Chapter 2 - The Dark House
The sudden darkness swallowed the nursery whole.
I clutched Lily tighter, feeling her tiny heartbeat against my collarbone.
"Maya, lock the door," I whispered into the void.
I heard her scramble across the floorboards in the dark.
The heavy brass lock clicked into place just in time.
Footsteps creaked heavily on the wooden stairs outside the room.
"Maya, open this door right now," Carter's voice demanded from the hallway.
His tone had lost all its previous charm and was now cold and menacing.
"Get out of my house!" Maya screamed back, her voice shaking with rage.
"You are not taking my daughter anywhere."
Carter chuckled, a sinister sound that made my blood run cold.
"You do not understand what is happening," he said through the heavy wood.
"Evelyn has the car running, and we do not have time for your games."
I carefully moved away from the door and sat on the edge of the rocking chair.
Lily let out a soft whimper.
I gently rubbed her back, but my hand felt something warm and sticky.
Panic surged through my veins as I realized what it was.
"Maya," I gasped, holding my hand up in the faint moonlight filtering through the window.
"Her abdominal dressing is bleeding."
Maya rushed over to us and used her phone's flashlight to illuminate the baby.
The white gauze was soaked in fresh, bright red blood.
Carter had not just been holding the lamp to threaten us.
He had intentionally torn her surgical stitches before I stopped him.
He wanted her to bleed out so he could play the grieving father.
"We have to stop the bleeding," Maya panicked, grabbing a clean towel from the changing table.
She pressed it firmly against Lily's stomach.
The baby let out a sharp cry of pain.
"Shut that baby up and open the door!" Carter yelled, pounding his fists against the wood.
The door hinges groaned under his weight.
He was going to break it down in a matter of minutes.
I looked around the room for a weapon, but my eyes landed on the window.
"We have to climb out onto the porch roof," I told Maya.
"I am eighty-one years old, but I can still climb."
Maya nodded, tears streaming down her face as she secured the towel around Lily.
Suddenly, a deafening crash echoed from the first floor.
Someone had just smashed the glass of the kitchen window.
"Carter, they are inside!" Evelyn shouted from the driveway.
May you like
Carter stopped pounding on our door.
Heavy, unfamiliar boots began stomping up the main staircase.
