Chapter 6 - Inside the Chute
Claire did not fall all the way to the basement floor.
The laundry chute narrowed halfway down.
Her hip struck one side.
Her knee caught the other.
She became wedged several feet above the collection opening.
Pain shot through her shoulder.
She screamed.
Above her, Daniel shouted.
Below, Margaret rushed to the lower hatch.
Claire could see the fluorescent basement light through a narrow opening beneath her.
"Get me out."
Daniel leaned over the upper access panel.
"Can you move?"
"Get me out."
Margaret opened the bottom hatch.
Claire tried to lower herself.
Her leg slipped an inch.
Pain burned through her shoulder where skin scraped against the steel.
She stopped.
"I can't move."
Diane appeared below.
"Oh my God."
Claire looked down.
"Call the fire department."
Margaret looked at Daniel.
Daniel looked at the document packet.
Claire saw it.
The decision.
"No."
Claire thought she had misheard.
"What?"
Daniel crouched beside the chute opening.
"Sign the papers first."
Claire stared upward.
"You cannot be serious."
"You're not injured."
"I'm stuck in a metal shaft."
"And we can get you out."
"Then do it."
Daniel lowered his voice.
"Sign."
Claire screamed.
"Help me."
Diane flinched.
Margaret immediately walked to the washing machines.
She turned one on.
The machine filled with water.
Then began spinning.
The basement filled with mechanical vibration.
Claire stared downward.
"What are you doing?"
Margaret started the second machine.
The noise doubled.
Claire's voice disappeared beneath the rumbling.
Diane stood beside Margaret.
Horrified.
But she did not stop her.
Claire banged against the steel wall.
"Mom."
Diane looked up.
Claire screamed again.
"Mom."
Diane covered her ears.
Margaret held the papers beneath the chute.
"When you're ready to stop humiliating everyone, we'll help you."
Claire struck the metal wall until her palm hurt.
Upstairs, Daniel closed the access panel.
Darkness surrounded her.
Claire forced herself to breathe.
Panic would use oxygen.
Panic would make her slip.
She pressed her back carefully against one wall and her feet against the other.
Think.
Her phone.
She reached toward her pocket.
Empty.
She remembered the dead phone in the foyer.
Except it had not been dead.
Daniel must have taken it after they arrived.
Claire shut her eyes.
The washing machines thundered below.
She tried shouting again.
Nothing.
Minutes passed.
Maybe twenty.
Maybe forty.
Time became meaningless inside the metal shaft.
Then Claire heard a faint sound above.
The upper panel moving.
She looked up.
A narrow line of warm light appeared.
Claire expected Daniel.
Instead she saw two small eyes.
Sophie.
The girl whispered something Claire could not hear over the machines.
Claire lifted one hand.
Sophie disappeared.
Claire's heart sank.
Then the panel opened again.
A small hand reached inside.
Holding a smartphone.
Claire almost cried.
Her phone.
Sophie must have found it.
The girl lowered it carefully.
Claire stretched upward.
Her fingers missed.
Sophie lowered it farther.
Claire pushed painfully against the metal.
Her fingertips touched the case.
Then closed around it.
The screen was unlocked.
The recording app was already running.
Sophie had started it.
Claire stared upward.
The little girl had understood enough to know Claire needed proof.
Claire mouthed thank you.
Then she looked at the screen.
Forty-seven seconds already recorded.
Claire aimed the camera downward.
Margaret stood beside the machines holding the paperwork.
Diane stood beside her.
Their voices were difficult to hear.
Claire turned on audio enhancement.
Then she saw the battery.
Thirty-two percent.
May you like
Enough.
She began recording everything.
