Chapter 2 - The Sound beneath the Earth
Mark dragged me violently into the dark garage.
He slammed the side door shut behind us.
He threw me onto the cold concrete floor.
Pain shot through my shoulder.
I scrambled backward against a stack of dusty tires.
“Where is my son?!” I screamed.
Mark locked the side door and turned toward me.
His eyes were completely empty of humanity.
“You always had to ruin everything, didn't you?” he whispered.
The trapdoor in the floor opened further.
Clara climbed out of the dark hole.
She looked at me with tears streaming down her face.
“Mark, please don't hurt her,” she begged.
Mark ignored her completely.
“She isn't leaving this room, Clara,” Mark said softly.
I looked down at the dark trapdoor.
“Noah!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“Noah, Mommy is here!”
A tiny, muffled voice echoed from deep under the floorboards.
“Mommy?”
The sound broke my heart into a thousand pieces.
It was Noah.
He was alive.
I tried to rush toward the trapdoor.
Mark grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back.
I gasped in agony as he forced me to my knees.
“You're not going down there,” Mark snarled.
Clara stood frozen by the workbench.
“Clara, help me!” I pleaded, looking up at her.
“He’s abusing Leo too!”
“You know what he is!”
Clara flinched as if I had struck her.
“He promised me a family, Sarah,” Clara wept.
“He told me my ex-husband would take Leo away from me.”
“He said he would protect us if I helped him.”
“He’s using you!” I screamed.
“He used me, and now he’s using you!”
Mark pulled a thick roll of duct tape from his tool belt.
He bound my wrists tightly behind my back.
He shoved a cloth into my mouth and taped it shut.
I kicked violently against the floorboards.
Mark hauled me up and dragged me toward a small storage closet.
He shoved me inside and locked the heavy door from the outside.
Total darkness consumed me.
I could hear Mark speaking through the thick wood.
“We pack the car now,” Mark told Clara.
“We take both boys and leave state tonight.”
“What about Sarah?” Clara asked nervously.
“The house will catch fire after we leave,” Mark replied calmly.
“It will look like a tragic accident.”
“A grieving mother who lost her mind.”
His footsteps faded as he walked out of the garage.
I collapsed onto the wooden closet floor.
Tears burned my eyes as panic threatened to swallow me whole.
My son was feet away from me.
And we were both about to die.
I rubbed my bound wrists frantically against the sharp metal corner of a shelf.
The rough metal bit deep into my skin.
Blood pooled warm against my wrists.
I ignored the sharp pain.
I sliced the thick tape against the sharp edge over and over.
Snap.
The tape finally gave way.
I tore the gag out of my mouth and gasped for air.
I threw my weight against the locked closet door.
It didn't budge.
I looked around the dark closet frantically.
My hands brushed against a heavy iron crowbar leaning against the wall.
I grabbed the heavy metal tool with both hands.
I jammed the flat end into the door frame near the lock.
I pulled with every ounce of strength left in my body.
The wood groaned and splintered.
With a loud crack, the door flew open.
I stumbled out into the dimly lit garage.
The garage was empty.
Mark’s truck was still parked outside.
He was inside the main house packing their things.
I ran straight to the open trapdoor in the floor.
A rickety wooden ladder led down into the dark cellar.
I climbed down as fast as I could.
The air grew freezing cold and smelled of damp mold.
At the bottom of the ladder was a small dirt room.
A single bare lightbulb hung from a rusted wire.
In the corner sat a small wooden cot.
A tiny figure was curled up beneath a thin, filthy blanket.
“Noah?” I whispered, my voice breaking.
The blanket moved slightly.
A pale, frail boy sat up slowly.
His clothes hung loosely off his tiny frame.
His dark hair was long and matted.
He looked at me with giant, hollow eyes.
“Mommy?” he croaked softly.
I dropped to my knees and threw my arms around him.
He felt so small, so fragile.
I held him against my chest and sobbed uncontrollably.
“I’m here, baby,” I wept into his hair.
“Mommy is right here.”
“I’m never leaving you again.”
Noah buried his face in my neck.
“Daddy said you didn't want me anymore,” he whimpered.
“He said you sent me away.”
Anger burned like liquid fire in my veins.
“He lied to you, sweetie,” I said, kissing his forehead.
“I searched for you every single day.”
I wrapped his small body in my jacket.
“We have to go right now.”
I scooped him up into my arms.
He weighed almost nothing.
I carried him toward the wooden ladder.
Suddenly, a loud shadow blocked the light from above.
Mark was standing at the top of the opening.
He held a heavy metal red gasoline can in his right hand.
He looked down at us with a cold, terrifying smile.
“I knew you were too stubborn to die quietly, Sarah,” Mark said.
May you like
He unscrewed the cap of the gas can.
He began pouring yellow gasoline straight down the ladder.
