CHAPTER 2: THE ROOM BEHIND THE WALL
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
Daniel couldn't breathe.
The sound had come from behind the steel door.
Not the freezer.
Not the basement stairs.
Behind the wall.
Someone was knocking from inside.
Claire stood several feet away, clutching the small brass key so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
“Who is in there?” Daniel demanded.
Claire didn't answer.
“Claire!”
Her eyes remained fixed on the door.
“Don't open it.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“My son is trapped in a freezer, my daughter says you put him there, and now someone is knocking from behind a hidden door my dead father apparently built into this house.”
He stepped toward her.
“And you're telling me not to open it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Claire swallowed.
“Because the last person who opened it never came back.”
Daniel stopped.
“Who?”
Claire looked at him.
“Your father.”
A violent crack of thunder shook the basement.
Daniel stared at her.
“My father died on a highway.”
“That is what the police were told.”
“My mother identified his body.”
“She identified what was left of him.”
Daniel felt a chill crawl up his spine.
“What does that mean?”
Claire looked toward the freezer.
“Get David out first.”
Daniel turned immediately.
He grabbed the steel cable around the freezer handle.
It was thick.
Too thick.
He pulled.
Nothing.
“Help me.”
Claire didn't move.
“Claire!”
She slowly approached.
“I don't have the key.”
“Then break it.”
“You can't.”
“Why?”
“Because it's not a normal lock.”
Daniel stared at the cable.
“What the hell does that mean?”
Claire pointed.
“Look.”
Daniel raised the flashlight.
The cable wasn't simply wrapped around the handle.
It disappeared into a small metal device attached to the side of the freezer.
There was no keyhole.
No combination.
Only a tiny red indicator light.
Daniel's stomach tightened.
“This is electronic.”
Claire nodded.
“Your father installed it.”
“My father?”
“He built the system.”
Daniel looked at the freezer.
Then at the hidden door.
Then back at Claire.
“You've been here before.”
Claire's silence answered him.
“How many times?”
She whispered:
“Too many.”
Suddenly David began pounding from inside.
“DAD!”
Daniel spun around.
“David!”
“Daddy, get me out!”
“I'm trying!”
“She's coming!”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Who is coming?”
David started screaming.
“She's coming!”
The freezer shook.
Daniel grabbed a heavy iron fireplace poker lying beside an old furnace.
He raised it.
Claire shouted.
“Don't!”
Daniel swung.
CRACK!
The poker slammed into the electronic locking mechanism.
Sparks exploded.
The basement filled with the smell of burning plastic.
The red light flickered.
Daniel swung again.
CRACK!
The mechanism broke.
The cable loosened.
Daniel tore it away.
He pulled the freezer door.
It opened.
Cold vapor poured across the floor.
David was curled inside.
His lips were blue.
His pajamas were soaked.
Daniel grabbed him immediately.
“My boy!”
David wrapped both arms around his father's neck.
“Daddy!”
Daniel carried him away from the freezer and dropped to his knees.
“Are you hurt?”
David shook his head violently.
“I'm cold.”
Daniel pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around him.
Emily ran over.
“David!”
The children clung to each other.
Daniel almost cried from relief.
Then David looked over his shoulder.
His face changed.
“She's still here.”
Daniel followed his gaze.
Claire stood near the stairs.
“Who?”
David pointed at her.
“No.”
Then he pointed toward the hidden door.
“Her.”
Daniel slowly turned.
The steel door was still closed.
But the knocking had stopped.
“David,” Daniel said quietly. “What did you see behind that door?”
The boy shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“You said someone was there.”
“She talked to me.”
“Who?”
David's eyes filled with tears.
“She sounded like Mommy.”
Daniel froze.
His wife, Sarah, had died two years earlier.
A brain aneurysm.
Sudden.
Unexpected.
Devastating.
Daniel had spent two years trying to convince himself that his children were finally healing.
Now his seven-year-old son was telling him that a voice behind a hidden door sounded exactly like their dead mother.
“David,” Daniel whispered. “What did she say?”
David looked down.
“She told me Daddy was going to die.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“When?”
“Tonight.”
The basement seemed to shrink around them.
Daniel looked at Claire.
“You heard that?”
Claire nodded.
Her face was pale.
“She told me the same thing.”
Daniel stood.
“What?”
Claire's voice trembled.
“She said you would come home tonight.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You knew I was coming?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
Claire looked toward the hidden door.
“She always knows.”
Daniel's skin prickled.
“Who is she?”
Claire didn't answer.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“I don't know what she is.”
Daniel's eyes hardened.
“What does that mean?”
Claire lowered her voice.
“Your father called her the Keeper.”
The word seemed absurd.
But Claire wasn't smiling.
“Keeper of what?”
“Secrets.”
Daniel glanced toward the hidden door.
“What secrets?”
“Your family.”
A faint metallic click came from the wall.
Everyone froze.
Daniel raised the flashlight.
The hidden door had opened.
Only an inch.
Darkness filled the gap.
Then another click.
The door opened another inch.
David screamed.
“Close it!”
Daniel stepped in front of the children.
“Stay behind me.”
Claire grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Daniel pulled free.
“I need answers.”
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain it.”
Claire stared at the doorway.
“Your family has been hiding something for generations.”
“What?”
“A person.”
Daniel frowned.
“What person?”
Claire's lips trembled.
“Your father's firstborn.”
Daniel stared at her.
“My father had another child?”
Claire nodded.
“A daughter.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“She was born before you.”
“My father never had a daughter.”
“He did.”
“What happened to her?”
Claire whispered:
“They said she died.”
Daniel waited.
“But?”
Claire looked into the darkness.
“She didn't.”
A cold breeze came from the doorway.
The flashlight flickered.
Then something appeared in the darkness.
A pale hand.
Small.
Almost childlike.
It curled around the edge of the steel door.
Daniel instinctively stepped backward.
David buried his face against his sister.
Claire whispered:
“Don't look at her.”
Daniel couldn't move.
The hand slowly disappeared.
Then a woman's voice came from inside.
Soft.
Familiar.
Impossible.
“Daniel?”
His heart slammed against his ribs.
He knew that voice.
He had heard it every night in his dreams since Sarah died.
“Sarah?”
Claire grabbed his wrist.
“Don't answer.”
But Daniel was already crying.
“Sarah?”
The voice came again.
“Daniel...”
He took one step forward.
The darkness inside the room seemed to breathe.
Then the voice whispered:
“You shouldn't have brought the children home.”
Daniel stopped.
“What?”
The voice became colder.
“She knows about them now.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Who?”
Silence.
Then the voice answered.
“The woman who killed your father.”
Daniel's blood ran cold.
Claire suddenly dropped the key.
It struck the stone floor with a sharp metallic sound.
Daniel turned.
“Claire?”
She was staring at the floor.
Her face had gone completely white.
Because beneath the brass key...
something else had fallen from her pocket.
A photograph.
Daniel picked it up.
The picture was old.
Almost black around the edges.
It showed his father standing beside a woman Daniel had never seen before.
And between them stood a little girl.
Maybe seven years old.
Daniel stared at the child's face.
Then his eyes widened.
The girl had his eyes.
His exact eyes.
On the back of the photograph was a handwritten sentence.
Daniel read it aloud.
“IF DANIEL EVER FINDS THIS, IT MEANS SHE HAS COME BACK.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Behind the steel door, the woman began laughing.
And then the freezer behind them suddenly switched on by itself.
The motor roared.
The lights flickered.
David screamed.
“Daddy!”
Daniel turned toward the freezer.
The digital display on its side had illuminated.
But it wasn't showing a temperature.
It was counting down.
10:00
09:59
09:58
09:57
Daniel stared.
“What happens when it reaches zero?”
Claire whispered:
“We die.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Who dies?”
May you like
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
“All of us.”
