‘Who knows we’re down here?’ asks Stephen.
‘We must have been followed after all,’ says Graham. He grabs the bars, noticing the padlock. ‘Where’s the key?’
Sophia sighs. ‘Dad always kept it on him.’
‘Stephen, time to put your lock-picking skills to the test once again. Did Frank have any means to communicate with you from the surface while you were down here? Are there cameras?’
‘Cameras no, but yes, he has a radio set up to talk to us.’
Graham nods, remembering the radio he’d spotted in the building above them. ‘Please fetch it. I have a feeling that those above us may wish to talk. They won’t get away with trapping us all down here. The village will talk. The last thing they’ll want is to draw attention to two more missing people.’
Sophia nods and runs down the dark tunnel.
Graham looks at Stephen, noticing his trembling hands. ‘Have faith, Stephen. We’ll get out of here.’ He doesn’t mention Stephen’s once crippling fear of the dark or the fact he was trapped in his basement by his own father many years ago. The similarities between Stephen’s childhood and Sophia’s are unsettlingly uncanny.
‘Just promise me something, Graham,’ says Stephen, stepping forwards to the padlock. He takes out his thin wire.
‘Anything.’
‘Never ask me for help ever again.’
Graham chuckles, knowing Stephen isn’t being serious. In fact, he’s proud of him for making a humorous comment at a time like this.
Fast footsteps approach. Seconds later, Sophia appears at the bars and passes Graham a walkie talkie. Graham takes it and switches it on, crossing his fingers that his gut instinct is correct and whoever is above them, is waiting by the radio he saw on the side, ready to talk to them.
The radio crackles.
And they wait …
Chapter 51
STEPHEN
Static splutters from the walkie talkie, filling the eerie silence around them.
‘Are you ready to talk, Mr Williams?’ comes the low voice of William Davies, the butcher.
Graham presses the button on the side. ‘What do you want? You can’t keep us down here. People will talk. Think about it, Davies.’
‘We only want the girl. We know she’s down there. We’ve been looking for her for a long time.’
Stephen shudders at the impersonal way Davies is describing Sophia, like she’s an object, not a human being. Stephen glances over at Sophia. She’s not a girl anymore. She’s a grown woman, having lived the past decade down in the dark and damp earth. She and her mother have finally been found. She deserves to have her voice heard. Stephen doesn’t know what the village committee have planned for her, but they do seem to think that she’s the answer to ending the curse.
But now that Frank is dead, surely his sacrifice is enough to satisfy them? According to Sophia though, the curse isn’t even real. Merely a spooky story the council has created to control everyone.
Stephen holds his breath as Graham continues to speak into the radio, taking full control of the situation.
‘No deal,’ he says.
‘Give us the girl and this is all over,’ comes the curt reply.
‘There has to be another way around this.’
There’s a long pause on the other end. Stephen wonders if they’ve given up, deciding to let them all starve to death down here, but then it crackles again.
‘Send up the journalist instead.’
Graham’s eyes swivel to his. Stephen gulps hard, sweat beading on his top lip and forehead, then nods once. He doesn’t know what awaits him, but he knows it’s the right decision. He can’t let them take Sophia. He’ll do whatever he needs to do to keep her safe.
