Chapter 2 - The Underground Ward
I plunged down the narrow concrete stairs without a single thought for my own safety.
The damp air smelled heavily of bleach and old copper.
My flashlight beam cut through the darkness to reveal a massive, sterile hallway hidden directly beneath our ancestral home.
Armed guards wearing unmarked black tactical gear were patrolling the corridor.
I recognized the insignia on their shoulder patches immediately.
They did not belong to the Rossi family.
They were mercenaries hired by the Moretti syndicate, our oldest and deadliest rivals.
My own mother had invited our greatest enemies directly into our home to guard her twisted secrets.
I raised my weapon and fired twice, dropping the closest guard before he could even raise his rifle.
The hallway erupted into absolute chaos as alarms began to blare overhead.
I ducked behind a steel medical cart as bullets tore through the drywall around me.
I returned fire with deadly precision, clearing the corridor one agonizing step at a time.
I kicked open the door at the end of the hall, desperate to find the source of the terrible scream.
Inside the surgical room, a young maid from our estate was strapped to a chair, bleeding heavily.
She sobbed uncontrollably when she saw me standing in the doorway.
She confessed that she had tried to sneak a phone to Grace a few hours ago.
My mother caught her and ordered the mercenaries to torture her for information.
I quickly cut the tight ropes binding her wrists and asked where they had taken my pregnant wife.
The maid gasped for air and told me they took Grace to the delivery ward at the far end of the bunker.
I handed the maid a spare pistol and told her to run back up the stairs.
I reloaded my weapon and marched toward the heavy double doors of the delivery ward.
When I pushed the doors open, the room was completely empty and freezing cold.
There was a massive pool of fresh blood on the sterile surgical table.
A baby's silver rattle was resting right in the center of the dark red stain.
Then the intercom speaker in the corner of the ceiling suddenly cracked to life.
May you like
My mother's voice echoed through the empty room with chilling calmness.
She told me I was exactly ten minutes too late.
