Chapter 9 - The Wet Bear
Lily looked down at the floor beside the desk. Resting inside her cotton pocket was a small plastic bag containing the soaked, muddy stuffing she had pulled from her teddy bear after Ethan had retrieved it from the pool earlier that afternoon. When Claire had kicked her toward the pool, Claire hadn't been trying to drown Lily out of simple temper; she had seen the frayed stitching on the bear's back and realized the key was hidden inside.
Claire had attempted to throw both the child and the bear into the deep end to destroy the key and drown the only witness who knew where it came from. But Lily had been trained by her mother before her death to recognize the key on sight and keep it hidden at all costs.
A floorboard creaked in the hallway outside Room 17.
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Lily instantly clicked off her flashlight, plunging the room into absolute darkness. She held her breath, her small body freezing against the leather chair as the sound of soft, rapid footsteps approached the open doorway. The faint light from the hallway revealed a silhouette standing on the threshold—a disheveled figure wearing a dark coat over a torn burgundy dress.
Claire had escaped her confinement in the guest wing. She stood in the doorway, holding a heavy metal brass candlestick in her hand, her eyes wild with panic as her gaze swept the dark room.
