Chapter 10 - The Master Bedroom Secret
Elena rushed forward, scooping Lily up into her arms and pulling the toddler tightly against her chest. Lily felt ice cold, her skin radiating an unnatural chill that bit through Elena’s beige sweatshirt.
"We're leaving. Right now. We are going straight to the police," Elena panted, turning around to drag Clara toward the exit.
"Mom, look down," Clara whispered, her voice paralyzed with terror. She pointed a shaking finger at the floorboards where Lily had been standing.
The heavy, charred wood of the hallway floor was slowly parting, sliding apart like the gears of a hidden mechanism. Beneath the floorboards, exposed in the dim, dusty light, was a shallow concrete pit. Resting inside the pit was a human skeleton, draped in the remnants of a decayed purple dress, clutching a tarnished silver locket identical to the one Lily had found earlier.
Clara gasped, clapping her hands over her mouth to stifle a scream. "Is that... is that the woman?"
"Yes," a voice whispered softly right beside Clara’s ear.
Clara whipped her head around. The translucent woman was standing right beside her, so close Clara could see the intricate lace pattern of her decayed collar. The woman didn't look angry or malicious; her expression was one of profound, heartbreaking relief. She reached out a pale, shimmering hand and gently touched Clara’s cheek before fading into thin air like smoke caught in a breeze.
Elena felt her knees go weak. She held Lily tighter, backing away slowly toward the front door. "We're calling the police. Right now. We're getting you both out of this neighborhood."
They burst out of the abandoned house, scrambling down the rotted porch steps and running across the street back to their own home. Elena slammed their front door shut, throwing the deadbolt and locking every latch she could find. She grabbed her phone from the kitchen counter and dialed 911 with trembling fingers.
"911, what is your emergency?" a calm dispatcher’s voice answered.
"My name is Elena Vance," Elena blurted out, her voice frantic. "I live at seventy-eight Elm Street. There are human remains... skeletal remains... buried beneath the abandoned house across the street at eighty-four. The original builder... he murdered her back in 1994. You need to send someone right now!"
"Ma'am, stay calm," the dispatcher replied professionally. "Units are already en route to your location. Did you say seventy-eight Elm Street?"
"Yes! Please hurry!" Elena cried, dropping the phone onto the kitchen counter.
She turned around to look for Clara and Lily, but the kitchen was completely empty. The house was dead silent.
"Clara? Lily?" Elena called out, her heart dropping into her stomach as she walked toward the hallway.
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The door to the master bedroom upstairs stood wide open, and a trail of fresh dirt led straight across the clean white carpet toward the master closet.
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