Chapter 7 - The Breach
I didn't go back to the apartment. I grabbed Lily, packed our bags in three minutes flat, and drove three hours north to a remote hunting cabin owned by a friend. It was deep in the pine woods, off the grid, with a single dirt road in and out.
For two days, we sat in the silence of the woods. I taught Lily how to play chess. We baked cookies. For a brief, fleeting moment, I saw the ghost of her old smile return.
But on the third night, the storm hit. Thunder rattled the windowpanes, and torrential rain turned the dirt road into a river of mud. At 11:00 PM, the power abruptly cut out.
The cabin plunged into pitch blackness.
"Dad?" Lily's voice trembled from the sofa.
"Stay quiet, sweetie," I whispered, pulling my 9mm from my waistband and racking the slide. "Go into the closet. Do not come out unless I tell you to. Understand?"
She nodded in the dark, scurrying away.
May you like
I stood in the center of the living room, listening over the roar of the rain. Then, I heard it. The slow, agonizing creak of the back porch floorboards. A sharp click as the deadbolt was manipulated.
Marcus hadn't just found us. He had come to finish the game.
