Chapter 10 - The Masterpiece Undone
Thwack!
A three-inch steel framing nail slammed into the concrete wall a fraction of an inch from my right ear, showering my cheek with sharp shards of stone and cement.
I didn't hesitate. I grabbed Clara by her tattered collar and shoved her violently through the open hatch after Sophie, diving in right behind them as a second pneumatic nail hissed through the air, grazing the fabric of my jacket and burying itself deep into the iron doorframe.
I slammed the heavy iron hatch shut from the inside, dropping the thick security latch into place just as Vanessa’s frantic fists began pounding against the metal from the other side.
"Open this door, Mark! You can't escape my house! I designed every inch of it!" her muffled screams echoed furiously through the steel.
"Your design has a fatal flaw, Vanessa," I shouted back through the hatch, pulling Sophie into my arms as I began to crawl upward through the narrow, damp concrete drainage pipe toward the dim light at the end of the tunnel. "You forgot to account for the truth."
We scrambled through the final twenty feet of the drainage shaft, bursting out into the cool, damp night air of the municipal storm ditch behind our suburban street. Sirens wailed in the distance—the automated cloud backup of the SD card had finally triggered a priority emergency dispatch to our address.
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As we collapsed onto the damp grass, catching our breath under the pale moonlight, I looked down at Sophie. She was safe, clinging to my chest with a quiet, resilient strength. Beside us, Clara lay panting on the grass, staring up at the starry night sky with tears streaming down her hollow cheeks.
Down the block, the red and blue flashing lights of police cruisers and ambulances illuminated the front facade of our custom-built home. Officers were already swarming the front porch, battering down the reinforced front door that Vanessa had spent years locking away from the world.
