Chapter 9 - The Red Door
Rain fell across Saint Orison.
The abandoned children’s home stood beyond a rusted iron gate, surrounded by trees that bent beneath the storm.
Most of the windows had been boarded.
A stone angel leaned beside the driveway with its face broken away.
Evelyn parked half a mile from the property.
“This is where we stop,” she said.
Mia unfastened her seat belt.
“You said you would help.”
“I said I knew another road. I did not say I would let two injured teenagers walk into a hostage situation.”
Valeria looked through the windshield.
Police lights flashed faintly beyond the trees.
“The tactical team is already here.”
“Good.”
“They’ll enter from the front.”
“That is their job.”
“The red door is below the house. There will be another entrance near the water.”
Evelyn studied her.
“How do you know?”
“I remember.”
Mia opened the passenger door.
Evelyn locked it.
Mia glared at her.
“My mother is inside.”
“And rushing into a building with armed adults will not help her.”
Valeria reached into her bag and removed an envelope.
It had been delivered to her hospital room one hour before they left.
No one saw who placed it beneath her pillow.
Inside was a hand-drawn map of Saint Orison.
A dotted line ran from the lake to a basement chamber.
At the bottom, someone had written:
THEY WILL SEARCH FOR A PRISONER.
SEARCH FOR A PATIENT.
Evelyn read the message.
“You should have shown this to Bell.”
“He would have locked us in another room.”
“He would have adjusted the search.”
“There wasn’t time.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“You both understand this could be a trap.”
“Yes,” Valeria said.
Mia nodded.
Evelyn unlocked the doors.
“We stay together.”
They moved through the trees using flashlights covered with red plastic to dim the beams.
The rain concealed their footsteps.
At the edge of the lake, Valeria found a concrete drainage tunnel beneath a collapsed dock.
The tunnel matched the map.
They crawled inside.
Cold water rose to their knees.
Valeria’s surgical wound burned with every movement.
Evelyn wanted to turn back.
Valeria kept going.
The tunnel ended at an iron ladder.
Above it was a circular hatch.
Mia climbed first.
She pushed against the hatch.
It opened into darkness.
The basement smelled like mold and antiseptic.
Rows of empty metal beds filled the first chamber.
On each bed was a leather restraint.
Numbers had been painted on the walls.
Zero through eight.
Valeria moved toward the number seven.
A name had been carved beneath it.
Not Valeria.
Violet.
She touched the letters.
A memory struck her.
A child sitting beneath a table.
Red hair falling over a white coat.
Dr. Vale saying, “Violet is too emotional. The Mercer family will rename her.”
Valeria pulled her hand away.
“My name was Violet.”
Mia stood beneath the number six.
The name Mara appeared there.
Evelyn’s flashlight moved toward zero.
No name.
Only a dark stain.
A sound came from the next room.
A woman crying.
“Mom?” Mia whispered.
They followed the sound.
The red door stood at the end of the corridor.
Mia reached for the handle.
Valeria stopped her.
“Wait.”
A thin wire ran from the doorframe to a device above the hinge.
Evelyn examined it.
“Alarm.”
Mia looked around.
“There has to be another way.”
Valeria noticed a vent near the floor.
The screws were new.
They removed the cover with a coin and crawled through.
The vent opened behind a wall of medical cabinets.
Through a gap, they saw Teresa Torres tied to a chair.
Her face was bruised.
An intravenous line ran into her arm.
Dr. Vale stood beside a metal table, arranging surgical instruments.
Grant Holloway was near the door.
Valeria’s stomach tightened.
Holloway had not left the country.
He had remained close enough to control everything.
“You said Seven would come,” Vale said.
“She always comes for the wounded,” Holloway replied.
“And Six?”
“Six follows Seven.”
Mia covered her mouth.
Teresa lifted her head.
“You will never control them.”
Holloway smiled.
“We controlled them before they had names.”
Dr. Vale checked a monitor.
“Teresa’s organs are not compatible.”
“She was never the intended donor.”
Vale looked toward the ventilation gap.
“No,” she said. “She was the invitation.”
Valeria froze.
Dr. Vale walked directly toward the cabinet.
Evelyn pulled Valeria and Mia backward.
Too late.
The cabinet doors opened.
May you like
Dr. Vale stared into the vent.
“Welcome home, Seven.”
