Chapter 3 - The Tunnel Under Blackthorn
I grabbed Lily first.
Claire grabbed my sleeve.
"Not the hallway."
"Why?"
"Because that's where they want us to go."
The second steel door began to open.
Vanessa shoved past me and kicked a metal cart sideways. It slammed into the track, jamming the door after six inches.
A gloved hand appeared through the gap.
Then a gun barrel.
I pulled Lily down.
The first shot cracked into the ceiling.
Claire screamed.
Vanessa grabbed a fire extinguisher and blasted white powder through the opening.
Someone cursed.
I stared at her.
"You knew this would happen."
"I knew it could. Move."
We ran through the storage room and into the servants' corridor.
Vanessa opened a panel inside the linen closet and revealed a narrow staircase I had never seen.
That was the second secret hidden inside my own home.
"How many of these are there?" I demanded.
"More than you want to know."
We descended into darkness.
Lily clung to my neck. Claire moved behind us, one hand gripping the rail, the other pressed to her side.
The stairs ended in a brick tunnel that smelled of wet stone and old metal.
"My grandfather built Blackthorn House in 1938," I said. "There is no tunnel on the plans."
Vanessa laughed once without humor.
"The public plans."
Claire looked at me.
"Your family didn't build homes, Daniel. They built systems."
"For what?"
She didn't answer.
We followed the tunnel beneath the garden to an old carriage house near the back gate.
A black SUV waited outside.
I stopped.
"Whose car?"
Vanessa tossed me the keys.
"Mine. Registered under another name."
"Of course it is."
Lily whispered, "Dad, are we running from the bad people?"
I looked at Claire.
She looked terrified.
"Yes, sweetheart," I said. "For now."
We drove to a private urgent care clinic owned by a doctor I had known since college, Dr. Evan Brooks.
He nearly dropped his clipboard when he saw Claire.
"Daniel..."
"Don't say her name."
He locked the front door.
Claire refused police, refused an ambulance, and refused to let Vanessa leave her sight.
Evan examined her behind a curtain while I sat with Lily in the waiting room.
Vanessa stood near the window.
"Tell me everything," I said.
"Not here."
"You lost the right to choose where."
She turned.
"And you lost the right to pretend you know your family."
I stood so fast the chair scraped backward.
"My daughter just found her mother imprisoned behind my wall. Be very careful what you say next."
Vanessa's expression softened for one second.
"That's the problem, Daniel. You think the room was built for Claire."
The curtain opened.
Evan stepped out holding an X-ray.
His face was pale.
"Daniel, I need you to see something."
He pointed at a tiny object beneath Claire's collarbone.
A tracking capsule.
But that wasn't what made Vanessa sit down.
Stamped beside it on the scan was a serial number.
HAYES-07.
I stared at the image.
"Seven?"
Claire's voice came from behind the curtain.
"Because I wasn't the first person your family put in that room."
---
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://vibe.treeiq.biz
May you like
New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
