Chapter 13 - father against father)
Elias looked at Daniel.
Then Owen.
“My sons.”
Daniel moved in front of the boy.
“You don't get to call him that.”
Elias smiled.
His voice sounded almost gentle.
“Every father says the same thing.”
Daniel's eyes began glowing.
Claire caught his arm.
“Don't.”
Elias watched the red light.
“Yes.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
The glow faded.
Elias frowned.
Daniel understood.
Vanessa had been telling the truth about one thing.
Fighting with the power fed him.
So Daniel did something Elias did not expect.
He sat down.
Vanessa stared.
“What are you doing?”
Daniel looked toward Detective Ross.
“Arrest her.”
Ross almost laughed from disbelief.
Elias stepped closer.
“Stand.”
Daniel remained seated.
“You want rage.”
The ancient man stopped.
“You want me terrified.”
Daniel looked around the room.
“You've spent generations making fathers believe protecting their families means becoming violent enough to destroy whatever threatens them.”
Elias smiled.
“Violence built this family.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel looked at Owen.
“That ends with me.”
Elias's expression changed.
The crimson light in his eyes flickered.
Claire stepped beside Daniel.
Owen stood beside her.
Lily hesitated.
Then she walked forward too.
Elias looked at the girl.
Lily's cheek was still bruised.
He smiled.
“Little one.”
Lily held Daniel's hand.
“Don't talk to me.”
The lights flickered.
Elias's smile disappeared.
Vanessa shouted.
“You idiots. He's going to kill you.”
Claire looked at her.
“Then why are you scared?”
Vanessa stopped.
Claire had noticed what nobody else had.
Every time the family refused Elias, Vanessa became more frightened.
“You're not serving him,” Claire said.
Vanessa looked away.
“You're trapped by him.”
“Shut up.”
“He promised you something.”
“Shut up.”
“What?”
Vanessa lunged.
Ross restrained her.
Claire stepped closer.
“What did he promise?”
Vanessa screamed.
“My daughter!”
Silence.
Daniel stared.
Vanessa stopped struggling.
Tears appeared.
For the first time since Daniel had known her, the emotion looked real.
Claire whispered.
“You had a child.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“She was five.”
Elias watched without expression.
“What happened?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“He said he could bring her back.”
Daniel understood immediately.
Just as the Hollow had imitated Claire.
It had imitated Vanessa's daughter.
“How long ago?”
“Twenty-six years.”
“You've been doing this for twenty-six years?”
Vanessa looked at Lily.
Shame appeared.
“I thought…”
Daniel stood.
“No.”
Vanessa flinched.
“You don't get to make what you did smaller because somebody hurt you first.”
She cried silently.
Daniel continued.
“You had twenty-six years to stop.”
Elias's face twisted.
“Enough.”
The mansion shook.
Daniel did not look at him.
That was the key.
The family stopped giving Elias attention.
Claire looked at Vanessa.
“Tell the truth.”
Vanessa stared.
“What?”
“Everything.”
“I can't.”
“Yes, you can.”
“He'll take her away.”
Claire's voice softened.
“She's already gone.”
Vanessa collapsed.
The sentence broke something.
Not in Vanessa.
In the house.
A sound like thunder erupted beneath the floor.
Elias screamed.
His body flickered.
Vanessa covered her face.
“I helped them fake Claire's death.”
Elias staggered.
“I drugged her.”
Another crack.
“I lied to Daniel.”
The red light around Elias weakened.
“I frightened the children.”
Another.
“I hit Lily.”
Daniel's grip tightened around his daughter's hand.
Vanessa sobbed.
“I knew the pantry wasn't safe.”
Elias reached toward her.
“Stop.”
Vanessa looked up.
For twenty-six years she had obeyed the voice promising to return a dead child.
Now she finally saw it frightened.
“I opened the door.”
Elias screamed.
His body split into shadows.
The walls shook violently.
Owen's laptop continued recording.
Vanessa whispered the final truth.
“There was never anything behind the door that could bring my daughter back.”
Elias vanished.
Every window in the mansion shattered outward.
Darkness raced toward the pantry.
Daniel saw the red door beneath the house through the impossible opening.
It was closing.
But something stood on the other side.
Not Elias.
Something larger.
Something that even Elias had feared.
Daniel understood too late.
Elias Mercer had never been the Hollow Father.
May you like
He had been guarding the family from it.
The red door slammed shut.
