Chapter 2 - The Escape
Tears blurred my vision as the weight of my sister's confession crushed my spirit.
For twenty years, I had believed my father was a coward who simply walked away from his family.
Instead, he had been lying cold in the dark while my mother smiled and collected his life insurance policy.
“I helped her move him,” Denise confessed on the video, her voice barely a hollow whisper.
“I was only sixteen, Claire, and she told me we would both go to prison if I didn't help her bury him under the new patio.”
The video suddenly cut to black, ending with a sharp, digital click.
Rage, hot and blinding, replaced the paralyzing shock in my veins.
I could not die in this storage unit, and I would not let them get away with this.
I wiped my eyes fiercely, using the faint light from my cell phone to scan the cramped space.
There was no cell service inside the metal box; the signal indicator read exactly zero bars.
I began frantically tearing through the boxes Michael had left behind, searching for anything I could use as a tool.
I found a heavy iron crowbar sitting at the bottom of a plastic bin filled with old car parts.
Michael always kept spare tools, a habit that was now going to save my life.
I wedged the flat edge of the crowbar into the tiny gap between the rolling door and the concrete floor.
I threw my entire body weight onto the iron bar, screaming with absolute exertion as my muscles burned.
The metal groaned in protest, bending slightly, but the heavy exterior padlock held firm.
I didn't stop.
I pumped the crowbar furiously, creating a gap just wide enough to slide my hand through.
I reached outside into the freezing night air, blindly grasping for the heavy master lock securing the latch.
I pulled a heavy steel wrench from my pocket and began striking the lock blindly through the gap.
One strike, two strikes, ten strikes.
On the eleventh hit, the cheap metal casing of the old lock shattered with a satisfying crack.
I kicked the door upward, tumbling out into the dimly lit asphalt corridor of the facility.
I gasped for the crisp night air, my lungs burning from the dust and adrenaline.
May you like
I was out.
Now, it was time to hunt them down.
