Our family group chat is called Fam ❤️. Five people. Me, Mom, Dad, my sister Zoe, my little brother Sam. Tonight my phone buzzed and the header said 6 members. The new one had no name. No profile photo. Just a gray circle. Mom: "who is this??" Three dots. Typing. Then it sent one photo. Our living room. The couch. Dad's mug on the coffee table, still steaming. Taken from inside the house.

Dad: "Nobody move. I'm going downstairs." Me: "dad don't" Zoe: "DAD PLEASE" We all watched the chat instead of moving. The gray circle started typing. It typed for a long time. Way too long for what came out. One line: "Tell him to check the closet first."

Dad went anyway. We heard the stairs creak through the floor, one by one. Dad: "closet's empty. living room's empty." Mom: "then come back UP" Dad: "hang on. the back door is open." The gray circle posted a new photo. Dad. From behind. Standing at the back door with his phone in his hand. Me: "DAD BEHIND YOU" The three dots started again.

Dad: "i'm coming up. lock your doors." We heard him take the stairs two at a time. Then his footsteps just stopped, halfway up. Zoe: "dad??" Dad: "there's someone standing at the top of the stairs." Me: "no there isn't. we're all in our rooms" Dad: "i'm looking right at him. he's on his phone." And the gray circle's three dots came on.

The gray circle: "Tell your dad I like his slippers." Dad screamed. We all burst out of our rooms at once — and the hallway was empty. Dad stood alone on the stairs, white as paper, in his slippers. The header now says 5 members. It fixed itself. But scroll up and every message from the gray circle is still there. Sent from Dad's number. And the last one came in while all five of us stood there staring at him. His phone was dark in his hand.