Chapter 2 - The Second Door
Caroline went completely pale and her breathing became sharp and shallow.
She stepped toward Lily and sternly told her to stop making things up.
But my daughter ignored her mother and pointed her small finger toward the dark passage.
Lily bravely declared that there was another room hidden deep inside the walls.
My mind raced as I looked from the strange photograph to my terrified wife.
I demanded to know who this child was and why she was living like a prisoner.
Caroline covered her face with her trembling hands and began to quietly sob.
She begged me to just put the vent cover back and pretend I never saw anything.
I refused to listen to her insane request and grabbed a flashlight from the nightstand.
I told Lily to step back and I forced my shoulders through the narrow opening.
The crawlspace smelled heavily of mildew and old dust.
I crawled on my hands and knees over exposed wooden beams and fiberglass insulation.
The little girl scrambled backward into the darkness to lead the way.
I followed her deeper into the architecture of my own seemingly normal suburban home.
Beyond a pile of dirty blankets I found a section of the wall that did not belong.
It was a heavy steel door completely concealed behind the wooden framing.
I pushed against the cold metal but it would not budge an inch.
The strange door was securely locked from the other side.
I shined my flashlight around the frame looking for a hidden keypad or a keyhole.
There was absolutely no way to open it from inside the dusty crawlspace.
Then someone standing on the other side of the heavy steel knocked three times.
The rhythmic thumping echoed loudly through the hollow walls of the house.
I froze in place as a bead of cold sweat rolled down the back of my neck.
I heard the sound of Caroline crawling into the dark passage right behind me.
She grabbed my ankle and tugged on my leg with frantic desperation.
I shined my light back at her tear-stained and terrified face.
Caroline stared at the locked metal door with wide unblinking eyes.
Then she whispered the sentence that made me stop breathing entirely.
She said they were not supposed to still be here.
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A loud mechanical click suddenly echoed from the other side of the wall.
The heavy steel door slowly began to creak open into the pitch-black void.
