CHAPTER 2 — "THE MAN INSIDE THE COFFIN WAS STILL BREATHING."
I couldn't sleep that night.
Every time I closed my eyes...
I heard those three knocks.
Not once.
Not twice.
Three.
Exactly the way Dad had taught me during camping trips.
"If you're ever trapped somewhere," he'd laugh, "three slow knocks. I'll always come."
Now...
He was the one trapped.
And nobody was coming.
Except me.
At 2:13 a.m., I rode my bicycle through pouring rain toward Hollow Creek Funeral Home.
The building was dark.
Locked.
Silent.
But one window glowed faintly in the basement.
I climbed the fence.
The security cameras slowly rotated.
Dad had taught me something else.
"Cameras have blind spots."
Within minutes I slipped through an unlocked maintenance door.
The air smelled of bleach...
Fresh paint...
And something metallic.
Blood.
I followed muffled voices underground.
"...he's waking up again."
"He won't survive much longer."
"Finish it before morning."
My heart pounded so hard I thought they'd hear it.
Peeking through a cracked doorway, I saw my father's coffin.
Open.
Not buried.
Not cremated.
Open.
My father lay inside.
His wrists were strapped down with leather restraints.
A breathing tube rested beside him.
His mouth was covered with gray duct tape.
His chest rose...
Slowly.
Painfully.
He was alive.
Tears flooded my eyes.
"Dad..."
Before I could move...
Vanessa stepped into the room.
She wasn't crying anymore.
She was smiling.
"Increase the sedative," she ordered.
"If he wakes before the transfer, everything falls apart."
A man in a white doctor's coat nodded.
"But the dosage could stop his heart."
Vanessa shrugged.
"Then everyone will finally believe he's dead."
She placed a folder onto a stainless-steel table.
Across the front were the words:
TRANSFER OF CORPORATE CONTROL
Below them...
My father's signature.
Except...
I knew his handwriting.
This wasn't his.
It was forged.
Vanessa leaned over my unconscious father.
"You should've signed everything voluntarily."
She stroked his cheek.
"You made this so much harder."
Then she whispered words that made my blood run cold.
"When the lawyers confirm the inheritance tomorrow..."
"...your son will disappear next."
My knees nearly gave out.
She wasn't only stealing the company.
She planned to get rid of me too.
I reached for my phone.
Hands trembling.
I pressed RECORD.
Every word.
Every confession.
Every lie.
Then...
My foot landed on a loose metal tray.
CLANG!
The sound exploded through the basement.
Every head turned.
Vanessa looked straight toward the doorway.
For one terrifying second...
Our eyes locked.
She smiled.
"There he is."
She hadn't been surprised.
She'd been waiting.
The lights suddenly switched off.
Heavy footsteps rushed toward me from every direction.
And in the darkness...
I heard my father slam both fists against the inside of the coffin.
This time...
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He wasn't asking for help.
He was warning me to run.
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