long?”

“Years.”

My chest tightened painfully.

“I spent everything looking for answers. Churches. spiritual places. healers. Nothing worked.”

Tears streamed down my face now.

“No…”

He slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small key.

I recognized it instantly.

The key to his private office.

The room I was never allowed inside.

He placed it in my hand.

“If anything happens to me,” he said quietly, “you’ll need what’s inside that room.”

My fingers shook violently.

Then anger suddenly rose in me.

“Stop talking like you’re already gone!”

Daniel stepped closer and gently held my face.

His eyes were red now.

Like he had been crying long before this moment.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“For what?”

“For bringing you into something I can’t escape.”

I broke down immediately.

“Please don’t leave me.”

Something shattered in his expression.

Then he reached into his jacket and pulled out a sealed brown envelope.

My heart dropped instantly.

My name was written on it.

Below it were words that froze me completely:

OPEN ONLY IF I’M GONE

“No,” I said quickly, pushing it back. “I don’t want this.”

But he placed it back into my hands anyway.

“You’ll need it.”

Fear swallowed me whole.

“Daniel…”

He pulled me into a tight hug.

Too tight.

Like he was holding on because it might be the last time.

And in that moment…

I understood something I wasn’t ready to accept.

Daniel truly believed he had only one night left.

TO BE CONTINUED…
Follow Anijohn Story House for more interesting stories