Chapter 6 - Darkness swallowed the hallway.Someone screamed.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Daniel reached for Emily.
“Stay here.”
A loud crash came from the nurses' station.
Glass shattered.
Harris shouted from somewhere down the corridor.
“Lock the doors!”
Claire grabbed the bed rail.
Emily whispered:
“They're coming.”
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
Footsteps.
Three sets.
Running.
He pushed Emily's bed toward a side door.
“Where does this go?”
“Storage.”
They moved inside.
Claire slammed the door.
The footsteps passed.
Then stopped.
A voice came from the other side.
“Daniel?”
Daniel froze.
It was Dr. Adrian Shaw.
Claire whispered:
“Don't answer.”
The voice came again.
“Daniel, I need you to open this door.”
Emily shook her head violently.
“No.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You said he was involved.”
“He is.”
“Then who is outside?”
Emily's eyes filled with fear.
“I don't know.”
The door handle moved.
Daniel backed away.
Suddenly the door opened.
Dr. Shaw entered.
Blood covered his sleeve.
“I was attacked,” he whispered.
Daniel stared.
“By whom?”
“I don't know.”
Emily looked at him.
“You're lying.”
Dr. Shaw shook his head.
“Emily, listen to me.”
“No.”
He raised his hands.
“I never put you in that coffin.”
“Then who did?”
He looked at Daniel.
“I thought it was your father.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“You keep saying my father.”
“Because he is alive.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Dr. Shaw stepped closer.
“But I know what he's after.”
Daniel waited.
“Emily's evidence.”
Claire tightened her grip on the brass key.
“What evidence?”
Dr. Shaw's eyes moved to her pocket.
“The key.”
Claire stepped back.
“How do you know?”
“Because I gave it to Emily.”
Claire stared.
“You gave her the key?”
“Years ago.”
“What does it open?”
Dr. Shaw whispered:
“A vault under the old Whitmore bank.”
Daniel stared.
“My family bank?”
“Yes.”
“What is inside?”
“The names of all seventeen children.”
Claire's face hardened.
“Why are the names so important?”
“Because every one of those children was declared dead.”
Emily spoke weakly:
“Not all seventeen.”
Daniel looked at her.
“How many survived?”
Emily swallowed.
“Three.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
Daniel froze.
“You?”
Emily nodded.
“I was patient number one.”
Daniel stepped backward.
“No.”
Emily began crying silently.
“I was eight.”
Claire stared at her.
“Then what happened?”
“My father found out I had survived.”
Daniel's face went white.
“Your father?”
Emily nodded.
“Martin Whitmore.”
The same man they believed dead.
Daniel looked at the door.
“My father experimented on his own daughter?”
“He experimented on everyone.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don't understand.”
Emily reached for his hand.
“I was never supposed to marry you.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“He knew I would eventually remember.”
The room fell silent.
Claire's voice was quiet.
“Remember what?”
Emily stared at Daniel.
“I saw what happened to the other children.”
Daniel asked:
“What did you see?”
Emily's face went blank.
Then she whispered:
“Burial.”
Claire's stomach tightened.
“They buried them?”
Emily nodded.
“Alive.”
The lights came back.
For one second, the hallway outside was empty.
Then a scream erupted.
Dr. Shaw looked toward the door.
“That's Harris.”
Daniel opened it.
Detective Harris lay unconscious in the corridor.
Blood trailed from his temple.
A camera above the door blinked.
Red light.
Someone had been watching.
Claire looked at Emily.
“What are we supposed to do?”
Emily whispered:
“Go to the vault.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why?”
“Because the man who put me in the coffin knows we found the key.”
Claire touched her pocket.
“What happens if he gets it?”
Emily stared at her.
“He won't just bury me again.”
May you like
She looked toward Daniel.
“He'll bury all of us.”
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