by Willow Rose
“Thank you,” Shannon said. “I’m sure glad you came by.”
“Say, aren’t you Shannon King?” she asked. “The singer?”
“Yes.”
“I believe we’re related then. My mother always told me we were. She’s your mother’s aunt, I believe? I think so. It’s far out, but as I always say, family is family, am I correct?”
72
May 2016
Shannon slowly felt better. Melanie poured her some water, which she drank till the dizziness went away. When she put the glass down, she suddenly remembered the girls upstairs. They hadn’t been screaming for a long time now and it was all eerily quiet from up there.
“The girls!” Shannon exclaimed.
“What was that?” Melanie asked.
She was holding Tyler so Shannon could drink and rest, tickling his tummy and toes. Now she was looking up.
“She’s keeping two girls up there, in a small room, locked up and strapped to chairs. We have to get them out of there.”
Melanie looked, startled. “What kind of a sick monster is this woman?” She handed Tyler back to Shannon.
“Don’t get me started. I’ll explain everything a little later, but now we need to get them out of this awful house.”
“Naturally,” Melanie said. “I’ll go up there and help them out. You stay here and rest.”
“There’s supposed to be this small room up…”
“On the fourth floor,” Melanie said. “I know exactly which one it is. We used to play up in that room until one of our neighbors told us what had happened up there. Awful story.”
Shannon moaned, still feeling the pain. “Kimberly has the key, I think. Try her pockets.”
Melanie went through Kimberly’s pockets and found a bundle of keys. “This ought to be it,” she said. “You’re in no shape to go anywhere. You wait here, dear, and I’ll get the girls. Now keep an eye on her. If she moves, you scream! Here’s the knife in case you need it.”
“I’ll call the police,” Shannon said, and looked for her phone while Melanie left her.
With Tyler clutched in her good arm, she searched the counter, but when she found it, she realized that Kimberly had smashed it. It was shattered into pieces on the counter. And there didn’t seem to be any landline around. Shannon would have to wait till Melanie came back down with the girls.
Shannon sat down with a deep sigh, holding Tyler close to her heart. “We’ll be out of here soon, baby. Don’t you worry. Mommy’s going to get you home with Daddy and your siblings real soon. Real soon. Mommy will never let go of you again. No, she won’t.”
Shannon looked at her beautiful boy and felt such happiness again, such joy to be with him again. Everything was going to be alright now, she thought, with a feeling of serenity and happiness.
She was so wrapped up in her relief, so much that she forgot to keep an eye on Kimberly and didn’t see it when she rose to her feet, grabbed a chair, and swung it at Shannon. Shannon was knocked backwards to the floor, while Tyler went flying. Shannon screamed and Kimberly grabbed the boy mid-air, then stood above her, her foot pressed against her chest, holding her down.
“Now, my dear Shannon. Say goodbye to your baby. You won’t see him again,” she said, pressing her high heel into Shannon’s chest. She reached over and pulled out a drawer with the other hand, while Shannon tried hard to get up, but couldn’t. Kimberly pulled out a corkscrew. She hardly looked at it before she leaned down towards Shannon and stabbed the corkscrew into her stomach. Then, without even blinking, she pulled it out through Shannon’s flesh before she stabbed it into her stomach once again.
73
May 2016
Kimberly stormed out of the kitchen and into the living room. She made it to the front door when she realized she didn’t have her keys and the top lock needed one. Kimberly cursed when she heard a car door shut outside and looked out. Five police cars had driven up onto the street and parked in front of her house. Out of one of them stepped Shannon’s fiancé, flanked by two detectives. They were pointing and talking about the house, running towards the stairs.
Kimberly let go of the curtain and stepped backwards. She turned and ran back into the hallway, towards the back door, when she spotted officers in the back yard as well. Two of them were approaching the door.
Now what?
The baby still tucked in her arms, Kimberly turned on her heel and stormed back into the kitchen, where Shannon was lying lifeless on the floor, blood gushing from her wounds. Kimberly stepped on her to get past her, then walked to the chest and pulled it to the side, using only one arm. Meanwhile, she heard the front door being knocked in and voices filling the living room. She also heard voices from upstairs, then steps and cheerful yelling and knew the girls were loose.
Kimberly pulled the hatch open, grabbed a flashlight from a drawer, took off her high heels and left them on the kitchen floor before she—with the baby in her arms—carefully climbed the steps into the darkness, closing the hatch behind her.
As soon as it was closed, she heard voices in the kitchen; she even believed she heard Jack scream Shannon’s name out, then ask for someone to call for an ambulance.
That should keep him busy till I get out of here.
Kimberly put her feet in the water and walked, her head bent so she wouldn’t hit the ceiling, flashlight in her other hand, slowly through the tunnel. She had only been down there to get rid of the bodies. First Joseph, then Rosa, and finally Bibby Libby. She had dragged them as far in as she had thought necessary so the smell wouldn’t reach her house. She knew a good part of the tunnel, but had never walked all the way through. She knew it was connected to the ocean at the other end, but she also figured it was a long walk before she got to it, since she didn’t live very close to the harbor.
But she knew that Bibby Libby and Betsy Sue had escaped through the tunnels and, if they could do it, then so could she. It couldn’t be that difficult, now could it?
The tunnels were cold and damp, and soon she was freezing. Every now and then her flashlight hit a rat and she shrieked, remembering the time the rat had crawled into the garbage disposal and she had been covered in its blood. Oh, how silly she had been back then, thinking it was the house, thinking the house was trying to drive her insane. How could a house do that? It wasn’t like it was alive. She didn’t believe in all those old stories, especially the ones about it housing ghosts. But she had used the old stories for the girls. So they didn’t feel so lonely growing up. She had told the girls about the ghosts living in the attic, but told them they were their friends that they could play with them, and even that they ate with them when they gathered at the dinner table. Like the dolls she had made the girls believe were real. In that way, when they asked to go outside and find friends to play with, she could tell them there was no need to. She could always make up new ghosts.
Kimberly knocked her head on the ceiling and cursed. The tunnel seemed to get smaller down here and she had to crouch even more. Her head was bleeding, she realized, when touching it with a finger.
How long is this tunnel anyway?
Kimberly snarled and shone the light in front of her, when suddenly she heard a sound coming from behind her. She gasped and turned to look. She couldn’t see anything, but could clearly hear the sound of steps in the watery tunnel.
They were gaining on her.
74
May 2016
I could see her flashlight ahead of me and I could hear Tyler crying, while carefully walking on the wet floor beneath me. I had no flashlight and my eyes had a hard time trying to acclimate to the darkness. It was hard to breathe in the heavy musty smell of moldy water. I lowered my head cautiously, to not hurt it on the lower ceilings.
I tried to judge how far ahead she was, but it was impossible. All I could see was her light far down the tunnel.
I tried to run, but the floor was slippery, and I didn’t want to risk falling and hurting myself. I was getting my son back, no matter what.
I had asked Bellini to call for the ambulance and she had told me she would stay with Shannon and go with her to the hospital, while I went to get my son. I kept wondering if I should have stayed with her instead, but how could I? My child, my baby was in this tunnel being abducted once again, and this time I had to stop it. I had a chance once I realized the woman had escaped through the tunnel. It wasn’t hard to guess, since her shoes were on the floor next to the hatch.
After going back to the police station, I had followed Shannon’s trail to track her down, along with Bellini and Nelson. The lady at the doll store had given me the number for Kimberly Milligan, the doll doctor. It was easy from there for the detectives to track her phone to her house, even though Bellini and Nelson kept telling me the house was abandoned and that no one had lived there since the nineties.
I was closing in on Kimberly, slowly but steadily. I didn’t know if she knew I was behind her or not, and I didn’t care. I was going to get her no matter what. I tried to run a little again, and for a little while it worked, but then the tunnel got narrower and I banged my head on the ceiling. I screamed in pain and felt my forehead. I couldn’t see it, but it was definitely warm blood I could feel.
I knew my scream blew my cover, and I sensed she accelerated. The light in front of me started to move faster, almost flickering.
She was running.
I sped up as well. Holding a hand to my hurting head, I ran through the water, my head lowered, my back bent, thinking only of my son and getting him back home with me.
If it’s the last thing I ever do.
I was faster than her, or maybe I was just more driven by my fear of losing my son once again, but soon I was gaining on her even more. Running, sometimes slipping and falling, I could soon see the back of her and hear my son’s crying very loudly.
“Stop,” I yelled. “Give me my son back!”
The woman continued, her feet splashing in the water. I was panting, breathing heavily, my heart pounding in my chest.
Almost there, almost there!
She could have been no more than a hundred feet in front of me, when she suddenly stopped. The light stopped moving, her back stood still.
Why has she stopped?
As I approached her, I realized why. The road was blocked. Big rocks had fallen and made the road impassable.
Of course. This is where the tunnel had collapsed when the building did. Ha! You’re not going any further, my friend.
With the prospect of actually getting to her, I slowed down a little to make sure I didn’t slip again, thinking there was no way she could get out of this, but of course I reached that conclusion too quickly. When I was almost there, I raised my gun towards her, since I didn’t know if she was armed or not.
“Hand over my son!” I yelled. “Hand him over now.”
But, as I came closer, I soon realized there wasn’t just one tunnel. The tunnels were connected underground, and soon the woman turned to look at me, then lit up her own face with her flashlight, showing a big smile, before she took off running to her right down another tunnel.
Oh, no!
Desperately, I started to run again, but as I reached the blocked part of the tunnel and tried to turn, I slipped and fell face-first into the water. I managed to hold the gun out of the water, with the result that my face fell all the way in. The water tasted so gross I almost threw up. I rose to my feet, only to see the woman’s flashlight disappear further down the tunnel.
“Stooop!” I screamed, then raised my gun and fired it in anger. I fired three shots, knowing I would never be able to hit her from this distance. The gun made a loud noise that echoed into the tunnels and the sound was overwhelming.
When it stopped, I was left in the greasy wet tunnel all alone, panting, breathing angrily, when suddenly everything was drowned out by another sound. A much louder sound than what my gun had provided. It sounded like a train.
The tunnel and the ground underneath me shook like an earthquake and I fell to my knees, holding my ears.
When it finally stopped, I rose to my feet and realized the flashlight had disappeared. Meanwhile, a cloud of dust emerged towards me and blew me to the ground once again.
When I managed to get up, I realized to my terror what had happened. The tunnel had collapsed! The tunnel that the woman had disappeared into with my baby had collapsed, probably from the loud noise of my gun going off.
“NOOO!” I screamed, and ran through the dust cloud towards where I had seen the light disappear, but when I reached it, there was nothing but rocks and debris.
“TYLER!!”
75
May 2016
I was digging with my bare hands. Removing rocks, digging through dirt. A crew of firefighters had joined me from inside the tunnel and some from above the ground, where they told me the floor had collapsed inside of a house, in the basement of another house that was being renovated.
Please God, please God.
There was dust and dirt everywhere. In my eyes, in my mouth, and nostrils. I coughed and spat, but never stopped digging.
“Please, my son is in there, please,” I pleaded. “Please, find him!”
The firefighters next to me removed rock after rock, while I scrabbled frantically through the rubble, but still no sign of either the woman or my son. Hope was oozing out of me slowly, and I was beginning to cry. It felt like so much time had gone by now, since the tunnel collapsed. Was there even the slightest chance that either of them could be alive at this point?
I didn’t dare to ask or even think about it. I didn’t know if Shannon was alive or not. I wasn’t going to lose the both of them in the same day. I simply refused to.
I dug my fingers into the dirt once again and scraped small rocks and soil away, while the firefighters removed the bigger bricks and rocks. They were working incredibly hard. I felt a hand on my shoulder coming from behind and turned to see Detective Nelson. He was the one who had called for the firefighters and had helped me dig until they arrived. He had a flashlight in his hand and in the sparse light from it I could see his face was covered in brown dirt.
“It’s been two hours,” he said.
“My son is in there. Under all that rubble.”
“I know. But I think that maybe…well, you know the chances aren’t very good for survival after this long.”
I shook my head in disbelief. I wasn’t going to give up. If I had to dig all night, then that’s what I would have to do.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I have to get back to digging. Every second counts.”
I fell to my knees again and dug my fingers into the dirt, while tears rolled across my face.
He’s not dead. He’s not dead.
I dug till I reached a big pile of bricks that I started to remove one after the other, the flashlight the firefighters had given me between my teeth. When I removed one at the bottom, I spotted something. A small finger was sticking out.
My heart dropped.
“Hey! I got something!” I yelled, then frantically dug and removed the bricks. Two firefighters joined me and we removed brick after brick till more of what I recognized as my son’s arm stuck out.
Oh, my God, oh, my God, please, please let him be…
I barely finished the thought before two of his tiny fingers moved. “He moved!” I almost screamed. “He moved his fingers!”
Crying heavily and breathing raggedly, I removed more bricks and stones until I, from under the rubble, heard faint cries.
“It’s him. It’s Tyler; he’s alive!” I screamed.
Seconds later, we removed the last of the rubble and I was able to pull out my baby boy from the debris. He was crying hard and the sound echoed in the tunnels, but it was the sweete
st sound I had ever heard.
“He’s alive! My baby boy is alive!”
Part IV
SURRENDER: To surrender is to abandon your hand, while recovering half of your initial bet.
76
May 2016
Shannon suffered severe damage to one of her kidneys as the corkscrew went through her, and she was in intensive care, fighting for her life for two days before the doctor finally told me she was stable.
My parents, Shannon’s mother and her sister Kristi, and all our kids were with me when he came out to tell us. Cheer and joy took over in the small room at the hospital, and I sunk to a chair, relieved.
They had examined Tyler, but as a miracle, he had suffered no injury from being buried under the rubble. Not even a scratch. It was amazing.
