Chapter 9 - THE FIRST COINStella's body convulsed.
David grabbed her.
“Help me!”
Samuel pulled him back.
“Don't touch her!”
A metallic object pushed against Stella's chest.
The skin split.
A black coin emerged.
It dropped into the mud.
The rain stopped.
Everything became silent.
Even Adrian looked afraid.
David stared at the coin.
It was old.
Covered in strange symbols.
Adrian whispered:
“No.”
Samuel picked it up.
“This is it.”
David looked at him.
“The first coin?”
Samuel nodded.
“The original payment.”
Adrian stepped backward.
For the first time, David saw fear in his eyes.
“What does it do?”
Samuel looked toward Adrian.
“It created the contract.”
“So destroy it.”
“It's not that easy.”
“Why?”
“Because the coin can only be destroyed by the person who received the first gift.”
David looked at Adrian.
“You?”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
Samuel looked at Linda.
She stepped forward weakly.
“I know who.”
Everyone turned.
Linda's eyes filled with tears.
“Your father.”
“But he's dead.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“He never died.”
David stopped breathing.
“What?”
Linda pointed toward Samuel.
“He became the first keeper.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
David understood.
His father had not been buried because there had never been a body.
He had been trapped beneath the house.
Guarding the contract.
Guarding the coin.
Guarding his children.
“All these years...”
Samuel said quietly:
“He was waiting.”
Suddenly the ground shook.
The cemetery split open.
A deep crack formed between the graves.
From beneath the earth came a voice.
David knew it immediately.
His father's voice.
“David.”
He stepped toward the crack.
A hand emerged.
Old.
Bloody.
Still wearing his father's wedding ring.
David grabbed it.
The ground collapsed.
He fell into darkness.
Stella screamed.
Samuel jumped after him.
They landed in an underground chamber.
A huge stone door stood ahead.
Behind it...
someone was breathing.
David approached.
“Dad?”
Silence.
Then:
“Don't open the door.”
David froze.
“Why?”
“Because I'm not your father anymore.”
The stone door began shaking.
Adrian's voice echoed from above.
“Open it.”
David looked at Stella.
She was crying.
Then the door cracked.
A face appeared through the opening.
Their father's face.
But his eyes were completely black.
He smiled.
And whispered:
May you like
“Run.”
The chamber exploded.
