CHAPTER 1: THE FREEZER DOOR
The pounding came again.
BANG.
Daniel Morgan stopped with one hand inches from the freezer latch.
The sound wasn't coming from inside the machine anymore.
It was coming from somewhere deeper.
Something struck the metal door from within with enough force to make the entire freezer shudder against the stone wall.
BANG.
“Daddy!”
Emily screamed behind him.
Daniel spun around.
His four-year-old daughter was still wrapped tightly in his arms, her tiny fingers locked around the collar of his soaked shirt. Her face was buried against his chest, but one eye was peeking over his shoulder.
Claire stood halfway up the basement stairs.
She wasn't running anymore.
She was watching him.
Watching the freezer.
Watching Emily.
And for the first time since Daniel had arrived home, Claire looked afraid.
Not frightened of what might be inside.
Frightened that Daniel was about to find out.
“Claire,” Daniel said slowly. “Move away from the stairs.”
She didn't answer.
“Now.”
A flash of lightning illuminated the basement through the tiny ground-level windows.
For half a second, Daniel saw everything in stark white.
The old stone walls.
The overturned boxes.
The open chest freezer.
The scattered frozen packages.
Claire's pale face.
And the upright freezer.
Then darkness swallowed everything again.
BANG.
The freezer door jumped.
Emily whimpered.
“Daddy... David is in there.”
Daniel's heart seemed to stop.
David.
His seven-year-old son.
His little boy.
Daniel had left the house that afternoon because of an emergency at work. Claire had called him around six, telling him both children were asleep.
He had believed her.
He had driven through the storm expecting to find his family safe.
Instead, he had found Emily being held over an open freezer.
And now she was telling him David was trapped inside another one.
Daniel lowered Emily carefully to the floor.
“Stay behind me.”
“No!”
Emily grabbed his leg.
“Daddy, don't open it!”
“Why?”
Her lower lip trembled.
“Because she said David would wake up.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“What does that mean?”
Claire finally spoke.
“Daniel, listen to me.”
Her voice was strangely calm.
“Don't open that freezer.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Where is David?”
“He isn't in there.”
BANG.
Claire flinched.
Daniel saw it.
She had lied.
“You're lying.”
“Daniel, please.”
“Where is my son?”
Claire took one step down.
Daniel immediately stepped between her and Emily.
“Don't come any closer.”
“I'm trying to protect you.”
“You were holding my daughter over an open freezer.”
“I wasn't going to hurt her.”
“Then what were you doing?”
Claire's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Another thunderclap shook the house.
The basement lights flickered.
Then went out.
Complete darkness.
Emily screamed.
Daniel reached for his phone.
His fingers shook as he turned on the flashlight.
The beam cut across the basement.
The freezer was still there.
The door was trembling.
BANG.
Daniel stepped closer.
“David!”
Silence.
He pressed his ear against the metal.
Nothing.
Then...
A faint scratching sound.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Daniel froze.
“David?”
Three seconds passed.
Then a tiny voice came through the freezer door.
“Dad?”
Daniel nearly collapsed.
“David!”
He grabbed the handle.
Behind him, Claire screamed.
“NO!”
Daniel yanked the door.
It didn't move.
He pulled harder.
The latch had been reinforced from the outside.
Someone had wrapped a thick steel cable around the handle.
Daniel stared at it.
“This wasn't factory-installed.”
Claire said nothing.
“You locked him in.”
“No.”
“You locked my son inside this freezer!”
“I had no choice.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“What did you just say?”
Claire's face had changed.
The frightened expression was gone.
Something colder had replaced it.
“You don't understand what he's become.”
Daniel felt his stomach tighten.
“What he's become?”
Claire took another step.
“David isn't safe.”
“Safe from what?”
Claire looked toward the freezer.
Then toward Emily.
Then back at Daniel.
“From himself.”
A terrible silence filled the basement.
Daniel shook his head.
“My son is seven years old.”
“I know.”
“He's sick?”
“No.”
“Possessed?”
Claire almost laughed.
“No.”
“Then what are you talking about?”
The scratching inside the freezer stopped.
Daniel turned.
“David?”
No answer.
“David!”
Still nothing.
Then the little boy whispered:
“Dad... don't trust her.”
Daniel slowly looked over his shoulder.
Claire was standing perfectly still.
Her eyes were fixed on the freezer.
“David,” Daniel said. “Tell me what happened.”
A long pause.
Then:
“She brought me down here.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“She said Grandma wanted to see me.”
Daniel frowned.
His mother had been dead for six years.
“Then what?”
David began crying.
“She showed me the room.”
“What room?”
“The room behind the wall.”
Daniel looked around the basement.
“What room?”
Claire suddenly moved.
She rushed down the stairs.
Daniel stepped backward and raised one arm protectively.
“Stay back!”
Claire stopped.
“Daniel, you need to leave this house.”
“Not without my son.”
“You don't know what you're doing.”
“Then tell me the truth!”
Claire's face twisted.
“I was trying to keep him alive.”
Daniel looked at the freezer.
“By locking him inside?”
“It wasn't supposed to happen like this.”
“What wasn't?”
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
For the first time, Daniel believed she might actually be afraid.
Then she whispered:
“Your father didn't die in an accident.”
Daniel went completely still.
His father had died twelve years earlier.
A supposed heart attack while driving home.
At least, that's what Daniel had always been told.
“What does my father have to do with this?”
Claire looked toward the far corner of the basement.
“Everything.”
Daniel followed her gaze.
There was an old wooden cabinet against the wall.
He had never noticed the narrow black line behind it.
A door.
Hidden in the stone.
His pulse began hammering.
“What is behind that?”
Claire didn't answer.
Daniel walked toward it.
“Daniel.”
He ignored her.
He grabbed the cabinet and shoved.
It moved several inches.
Behind it was a narrow steel door.
And carved into the metal were three words.
WORDS THAT MADE DANIEL'S BLOOD TURN TO ICE.
MORGAN FAMILY ARCHIVE.
Daniel stared.
His father's name was engraved beneath it.
THOMAS MORGAN.
Then something moved behind him.
He turned.
Claire was holding a small key.
Her hand was shaking.
“You weren't supposed to find this.”
Daniel looked at the key.
Then at the hidden door.
Then at the freezer.
From inside came David's voice again.
But this time, it wasn't crying.
It was whispering.
“Dad...”
Daniel stepped closer.
“What?”
David's voice dropped to almost nothing.
“There's someone else down here.”
Daniel's flashlight slowly moved across the basement.
Nothing.
Then he heard it.
A second set of breathing.
Not from the freezer.
Not from Claire.
From behind the hidden steel door.
Daniel turned toward it.
And the key in Claire's hand began to shake violently.
Because from the other side of the locked door...
someone knocked.
Three times.
BANG.
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BANG.
BANG.
