Chapter 10 - The Room Behind the WallEthan found the hidden room by following the sound.
Three knocks.
Then silence.
Three knocks.
He pressed his hands against the wall.
“Mom?”
A voice answered.
“Ethan.”
Claire.
He searched frantically.
A section of wood shifted.
A hidden door opened.
Claire stumbled into the room.
“Where's Dad?”
“I don't know.”
“Thomas?”
“Gone.”
“Richard?”
Claire shook her head.
“They took him.”
Ethan stared.
“Who?”
“Someone else.”
The room was tiny.
A table.
Two chairs.
A dead television.
And hundreds of photographs covering the walls.
Ethan recognized some of them.
His birthday.
His first day of school.
His mother's hospital visits.
Family vacations.
But there were photographs of things nobody should have seen.
Claire sleeping.
Daniel leaving work.
Richard meeting Morrow.
Ethan playing in the backyard.
Every major moment of his childhood.
They had been watched.
All of them.
Claire touched one photograph.
“I found this room years ago.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I was afraid you'd go looking.”
“What were they looking for?”
Claire stared at the wall.
“Your father's bloodline.”
“What does that mean?”
A monitor suddenly turned on.
A video appeared.
Thomas sat in a chair.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Hello, Ethan.”
Ethan stepped back.
Thomas continued.
“You're probably wondering why your mother is alive.”
Claire stared.
“I wanted you to understand something.”
Thomas leaned closer.
“Death is not always about the body.”
He pressed a button.
Another video played.
It showed a laboratory.
A pregnant Claire.
Daniel beside her.
Doctors surrounding them.
Ethan's stomach twisted.
The footage shifted.
A newborn baby.
Him.
A doctor held him.
Then someone walked into frame.
Richard.
He handed the doctor an envelope.
The doctor nodded.
Thomas's voice returned.
“Richard was assigned to your family before you were born.”
Claire whispered:
“No.”
Thomas continued.
“He wasn't supposed to become your stepfather.”
Ethan looked at her.
“What?”
“He was supposed to kill you.”
Claire began crying.
“But he changed.”
Ethan stared.
“He saved me?”
“Yes.”
Thomas's voice returned.
“And that is why Richard became dangerous.”
A new image appeared.
Richard hiding documents.
Richard sending money.
Richard meeting Daniel.
Richard helping Claire escape.
The picture of a murderer began dissolving.
Ethan realized something.
Richard had been working against Morrow.
Maybe.
Then the video changed again.
Richard stood before a mirror.
He whispered:
“I'll do whatever it takes.”
Thomas said:
“He betrayed us.”
Ethan asked the screen:
“Where is he?”
Thomas smiled.
“Buried.”
Claire grabbed Ethan's hand.
Then the screen displayed an address.
A cemetery.
And a time.
Midnight.
Thomas said:
“Bring your father.”
The screen went black.
Ethan looked at Claire.
“What happens at midnight?”
May you like
Claire whispered:
“Someone dies.”
