Chapter 2 - The Grate
William put Eva behind him.
“Go into the living room.”
“But Daddy—”
“Now.”
Eva hesitated.
Then Lily’s voice came weakly from below.
“It’s okay, sweetheart.”
Eva looked at the grate.
“You know my name?”
“I heard your daddy say it.”
William felt sick.
How long had she been underneath them?
Days?
Weeks?
He turned toward Claire.
“Open it.”
Claire shook her head.
“You don’t understand.”
“Open it.”
“There’s nothing down there you should see.”
William stared at her.
“A woman I know is asking me for help under our kitchen.”
Claire whispered:
“William, please.”
He grabbed a fireplace poker from beside the hearth and wedged it beneath the grate.
Claire rushed forward.
“Don’t!”
That single word confirmed everything.
William forced the grate loose.
Below it was not a drainpipe.
There was darkness.
Then a narrow vertical shaft.
And at the bottom—
a face.
Lily Bennett.
Thirty-six years old.
Pale.
Exhausted.
Alive.
William had attended her memorial service four years earlier.
Everyone had been told Lily disappeared during a hiking trip.
Her abandoned car had been found near a state forest.
Police eventually presumed she had died.
William had known Lily since high school.
More importantly—
Lily was Claire’s younger sister.
William stared at his wife.
“You told me she was dead.”
Claire began crying.
“I thought she was.”
Lily’s voice came from below.
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“No, you didn’t.”
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