Chapter 9 - The House Sinks
“Did you feel that? The whole floor just dropped an inch,” Eleanor cried out, grabbing Mark’s arm as a wave of vertigo swept through the parlor.
“Get Lily! We are getting out of this house right now, leave the boxes, leave the tray, leave everything!” Mark yelled, scooping up the crying little girl from the hallway corner.
“Wait, my briefcase with the corporate transfer deeds is on the desk in the study,” Eleanor panicked, turning back toward the corridor.
“The study is directly over the old mining shaft, El! Move!” Mark commanded, dragging his wife toward the front door as the heavy oak front frame jammed violently in its track.
“It’s stuck! The frame is warped!” Eleanor sobbed, throwing her weight against the wood while plaster dust rained down from the ceiling overhead.
“Step back, let me shoulder it!” Mark shouted, handing Lily to his wife before slamming his body against the reinforced mahogany door.
With a loud crack of splintering timber, the latch gave way, flinging them out onto the front porch just as the entire foyer floor behind them collapsed into the dark void.
“Oh my god... look at the porch pillars,” Eleanor whispered, staring back through the open doorway as the living room furniture slid backward into the dust-filled abyss.
“We need to get to the car, now!” Mark urged, carrying Lily down the front steps as the landscaping around the foundation began to buckle and sink inward like a giant sinkhole.
“My phone—it’s ringing inside the house,” Eleanor gasped, staring at her handbag which she had dropped near the foyer threshold.
“Forget the phone, El, the house is going down!” Mark shouted, pulling her across the gravel driveway toward their parked sedan.
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As they reached the vehicle, a final, thunderous roar echoed from beneath the lawn, swallowing the entire front porch into the earth in a cloud of choking gray dust.
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