‘Any last words?’ says a voice nearby.
Stephen feels the life, the words of the man from a hundred years ago enter his head. ‘The darkness is my friend. I shall live on.’
A loud smack echoes around him.
Hands grab at him.
Still, his eyes stay closed.
‘It’s all right, Stephen. I’ve got you, my friend,’ says a voicein the darkness.
Chapter 52
GRAHAM
Thirty minutes earlier …
Stephen disappears into the dark tunnel, leaving Graham with his phone light, which only has twenty-two percent battery life left. He doesn’t know what Stephen has planned, but he knows he must hurry to rescue Sophia and her mother from behind the bars and then race to save his friend too.
He gets straight to work, using the thin wire Stephen gave him to jimmy open the padlock. Stephen made it look easy. Sophia holds the phone light for him so he can use both his hands. It takes several frustrating minutes, but eventually, the padlock pops open.
Graham wrenches open the bars. ‘Fetch your mother,’ he says.
‘I … I can’t. I’m not strong enough to carry her. You’ll have to do it.’
Graham opens his mouth to ask what’s wrong, but it’ll only waste time they don’t have. ‘Take me to her,’ he says.
Sophia leads him along the tunnel. The further along he gets, the stronger the foul smell becomes. It’s a mix of damp, rot and sewage. To think, these women have beendown here for all this time. Sophia’s mother has been down here close to fifteen years. It’s unthinkable, unfathomable that a so-called loving husband and father could do this to the people he loved, even if it was to save them from certain death.
Sophia runs ahead, disappearing round the corner. There’s a faint light ahead. Somehow, Frank must have rigged up a lighting system, but when Graham arrives at the light he finds only a flickering lantern with a candle inside.
He stares around the small cave; the one room where Sophia and her mother have been living together. There’s a filthy mattress on the floor, covered in a dark blanket with a pillow, along with a couple boxes of vegetables and plastic bottles of water. A black bucket sits in the furthest corner, covered with a flat piece of wood; the origin of the rancid smell, he presumes.
That’s all there is here.
‘Jesus Christ,’ mutters Graham, not usually one to take the Lord’s name in vain. He looks around, searching, but something is missing.
‘Where’s your mother?’
Sophia points to a corner that’s shrouded in darkness. The candle’s light can’t quite reach that far. No sound or movement is coming from the area.
‘Sophia,’ he says solemnly. ‘Is your mother …’
‘She’s there. She’s just sleeping.’
Graham’s eyes flood with tears as he swallows down his overwhelming grief for the poor girl who’s been trapped down here in the dark with the body of her mother for God only knows how long.
‘I promise you that she will be brought to the surface, but right now, I need to get you out of here. Do you understand? I can’t take your mother with us, but I will personally see to it that she is taken care of once you are safe and I’ve rescued my friend.’
Sophia glances towards the dark corner where there’s a noticeable bump underneath the blanket. A cold shiver runs down Graham’s spine as Sophia approaches the body, kneels beside it and whispers a few words.
She joins Graham at his side seconds later.
‘Let’s go,’ she says.
‘Brave girl,’ says Graham.
They reach the bottom of the ladder. Graham climbs up first as he’s unsure if Sophia will have the strength to push open the trapdoor above. He hopes Stephen was able to wedge something into the hinges, enough so that it doesn’t form a tight seal.
