Chapter 4 - The Trapdoor SecretWe slipped out of the master bedroom and crept down the short hallway toward the guest room, which connected to the flat roof above the garage—our only viable escape route since the main hallway led straight past Adrian’s study.
As we passed the basement door, a low, metallic click echoed from the darkness below.
I froze, pulling Lily flat against the wall beneath a large oil painting of our wedding day. I held my breath, straining my ears against the pounding of my own heart.
Click. Whir-r-r.
It was the electronic override system of our smart home hub. Adrian had programmed the house security locks to engage automatically at 5:30 AM every morning to "keep us safe from intruders." But right now, sitting in the dim gray light of dawn, I realized the horrifying truth: the system wasn't designed to keep people out.
It was designed to keep us in.
From the bottom of the basement stairs came the muffled scrape of heavy boots against concrete. A beam of white light swept across the floorboards under the door, casting long, eerie shadows.
Adrian’s voice drifted up, low and chillingly calm.
"Almost time," he muttered to himself.
May you like
I grabbed Lily’s hand, tears finally spilling over my lashes, and sprinted the final few feet into the guest room. We climbed out the window onto the shingled roof, the cold morning rain instantly soaking through our clothes, and dropped silently onto the soft grass of the backyard garden just as a loud, mechanical clack echoed through the entire frame of the house.
The deadbolts had thrown. The doors were sealed.
