Chapter 2 - The Embalming Room
The cold metal of the gun barrel sent a terrifying shiver down Ethan's spine.
He squeezed his eyes shut, fully expecting a deafening gunshot to end his life.
Instead, Richard violently grabbed him by the arm and dragged him toward the heavy oak doors at the back of the chapel.
"Everyone stays exactly where they are," Richard barked at the trembling crowd of mourners.
He forcefully shoved Ethan through the swinging doors and into the dimly lit employee corridor of the funeral home.
The air back here smelled sharply of harsh chemicals and metallic cleaning supplies.
Richard marched them down the narrow hallway until they reached a thick steel door marked for authorized personnel only.
He punched a four-digit code into the keypad and shoved Ethan into the freezing embalming room.
The space was horrifyingly sterile, dominated by a sloping stainless steel table with deep drainage grooves.
"Sit in that corner and do not make a single sound," Richard ordered, locking the heavy deadbolt behind them.
Ethan huddled on the icy tile floor, his mind racing with terrifying thoughts of his mother trapped out there.
He watched in horror as Richard calmly pulled a large roll of heavy-duty plastic sheeting from a storage cabinet.
"Your mother was supposed to drift away quietly and leave us her insurance money," Richard said, methodically unfolding the plastic.
"Now I have to clean up this massive mess because a stupid kid could not leave well enough alone."
Ethan silently scanned the room for absolutely anything he could use as a weapon.
His eyes locked onto a tray of wickedly sharp surgical scalpels resting on a metal cart near the sink.
He knew he had to reach those blades if he ever wanted to see his mother alive again.
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Just as Ethan shifted his weight to crawl forward, a terrifying sound echoed through the sterile room.
The steel door behind Richard slowly creaked open, revealing a towering silhouette holding a long, bloodstained pipe.
