Chapter 10 - Trapped in the Dark-10
"HEY!" Arthur screamed, rushing to the wooden stairs, hammering his fists against the locked door. "HEY! LET US OUT!"
"Save your breath, Arthur," a cold, familiar voice called out from the other side of the door.
It wasn't Thomas Vance. It was one of his lead security guards—a tall, scarred man named Marcus whom I had seen standing behind Thomas on our porch earlier that night.
"The Senator knew you'd come here, Arthur," Marcus said through the heavy wood, his voice muffled but crystal clear. "He knows how your mind works. You were always a predictable coward. He knew you'd bring the girl right to the evidence he's been searching for eleven years."
"Marcus, please!" Arthur begged, his voice cracking with sheer terror. "Don't do this! My daughter is in here! My grandson is at my house!"
"The boy is fine," Marcus replied coldly. "The Senator’s driver just picked him up from your house ten minutes ago. Your wife put up a bit of a fight, but she's currently resting. The boy is on his way to Vance Manor right now where he belongs."
"NO!" I shrieked, sprinting up the stairs, slamming my body against the heavy oak door. "LEO! BRING HIM BACK! YOU TOUCH HIM AND I WILL KILL YOU, MARCUS!"
"You're not killing anyone, Emma," Marcus chuckled darkly. "You two are going to sit in that damp cellar until the Senator decides what to do with you. And trust me, after he reviews the contents of that safe, he won't have any use for either of you."
We heard the sound of heavy footsteps retreating down the hallway above us, followed by the distant clang of the archive building's outer steel door being locked from the outside.
Then... total, pitch-black darkness.
Arthur collapsed onto the wooden stairs, weeping hysterically, his hands hitting his knees in absolute despair. "It's over... oh God, Emma, it's over! He took Leo! He locked us in here to die!"
"Shut up, Dad!" I yelled, my voice ringing in the narrow stairwell. I pulled out my phone. No signal—the deep stone basement was a dead zone.
"We're three feet below ground level, surrounded by stone walls," Arthur sobbed. "Nobody knows we're here! Eleanor is incapacitated, Leo is with Thomas, and we're going to rot in this dark hole!"
I stood in the absolute darkness, my heart pounding like a war drum in my chest. Panic tried to claw its way up my throat, but I forced it down. I thought of Leo's bright violet eyes. I thought of the ten years I had spent raising him alone, building a life out of nothing. I had not survived a decade of poverty, exhaustion, and sacrifice just to break down in a dark basement.
"Flashlight," I ordered sharply.
May you like
Arthur, trembling, clicked his flashlight back on. Its yellow beam shook violently against the rough stone walls.
"Look around," I said, sweeping my own light across the basement walls. "This building was built in 1912. Old municipal buildings always had a coal chute or a ventilation shaft connecting the furnace room to the alleyway."
