Chapter 5 - The Basement Trap
I scrambled down the stairs and grabbed my children by their hands.
I shoved them frantically behind the massive metal furnace in the darkest corner of the room.
The basement door swung open, and bright yellow light flooded down the wooden stairs.
Ryan walked down slowly, holding a heavy tactical flashlight in his right hand.
He swept the blinding beam of light across the dusty, cluttered room.
I held my breath and tightly covered my daughter's mouth so she would not make a sound.
The beam of light passed mere inches over our heads, illuminating the dust particles in the air.
Ryan muttered a frustrated curse word and assumed the noise was just a rat in the walls.
He turned around, walked back up the stairs, and slammed the heavy wooden door shut.
I exhaled a shaky breath of relief, thinking we were finally safe.
Then I heard the unmistakable metallic click of a heavy padlock sliding into place on the outside.
He had completely locked us inside the windowless basement.
I rushed up the stairs and pushed against the door, but it would not budge an inch.
We were trapped like animals in a cage while they finalized the theft of my life.
A strange hissing sound suddenly broke the silence in the room.
I smelled the sharp, unmistakable and toxic scent of natural gas leaking into the enclosed space.
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Ryan had intentionally kicked the old gas valve on his way up the stairs.
He was not just trying to steal my house; he was trying to erase the evidence with an explosion.
