Chapter 1 - The Innocent Informant
The afternoon rain hammered relentlessly against the towering glass windows of the secluded Moretti estate.
Clara Bennett scrubbed the marble floor of the downstairs corridor until her knuckles turned pale and white.
She wiped the sweat from her exhausted forehead and prayed her three-year-old daughter was safely asleep in the servants' wing.
But little Mia was not in her bed.
The tiny girl had quietly climbed the grand mahogany staircase while clutching her battered stuffed rabbit.
She effortlessly slipped past the expensive security cameras that were supposedly monitoring every inch of the mansion.
Mia pushed her small body against the heavy wooden door of the forbidden medical suite until it slowly creaked open.
Lorenzo Moretti lay completely motionless in the center of the massive, sterile room.
Complex machines hummed a steady, rhythmic tune around his lifeless form.
Mia climbed onto the green velvet chair and dragged it right next to his pillow.
"I came back to finish my song," she whispered in her sweet, innocent voice.
She quietly sang the rest of the melody about the sunshine and the gray skies.
Deep inside his comatose mind, Lorenzo heard every single terrifying and beautiful word.
He felt a tiny spark of warmth blooming in the endless, suffocating darkness that held him prisoner.
Mia stopped singing and gently patted his cold, unresponsive hand.
"Uncle Giorgio was here earlier," the little girl casually stated.
Lorenzo's internal world suddenly froze with an overwhelming wave of sheer terror.
"He went into the secret door behind the big books," Mia continued without a care in the world.
"He put a little black thing in his pocket and looked really, really mad."
Nurse Elena Whitmore stood completely paralyzed in the doorway holding a clipboard.
She had heard the child's innocent confession and felt the blood drain from her face.
Elena slowly turned her head to look at the massive antique bookshelf across the room.
She walked over with trembling steps and pressed her palm against the dark wood.
The heavy shelf clicked softly and swung open a fraction of an inch to reveal a hidden steel safe.
Elena gasped loudly as she saw a collection of strange, unlabeled medical vials sitting next to a black syringe.
She suddenly realized exactly why her wealthy patient had not woken up in seven weeks.
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Before she could scream or run for the telephone, a massive hand clamped violently over her mouth.
"Little girls shouldn't tell tall tales," a deep, chilling voice whispered right into her ear.
