Chapter 6 - The Basement Descent
The blinding light pinned them exactly where they stood.
"Did you honestly think it would be this easy?" Richard's voice echoed through the pitch-black chapel.
He was limping heavily, but the unmistakable silhouette of his raised handgun was visible behind the harsh beam of light.
Claire instinctively stepped in front of Ethan, shielding his small body with her own.
"Let the boy go, Richard," she pleaded, her voice trembling with sheer terror.
Richard laughed, a cold and hollow sound that made Ethan's blood run completely ice-cold.
"There are no loose ends in this business, Claire," Richard replied calmly.
Ethan grabbed his mother's hand and yanked her hard to the left, diving behind a massive row of wooden pews.
A loud gunshot shattered the silence, and a bullet ripped through the velvet cushioning right where they had just been standing.
"Crawl toward the choir door," Claire whispered urgently into Ethan's ear.
They moved on their hands and knees, expertly using the heavy wooden benches as cover while Richard blindly fired another shot.
They reached the side door and slipped quietly into a dark stairwell leading down into the basement.
The air here was freezing and smelled heavily of damp earth and gasoline.
Ethan firmly gripped the bloody scalpel, refusing to let go of his mother's trembling hand.
They navigated the maze of dusty storage boxes and massive heating units, desperately looking for an exit door.
Suddenly, a massive metal cage descended violently from the ceiling, slamming heavily onto the concrete floor.
They were completely trapped inside a heavy steel enclosure designed to store expensive caskets.
Mister Vance stepped out from the shadows, holding a remote control unit in his massive hand.
"The basement is a dead end, Claire," Mister Vance said with a wicked grin.
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He slowly walked over to a heavy metal valve on the wall and began turning it.
A thick, pungent smell of raw natural gas immediately began to fill the enclosed basement.
