Chapter 7
The childish giggle bounced off the charred wooden studs of the collapsed staircase, light and musical, sending an electric shock straight down Mark’s spine. Detective Vance froze mid-sentence, his hand hovering over his radio as he slowly turned his flashlight toward the dark, gaping void where the upper steps used to be.
“Did you hear that?” Mark whispered urgently, grabbing Vance’s forearm with a grip like a vise. “That was Lily. That was my daughter!”
Vance swallowed hard, shining the bright beam of his flashlight up into the charred skeletal remains of the second-floor landing. Nothing moved in the beam except swirling particles of grey ash dancing in the cold draft.
“Mark, listen to me very carefully,” Vance said, his voice dropping to a stern, professional whisper. “There is no little girl in this house. The fire took everyone. You have to let go.”
“She’s right up there!” Mark yelled, ignoring the detective’s warning as he lunged past him and began scaling the unstable, burnt wooden beams of the staircase.
“Mark, stop! The structure is compromised! You’re going to bring the whole roof down!” Vance shouted, sprinting after him and grabbing the back of Mark’s dark shirt.
Mark shook him off with a furious twist of his body, hauling himself up onto the charred remains of the second-floor hallway. The floor beneath his boots groaned in protest, a sickening sound of splintering timber that echoed like breaking bones. But Mark didn’t care; through the thick haze of dust and soot, standing near the threshold of what used to be the master study, was a small figure in a glowing pink dress.
“Lily!” Mark cried out, stretching his hand desperately toward her across the ruined floorboards.
The little girl turned her head slowly, the harsh light from Vance’s flashlight catching her face—revealing not a bruised cheek, but smooth, porcelain skin untouched by any violence, smiling serenely.
“Daddy, you took too long,” Lily’s voice echoed clearly through the empty, burnt shell of the house, though her small mouth never moved an inch.
Mark lunged forward to grab her small hand, but his boot heel caught on a jagged nail protruding from a burnt floor joist, sending him crashing hard onto the unstable wood.
“Mark!” Vance yelled from below, hauling himself up onto the landing just as the ceiling above them groaned with a horrific, metallic shriek.
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Mark rolled over onto his back, coughing violently as a massive section of the charred roof beam cracked loudly directly above the little girl’s standing spot.
“Get out! Now!” Vance roared, diving forward and grabbing Mark by the collar, dragging him backward across the collapsing floorboards just as tons of burning timber crashed down right where Lily had been standing a second before.
