She let go just as suddenly, and I spun around.
There she stood—the woman with the long white hair. Her face was shadowed, her eyes unreadable in the dim candlelight.
“What the hell are you doing?” My chains rattled as I held up my hands. My fingers were slick with sweat and blood.
“I didn’t do this,” she whispered, her voice tight with fury. “The monster did.”
My hands dropped to my lap. I stared at the ground, my brain spinning. Was she going to kill me? Or hold me here? Would Daniel tear this place apart with a jackhammer to find me? Would he be able to in time?
I had to be smart. Think. Work my way out.
Okay.
She believed there was a monster here.
Maybe I could make the monster a shared enemy.
“Quick,” I said, my voice shifting to a softer tone, a more believable one. “Untie me. Before the monster comes.” I nodded toward the strange objects in the room—the broken machines, the bed frame. “This looks like a dangerous place.”
She hesitated, then nodded slowly. Something in her shifted too. Enemy to ally.
“It is,” she said. “This was another of the first Winthrop’s secret rooms. A sick and evil one. He used to bring women down here. Desperate girls from the streets, starving, looking for work. He did horrible things to them. And his blood runs in the Winthrop men.”
“We have to hurry up, then,” I said. “Help me.”
Cynthia pulled a thin piece of metal from somewhere beneath her tattered dress and rushed toward my chains.
“I can’t believe those fools let you stay here during the storm,” she said, sliding the metal into the lock. Her fingers moved fast. “The monster wakes when hell’s gate opens. Even I can’t control him then. The storm gives him powers.”
“Who is the monster?” I asked, my voice low.
She froze. “You really don’t remember anything?”
I shook my head.
A crack of thunder exploded above us. It was louder than anything I’d ever heard before. The sound tore through theceiling and rattled the air. My body jolted as the floor trembled beneath my feet. The cold metal around my wrists and ankles vibrated against my skin. It sounded like the world was splitting open, like something ancient had just been unleashed.
Cynthia’s face twisted in fear. Her eyes widened. “Oh, no. He’s here,” she whispered. Then she spun and bolted toward the table.
“Wait!” I begged. “Please don’t leave me!”
“Be quiet!” she snapped before blowing out the candle.
Darkness fell like a curtain.
Not dim. Not dusk.
Pitch black.
No window glow. No slit of light under a door.
Nothing.
Just silence and my heartbeat in my throat.
I realized I’d never truly been in this kind of darkness before. My eyes widened as if my brain was trying to reassure me:Don’t worry, they’ll adjust, you’ll start to see shapes soon. But that moment never came. Nothing took form. No outlines. No shadows. Just a thick, suffocating black that pressed against my face like a blindfold.
Then a creak.
