The narrow street felt like a forgotten corner of the world, shadowed by crumbling buildings and dimmed by the setting sun. Renee had passed this way hundreds of times, always ignoring the rusted neon sign that flickered above the doorway: Madame Celeste—Fortunes Told. She never believed in that sort of thing.

But today was different.

Fresh out of a five-year sentence for armed robbery, her body was free, but her mind had remained shackled to one thought: her daughter, Ellie. Five years of missed birthdays, five years of wondering whether her child even remembered her, five years with no answers. The State had taken Ellie, placed her with some family she’d never met. No matter how hard Renee searched, it was as if her daughter had vanished.

Desperate, with nowhere else to turn, she stood at the entrance of the dingy fortune-telling parlor, the name Madame Celeste practically buzzing like an insect in her ears.

The inside was worse than she expected. Threadbare curtains, a single flickering candle, and the heavy scent of incense thickened the air. A table, draped in velvet, sat in the middle of the room, and behind it, the fortune teller herself: a gaunt woman in a patchwork of scarves and jewelry, her face obscured by a veil of beads.

“I’ve been expecting you,” the woman said, her voice smooth, with a hint of a rasp.

Renee hesitated, her pulse quickening. “How could you—?”

“I know why you’re here,” Madame Celeste interrupted, gesturing to the chair. “Sit. We’ll find her together.”

Renee’s breath caught. How could this stranger know? Was this a scam? But the thought of Ellie—the need to see her again, hold her again—was stronger than her suspicion. She sat.

“Your daughter… Ellie,” the fortune teller whispered, the name slipping from her lips like smoke. Her long fingers danced over a worn deck of tarot cards, shuffling them with an eerie grace. “She’s closer than you think.”

The cards fell, one by one. The Hanged Man. The Tower. Death.

Renee’s throat tightened. “What does that mean? Where is she?”

Madame Celeste smiled, revealing teeth too sharp for comfort. “She’s waiting for you. But to find her, you must follow the path unseen. The roads of the dead. You’ve walked close to the edge before, haven’t you? You know the place where life and death blur?”

Renee clenched her fists. “What are you talking about?”

“The place you’re looking for is not a physical one,” the seer murmured. “Ellie has crossed over, but not in the way you fear. Her spirit is bound to this world, wandering, waiting. She needs you to set her free.”

A chill crawled up Renee’s spine. “No… no, Ellie’s alive. She’s out there. I just need to find her.”

Madame Celeste leaned closer. “She was alive. But when you went away, no one came for her. No one cared. The family she was placed with—”

“What are you saying?” Renee’s voice cracked.

The fortune teller’s gaze pierced her, unblinking. “Your child died alone. Starved. Forgotten. The only way to reunite with her is to cross over yourself.”

Renee shot up from the table, her heart pounding. “You’re lying!”

But deep down, something in the words resonated. She had nightmares in prison, visions of Ellie calling out for her, crying, alone. She’d always woken up drenched in sweat, praying it was just her mind playing tricks.

“Go to the place where you were happiest with her,” Madame Celeste said softly. “She will meet you there.”

With shaking hands, Renee fumbled for the door. The fortune teller’s voice echoed in her ears as she stumbled into the night, a single word repeating: cross over.

The old playground. It hadn’t changed in all these years. Rust clung to the swings, the slide was chipped and faded, and the jungle gym looked skeletal under the streetlights. Renee stood there, the memories rushing back—of Ellie laughing, her tiny hands clutching the chains as she swung higher and higher.

“Ellie?” Renee whispered into the cold night air.

A shadow flickered at the far end of the playground. A small figure, no taller than a child, emerged from the gloom.

Renee’s heart lurched. “Ellie?”

The figure stepped closer, and as it did, Renee’s stomach twisted. It wasn’t Ellie. The thing that approached had her daughter’s shape, but its skin was wrong—pale, sagging, with hollow eyes that stared without seeing. It moved with a jerking motion, like a puppet on tangled strings.

“Mommy?” the thing rasped, its voice an echo of the child Renee once knew, but distorted, broken.

Renee’s legs buckled. “No… no, this isn’t real!”

The thing’s head tilted, its cracked lips curling into a grotesque smile. “You left me. Why did you leave me, Mommy?”

Renee screamed, backing away, but the figure advanced, faster now. Its skeletal hand reached for her, ice-cold fingers grazing her skin.

“I was waiting for you,” it whispered. “Now you can stay with me… forever.”

The world around Renee darkened, the playground fading as the shadows closed in. Her breath came in ragged gasps, and in her last moments, the memory of Ellie’s real laughter—pure and joyful—was drowned out by the horror that had taken its place.

The next day, the sidewalk fortuneteller packed up her things and moved on.

The playground remained, but the swing no longer moved in the wind. In its place, a new shadow hung in the air—one that sometimes whispered a name, searching, always searching, for the child she’d lost.