Chapter 3 - The Room Behind the WallDaniel raised the gun.
Margaret didn't move.
Sarah's body screamed at her to run, but there was nowhere to go.
Leo was still pressed against her.
“You're lying,” Daniel said.
Margaret smiled.
“You've always hated that word.”
“Drop the photograph.”
“No.”
Daniel's finger tightened around the trigger.
Eleanor stepped into the hallway.
“Daniel.”
He looked at her.
“Don't.”
“Mother?”
“Don't shoot her.”
Margaret laughed.
“You see?”
She looked at Sarah.
“He still listens to her.”
Sarah finally found her voice.
“What happened eleven years ago?”
Eleanor stared at her.
“Nothing.”
Margaret answered instead.
“Everything.”
The police sirens were getting closer.
Daniel looked toward the window.
“We need to leave.”
“There is nowhere to go.”
“There is always somewhere.”
Margaret's eyes narrowed.
“Not anymore.”
Then she reached into her pocket and tossed something onto the floor.
A small brass key.
Eleanor's face collapsed.
Daniel stared.
Sarah recognized the engraving immediately.
The same tiny symbol on her necklace.
“Aster House,” Margaret said.
Sarah looked at the key.
“What is Aster House?”
Margaret turned toward her.
“This mansion.”
Sarah frowned.
“No.”
“Not the house you see.”
Margaret pointed toward the far wall.
“The house beneath the house.”
A sound came from somewhere behind the library.
A faint metallic click.
Sarah looked over.
“What was that?”
Margaret's face hardened.
“Someone activated the backup system.”
Eleanor whispered, “Impossible.”
Margaret smiled.
“You really thought destroying one camera meant destroying the evidence?”
Daniel backed toward the library.
“Stay here.”
Eleanor grabbed him.
“No.”
“I know where it is.”
“So do I.”
They ran.
Margaret looked at Sarah.
“Can you stand?”
Sarah tried.
Pain nearly made her black out.
Margaret grabbed her arm.
“Lean on me.”
Together they stumbled toward the library.
Daniel had already opened the hidden panel behind a bookshelf.
A narrow passage appeared.
Sarah stared.
“I've lived here for three years.”
“Most people live in houses,” Margaret said.
“Very few discover what they're built on.”
They entered.
The passage smelled of dust and old stone.
Leo began to whimper.
Sarah held him tighter.
At the end was a steel door.
Daniel was already there.
The brass key wouldn't fit.
He tried another.
Nothing.
Eleanor whispered, “The pendant.”
Sarah looked down.
“No.”
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
Eleanor lunged.
Margaret blocked her.
The two women collided against the wall.
Daniel grabbed Sarah.
Sarah screamed.
Leo began crying.
Daniel reached for the necklace.
Sarah bit his hand.
He cursed.
Margaret struck him across the face.
“Run!”
Sarah stumbled through the steel doorway.
Inside was a room unlike anything she had ever imagined.
Monitors covered one wall.
Shelves contained hundreds of labeled tapes.
Boxes.
Files.
Photographs.
A large black machine sat in the center.
Sarah saw a name written across the top.
ASTER ARCHIVE
Her eyes widened.
“What is this?”
Margaret entered behind her.
“The family's insurance policy.”
Daniel appeared in the doorway.
He no longer looked angry.
He looked defeated.
Margaret pointed at the shelves.
“Your mother recorded everyone.”
Sarah looked at Eleanor.
The older woman said nothing.
Margaret continued.
“Every conversation.”
“Every financial deal.”
“Every threat.”
“Every crime.”
Sarah stared at the mountain of evidence.
“Why?”
“Because your mother-in-law trusted no one.”
Eleanor finally spoke.
“I trusted myself.”
Margaret looked at her.
“And that's why you lost.”
Suddenly one of the monitors flickered on.
Static.
Then a grainy image appeared.
Eleven years earlier.
Eleanor stood inside the same room.
Beside her was a man Sarah recognized instantly.
Daniel's father.
But he was alive.
And he was saying something.
Sarah leaned closer.
The recording began to play.
“I know what you did, Eleanor.”
Eleanor in the present whispered one word.
“No.”
The man on the screen continued.
“And if anything happens to me, the police will receive copies.”
Daniel stared at the monitor.
Sarah turned toward him.
“What happened to your father?”
Daniel's face went blank.
The recording suddenly cut.
A timestamp appeared.
11:42 P.M.
Then another voice entered the audio.
Daniel's voice.
Much younger.
“Mom?”
Sarah looked at him.
Daniel stepped backward.
The recording continued.
“Mom, is Dad dead?”
Silence.
Then Eleanor's voice came through the speakers.
“Yes.”
Sarah froze.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“No…”
The recording continued.
“Now help me clean the floor.”
May you like
Sarah stared at Eleanor.
And somewhere above them, the mansion's grandfather clock began striking midnight.
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