Chapter 1 - The Voice Behind the Oven
“An…na…”
The voice came from somewhere no human voice should have been.
Anna remained on the floor, one palm pressed against the polished wood behind her, unable to make her legs obey.
The old oven door hung open.
Beyond its cold metal interior, the narrow tunnel disappeared into absolute darkness.
And something inside that darkness was breathing.
Not growling.
Breathing.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Almost like someone whose lungs had forgotten how human breathing was supposed to work.
The enormous glassy eye disappeared behind strands of wet hair.
One gray hand remained curled around the edge of the tunnel. Its fingers were unnaturally long, the joints swollen into strange angles beneath slick skin.
Anna had screamed when she first saw it.
Now she could not make a sound.
Because monsters were not supposed to know her name.
Behind her, Lily whimpered.
Anna remembered the child.
She scrambled backward and immediately put herself between Lily and the oven.
“Stay behind me.”
Lily grabbed the back of Anna’s uniform.
Eleanor had gone pale.
For the first time since Anna had worked at the mansion, the glamorous woman looked stripped of arrogance.
Not surprised.
Not confused.
Terrified.
Anna noticed.
“You know what that is.”
Eleanor’s gaze snapped toward her.
“No.”
“You do.”
“Close the door.”
“What?”
“Close it!”
The creature moved.
Its fingers tightened against the metal.
Anna instinctively pulled Lily farther away.
But the creature did not crawl toward them.
Instead, the gray hand withdrew.
A faint scraping came from deeper inside.
Then something struck the tunnel wall.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
A pattern.
Anna listened.
Three slow knocks.
Two quick.
Three slow.
Her stomach tightened.
She knew that rhythm.
But she did not know why.
Eleanor lunged for the oven.
Anna caught her wrist.
“What are you doing?”
“Closing it.”
“Lily was trapped in there!”
“And now she isn’t.”
“That thing called my name.”
Eleanor stopped struggling.
For half a second, something passed across her face.
Recognition.
Then it vanished.
“You heard noises.”
“I heard my name.”
“You’re frightened.”
“So are you.”
Lily tugged Anna’s skirt.
Anna looked down.
The little girl’s cheeks were still wet. Red marks circled her wrists where the restraints had been.
“Lily,” Anna said softly. “Who put you inside?”
Lily looked at Eleanor.
Eleanor’s face hardened.
“Don’t.”
Anna crouched.
“You’re safe.”
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes, sweetheart.”
“No.”
Her huge eyes moved toward the oven.
“It made me safe.”
Anna stared.
“What?”
“The scary lady.”
Eleanor inhaled sharply.
Anna looked toward the tunnel.
Lady.
Was Lily calling the creature female?
“Did it hurt you?”
Lily shook her head vigorously.
“She gave me water.”
“How?”
Lily held her hands in front of her as though forming a cup.
“Her hands.”
Anna felt cold.
The creature had been close enough to touch Lily.
Yet the child had no scratches.
No bite marks.
Nothing except the restraints and tape—which had clearly been put there by someone human.
“Did she tie your hands?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Lily’s mouth trembled.
She looked toward Eleanor again.
Then toward the service-room doorway.
“A man.”
“What man?”
“The man with the shiny glasses.”
Eleanor suddenly seized Lily.
“We’re leaving.”
Lily screamed and reached for Anna.
“No!”
Anna pulled her back.
“Don’t touch her.”
“You work for me.”
“Not anymore.”
Eleanor’s expression became vicious.
“You have no idea what you’ve opened.”
A sound came from the tunnel.
Not a growl.
A desperate rasp.
Then:
“Li…ly…”
Lily stopped crying.
She turned toward the darkness.
Anna felt every hair on her arms rise.
The creature knew Lily’s name too.
Eleanor backed away.
That terrified Anna more than anything.
Because Eleanor did not look at the tunnel like a woman seeing a monster.
She looked at it like a woman seeing a secret that had escaped.
Anna grabbed her phone.
No signal.
Strange.
The service room normally had full reception.
She moved toward the door.
Still nothing.
Then the lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
From somewhere inside the wall came a low mechanical hum.
The oven was unplugged.
Anna knew because she could see the cord lying on the floor.
Yet a tiny red light appeared behind the tunnel.
Not on the oven.
Far beyond it.
Then another.
Then another.
A line of emergency lights illuminated the hidden passage one section at a time.
For the first time Anna saw how far it extended.
Not three feet.
Not ten.
It continued deep inside the mansion wall.
And halfway down the tunnel stood the creature.
Bent unnaturally beneath the low ceiling.
Thin.
Gray.
Covered in torn remnants of what might once have been clothing.
Long dark hair hung across most of its face.
But around its neck was something that did not belong on a monster.
A small silver chain.
Anna stopped breathing.
Something hung from it.
A crescent-shaped pendant.
Anna’s fingers instinctively touched her own neck.
Beneath her maid’s collar was an almost identical pendant.
She had worn it for eleven years.
May you like
One half of a matched pair.
The other half had disappeared with someone Anna had been told was dead.
