CHAPTER 4 – THE NINETY-NINTH SOUL
Emily's pulse thundered in her ears.
Noah's whisper echoed over and over inside her mind.
"Don't trust me."
She stared at her brother in disbelief.
"What do you mean?"
Before Noah could answer, the elderly man in the black suit slowly removed his leather gloves.
His hands looked unnaturally young.
Not a single wrinkle.
Not a single scar.
Yet his face appeared to be well over eighty years old.
He smiled as though he had all the time in the world.
"My name is Victor Ashcroft."
"I've been waiting for you since the night your brother disappeared."
Emily instinctively stepped backward.
"You know why Noah was taken?"
Victor chuckled.
"Oh, my dear..."
"I was the one who chose him."
Gasps spread through the prisoners.
No one dared look Victor in the eye.
Emily clenched her fists.
"You murdered these people!"
Victor sighed.
"No."
"I rescued them."
He spread his arms toward the underground village.
"Look closely."
Emily finally noticed something impossible.
Every prisoner looked healthy.
No one appeared hungry.
No one seemed sick.
Despite being trapped for decades...
Not a single person had aged.
Victor smiled proudly.
"Time doesn't exist here."
"A single day above the ground..."
"Can become years below."
Emily stared at Noah.
That explained everything.
Seven years had passed outside...
Yet Noah had barely changed.
Victor continued calmly.
"The world above steals everything."
"You grow old."
"You lose the people you love."
"You die."
"But here..."
"I defeated time itself."
Emily shook her head.
"This isn't life."
"It's a prison."
Victor's smile slowly disappeared.
"So was the world above."
Silence filled the cavern.
Then Victor looked directly at Noah.
"Tell her."
Noah closed his eyes.
His voice trembled.
"I brought others here."
Emily felt the ground disappear beneath her feet.
"What?"
Victor laughed softly.
"Your brother became my greatest hunter."
Emily stared at Noah in horror.
"No..."
He couldn't even meet her eyes.
"I had no choice."
"They said they'd kill everyone if I refused."
Victor nodded.
"So he lured lonely hikers."
"Runaway children."
"Lost travelers."
"Every missing person Blackwood has ever mourned..."
"Came here because Noah convinced them to trust him."
Emily stepped away from her own brother.
Tears streamed down her face.
"You lied to innocent people?"
Noah collapsed to his knees.
"I was trying to save them."
"You don't understand."
"If someone escaped..."
"Victor would choose another family."
"I couldn't let that happen."
Emily's heart shattered.
The brother she had spent seven years searching for...
Had become part of the nightmare.
Suddenly...
The Labrador barked wildly.
Not at Victor.
Not at Noah.
At the silver pocket watch in Victor's hand.
The dog lunged.
CRASH!
The watch flew across the stone floor.
The instant it struck the ground...
Every light in the underground village exploded.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then...
For the first time...
Victor screamed.
A scream filled with pure terror.
"No!"
"You fool!"
The ground began to shake violently.
The stone walls cracked open.
Dust poured from the ceiling.
The prisoners looked around in panic.
Their faces...
Started changing.
Within seconds, wrinkles appeared.
Hair turned gray.
Skin aged before Emily's eyes.
Some prisoners who had looked twenty suddenly became seventy.
Others collapsed instantly into piles of bones.
Emily watched in horror as decades of stolen time returned all at once.
Victor desperately crawled toward the broken pocket watch.
"Give it back!"
"You have no idea what you've done!"
Noah grabbed Emily's arm.
"We have to leave!"
"But the others—"
"It's too late!"
Then...
The Labrador picked up one tiny object that had fallen out of the shattered watch.
A tiny golden key.
Etched into it were three words.
PROPERTY OF BLACKWOOD LABORATORY
Emily froze.
Laboratory?
This wasn't ancient magic.
This wasn't a curse.
Someone...
Had built this place.
Someone was still funding it.
And somewhere above the forest...
May you like
The real people behind Victor Ashcroft were waiting.
To Be Continued...
