Chapter 3 - The Man in the Walls
The officers froze, looking from the nurse to Reena with sudden suspicion.
Reena's flawless mask of grief slipped for just a fraction of a second, revealing a flash of genuine panic.
"She's a traumatized toddler, she has an overactive imagination!" Reena snapped, her voice suddenly losing its tearful edge.
The taller officer slowly took his hand off my shoulder, though he didn't unlock the handcuffs.
"What exactly did the child say, ma'am?" the officer asked the nurse, pulling out his own notepad.
"She said mommy locks them in the dark room when the man in the walls gets angry," the nurse read directly from her notes.
I felt a chill run down my spine that had nothing to do with the night air.
My brother's house didn't have a basement, and I had helped him build every inch of the interior renovations.
There was no space for a man to hide in those walls, unless Reena had altered the house after Aaron's death.
"This is absurd, my children need me, give them back to me!" Reena demanded, stepping aggressively toward the nurse.
The second officer put his hand up, stopping Reena in her tracks.
"Ma'am, given the severity of the boy's injuries and this new statement, we have to let Child Protective Services take emergency temporary custody."
Reena let out a visceral scream of rage, dropping the innocent widow act entirely.
They uncuffed me, but warned me that I was still a person of interest and was not allowed near the children either.
I watched as a social worker arrived to take Drew and Lily to a safe location for the night.
As they wheeled Drew out on a stretcher toward a transport ambulance, I managed to step close to him.
He looked exhausted, his leg wrapped in a heavy cast, but his eyes were sharp and alert.
As the paramedics pushed him past me, Drew reached out and slipped a crumpled piece of paper into my coat pocket.
I waited until I was alone in my car in the hospital parking lot before I turned on the dome light and unfolded it.
It was a crude drawing done in blue crayon, showing a floor plan of his house.
At the very center of the hallway, right behind the hallway mirror, Drew had drawn a thick black door covered in red scribbles.
May you like
At the bottom of the page, in shaky childhood handwriting, he had written a single, terrifying sentence.
"He comes out when the mirror opens."
