Chapter 2: The Voice in the Dark
I couldn't move.
Perrin's words were still ringing in my ears.
"She h*d her, Dad.
In the basement.
I heard her crying."
I turned to Rhea.
Her face had gone from white to something worse — calm.
Controlled.
Like she'd already planned for this moment.
"He's a child," she said quietly.
"He has nightmares.
You know that."
"Don't." My voice came out low.
"Don't you dare."
Perrin pressed his face against my shoulder.
"I'm not lying, Dad.
I'm not."
I believed him.
Every part of me believed him.
I started toward the basement door at the end of the hall.
Rhea moved faster.
She stepped in front of it, both arms out, her expression shifting into something I had never seen on her face before.
Fear.
Real fear.
"You don't want to go down there."
"Move."
"Please—"
"Move, Rhea."
She didn't.
So I handed Perrin to the housekeeper who had appeared in the doorway, and I reached past Rhea and pulled the handle myself.
The door swung open.
From somewhere below, in the dark, came a sound that stopped my heart.
A woman's voice.
Weak.
Barely there.
But I knew it.
I had known it for eleven years.
---
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What was waiting at the bottom of those stairs changed everything Perrin's father thought he knew.
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