Chapter 4 - Locked Inside
The darkness was absolute.
Emily’s breath caught beside Daniel.
Someone struck the concealed panel from the other side.
“Sheriff?” a deputy shouted. “The door locked!”
Daniel reached for his phone.
Before the screen lit, Rex pressed his body against Daniel’s leg and stared toward the ceiling vent.
A soft hiss entered the room.
Daniel smelled something faintly sweet.
“Cover your mouths.”
He pulled his sleeve over his nose and grabbed Emily’s wrist.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Air system.”
Sheriff Cole turned on his flashlight.
A thin vapor had begun flowing through the vent above the child’s bed.
Keene backed into the wall.
“Oh God.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You know what it is.”
“No.”
“You recognized the smell.”
Keene shook his head too quickly.
Rex coughed once.
Daniel’s fear sharpened.
“Get the vent closed.”
One deputy dragged the mattress from the bed and lifted it against the ceiling. The room was too narrow to angle it properly.
Daniel climbed onto the frame, ripped the folded yellow sweater apart at the seam, and jammed the fabric into the vent slots.
The hiss weakened.
Emily swayed.
He caught her by the elbow.
“Stay with me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“Neither are you.”
Cole rammed his shoulder into the panel.
It did not move.
From the health suite, another deputy shouted that the electronic release was dead.
Daniel scanned the hidden room.
No windows.
No exposed hinges.
Camera above.
Ventilation duct.
Electrical conduit running low along the wall.
Someone had built the space to contain a child.
And to control the room from outside.
He knelt beside the conduit and pulled at the plastic cover.
Keene watched him.
“You’ll electrocute yourself.”
Daniel looked up.
“How do you know the system is live?”
The principal went still.
Cole turned.
“Answer him.”
Keene’s eyes moved toward the sealed panel.
“I assumed.”
“No,” Daniel said. “You remembered.”
Keene’s face tightened.
“I approved general construction. I didn’t design this.”
“But you know how it works.”
The vapor thickened near the ceiling.
Rex coughed again, lower this time.
Daniel tore the conduit cover free.
Inside were four low-voltage wires.
Red.
Black.
White.
Blue.
A magnetic lock system.
He had installed similar temporary units during overseas security work.
Cutting power might release the panel.
Or trigger another mechanism.
Emily crouched beside him.
“Which one?”
“Blue usually controls the lock.”
“Usually?”
“Usually.”
Cole drew a folding knife from his belt and handed it to Daniel.
“Do it.”
Daniel cut the blue wire.
Nothing happened.
Then the camera’s red indicator turned on.
A speaker hidden in the ceiling crackled.
A distorted voice filled the room.
“Daniel Mercer.”
Emily looked at him.
The others froze.
The voice continued.
“You always did move faster when the dog was in danger.”
Daniel’s blood went cold.
Cole stared at him.
“You know this person?”
“No.”
But the answer did not feel true.
The speaker clicked off.
A second hiss began from beneath the bed frame.
Daniel dropped to the floor.
A narrow nozzle had opened inside the wall.
He covered it with his palm.
Cold vapor burned his skin.
Rex moved beside him and nudged his arm, trying to pull him away.
“Stay.”
The dog obeyed, trembling with restrained urgency.
Cole and the deputies attacked the panel again.
Emily removed her denim jacket and pressed it around Daniel’s hand, helping seal the nozzle.
Her eyes watered.
“Who would know your name?”
“A lot of people.”
“Who would know Rex?”
Daniel did not answer.
The radio on his vest crackled.
Static.
Then Lily’s mother’s voice.
“Daniel? Something’s happening.”
He raised the radio with his free hand.
“What?”
“Lily’s bracelet is flashing.”
Daniel looked at the medical bands inside the metal box.
Their green indicators had begun blinking in the same rhythm.
All four devices.
Synchronized.
“What else?” he asked.
“Lily says the girl from the hidden room is still in the stadium.”
“How does she know?”
A pause.
Then the mother’s frightened whisper.
“Because someone just sent a picture to my phone.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“What picture?”
“Lily sitting beside Rex.”
“That was minutes ago.”
“No,” the woman said. “This was taken just now.”
Daniel looked up at the camera.
Its red light remained steady.
Someone was watching both rooms.
Then Rex lifted his head.
Beyond the locked panel came the faint sound of footsteps entering the nurse’s office.
Slow.
Unhurried.
A shadow appeared beneath the door.
The handle turned.
But the person outside did not open it.
May you like
Instead, a voice spoke through the panel.
“Principal Keene,” it said, “tell them why Daniel was brought here tonight.”
