Chapter 2 - Echoes Through the Wood
The sharp slam of the master bedroom door reverberated straight through the floorboards, rattling the fragile china vase on the entryway console. Lily flinched, pulling her knees tightly against her chest inside her stained white dress. Her shoulders shook as quiet, restrained sobs caught in her throat. She pressed her ear directly against the cold, painted wood of the white door, straining to catch every sound leaking from the forbidden room.
"You lost control out there, Mark!" Elena’s voice hissed from the other side, sharp and trembling with adrenaline. "If she connects the vegetables to the fire, we are finished. Everything we built will collapse in a single afternoon."
"I didn't mean to lose control," Mark growled back, his heavy footsteps pacing back and forth with relentless rhythm. "The girl is getting too smart, Elena. She’s testing us. Why else would she bring up the exact meal from the night the gas line ruptured?"
Lily’s breath hitched. Gas line ruptured? That wasn't what they told the police. The police reports had stated an electrical fault in the basement. Sitting alone in the dimly lit hallway, Lily’s small hands clenched into tight fists. Her mind raced back through the smoky haze of her memories, searching for the missing pieces of that terrifying night three weeks ago. She remembered the bright orange flames licking the kitchen counter, the smell of burnt plastic, and the sound of shouting. But most of all, she remembered hearing her parents arguing over a red gasoline container that definitely did not belong in the kitchen.
Inside the bedroom, the pacing suddenly stopped. A heavy silence fell over the room, thick and suffocating.
"She's still out there listening," Elena whispered, her voice dropping so low Lily had to strain every nerve to hear it. "I can hear her breathing against the wood."
"Let her listen," Mark replied coldly.
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The sound of a heavy wooden dresser scraping across the floor echoed through the door. They were barricading it. Not to keep intruders out, but to keep Lily from getting in—or to keep something else from getting out. Lily’s heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. She slowly pushed herself up from the dark rug, her legs trembling under her weight. As she turned away from the door, her eyes caught a faint, flickering amber glow coming from the end of the dark hallway, near the basement stairs. The basement door, which was always locked with a heavy padlock, stood wide open.
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