Chapter 1 - The Broken Oath
"What the hell do you think you are doing with that plate?" Mark shouted, his voice cracking with a raw, dangerous fury that echoed down the dim corridor.
"I promised I wouldn't tell," Maya whispered back, her lower lip trembling as she clutched the hem of her white sleeveless dress on the rough hallway rug.
"You don't understand the danger you've brought into this house, Maya! You could have gotten us all killed!" Mark stepped forward, his boots heavy against the floorboards.
"Stop it, Mark! Look at her! What's happening here?" Elena screamed, bursting into the hallway from the kitchen, her face drained of all color as she stared at the white door.
"Stay back, Elena! Both of you, get away from that door right now!" Mark ordered, dropping to his knees, his flashlight cutting a harsh beam across the dark floorboards toward the closed barrier.
"Mark, what is inside that room? Tell me the truth right now!" Elena demanded, her hands flying to her mouth as the terrible reality began to settle over her shaking frame.
"There's another girl in here," Mark muttered, his voice dropping to a terrifying, deadened whisper as the beam of his flashlight revealed a tiny, pale hand pressed against the gap beneath the locked white door.
The silence that followed was suffocating, broken only by the erratic hum of the hallway lightbulb overhead. Elena stumbled backward against the floral wallpaper, her eyes locked on the white door, which suddenly gave a soft, rhythmic tap from the inside. Maya grabbed a fold of my sleeve, burying her face in my shoulder as Mark’s hand hovered inches above the cold brass knob, trembling in a way I had never seen before.
"Dad... she told me her name was Lily," Maya sobbed quietly into the darkness, the words hanging like a curse in the heavy night air.
May you like
Mark froze, his flashlight beam flickering and dying out completely, plunging the entire corridor into total, pitch-black obscurity just as a small, muffled voice from inside the room began to softly hum a lullaby none of us had ever taught our children.
---
