Chapter 8 - beneath the white pantry)
Vanessa disappeared.
Police found her car twelve miles away.
Driver door open.
Phone on the seat.
No blood.
No footprints.
Daniel no longer cared where she had gone.
He cared about the pantry.
At noon the following day, he stood before it with Owen, Evelyn and Marcus.
Lily had been ordered to remain upstairs with the physician.
She objected loudly.
For once Daniel refused to compromise.
Evelyn carried an old iron key.
“The silver locks aren't meant to keep something inside.”
Daniel looked at the chains.
“What are they for?”
“To keep you out.”
“Why?”
“Mercer blood opens the deeper door.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“You keep saying Mercer blood as if we're different.”
“You saw your eyes.”
“What happened to me?”
Evelyn looked ashamed.
“The men in our family were altered generations ago.”
“Altered how?”
“The first Elias survived contact with the Hollow Father.”
“And?”
“He came back with something inside his blood.”
Daniel thought of the forest dream.
His father with red eyes.
“It passes from father to son?”
“Usually.”
Owen stiffened.
Daniel looked at him.
“No.”
Evelyn said quietly, “Possibly.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“He's not part of this.”
“He already is.”
“No.”
“Daniel, denying it won't protect him.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
Then he turned toward the pantry.
“Open it.”
Evelyn unlocked the first latch.
Then another.
When the final chain came loose, the doors opened normally.
Inside were shelves.
Flour.
Canned vegetables.
Cleaning supplies.
No darkness.
No stairs.
Owen frowned.
“This isn't what happened yesterday.”
Evelyn walked inside.
She pushed a shelf.
Nothing.
Then she touched the wall.
“Daniel.”
He joined her.
“Put your hand here.”
“Why?”
“Trust me.”
Daniel almost laughed.
Trust had become an expensive word in his family.
He placed his palm against the marble.
Heat exploded through him.
His eyes flashed red.
The pantry wall split down the center.
Owen stepped backward.
A narrow staircase appeared.
It descended farther than the mansion's foundation should allow.
Red emergency lights glowed along the walls.
Daniel whispered, “What the hell?”
Evelyn took the first step.
“This house isn't the original location.”
“What?”
“The red door was moved.”
“You can't move a door underground.”
“Not that kind.”
They descended.
Twenty steps.
Forty.
Sixty.
The air became colder.
Owen counted ninety-three before they reached the bottom.
A concrete corridor stretched ahead.
Electrical cables ran along the ceiling.
“This isn't colonial,” Marcus said.
“No,” Evelyn replied. “The Circle modernized it.”
Daniel looked at her.
“When?”
“After Claire found them.”
They passed a steel room filled with old monitors.
Another held shelves of documents.
A third contained medical equipment.
Daniel's anger grew with every step.
“This was beneath my children?”
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“I was trapped here.”
“For twenty-one years?”
Evelyn stopped.
“It didn't feel like twenty-one.”
Daniel almost asked what that meant.
Then they reached a room with children's drawings taped across one wall.
Lily's drawings.
Owen recognized them.
“She keeps these in her room.”
Daniel picked one up.
It showed four figures.
Daniel.
Owen.
Lily.
Claire.
Someone had written a date at the bottom.
Tomorrow's date.
Owen whispered, “That drawing isn't from Lily.”
Daniel turned it over.
Three words appeared on the back.
HE REMEMBERS YOU
A sound came from farther down the corridor.
A woman's voice.
Singing.
Daniel froze.
Claire used to sing that song when Lily couldn't sleep.
He ran.
“Daniel!” Evelyn shouted.
He ignored her.
The corridor ended at a red wooden door.
Ancient.
Completely out of place in the modern concrete tunnel.
Daniel stopped inches away.
Claire's voice came from the other side.
“Danny?”
Tears filled his eyes.
“Claire.”
“Daniel?”
He touched the door.
Owen grabbed his arm.
“Dad, wait.”
Claire began crying.
“Oh my God. Daniel, please.”
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
“Is it her?”
“I don't know.”
Claire struck the door.
“Get me out!”
Daniel reached for the handle.
Then Claire said something.
“Please, Danny. Owen is only six. He needs you.”
Daniel's hand stopped.
Owen was ten.
Claire would know that only if she had been trapped outside normal time.
Or if the voice behind the door was remembering the last moment it saw him.
Evelyn whispered.
“Don't answer questions it already knows.”
The voice changed.
“Lily is three. She's scared.”
Daniel stepped backward.
Claire screamed.
“DANIEL!”
The red door shook.
Then another voice came through.
A man's voice.
Daniel's father.
“Son.”
Daniel's eyes glowed.
His father had been dead for twenty-one years.
“Open the door.”
Owen whispered, “That's not Mom.”
Evelyn nodded.
“No.”
Claire's scream came again.
Farther away.
Not behind the red door.
From somewhere to their left.
Daniel turned.
A narrow ventilation grate covered the wall.
Claire shouted.
“Don't listen to it!”
Daniel ripped the grate free.
May you like
Behind it was another passage.
And for the first time in four years, Daniel knew exactly where his wife was.
