She leads me to the end of the hallway and pulls out a set of keys from her pocket. We stand before a large, imposing door. I keep looking over my shoulder to make sure we’re not being followed. There’s something… secretive about this.
She unlocks the door, revealing a set of stairs that lead down into darkness. “He’s down there.”
My body doesn’t move. “Is he really?” Or is this woman just trying to lead me down there so I can be killed?
“I’m not trying to hurt you, child. I’m trying to help. He’s down there. Here.” She hands me a small key. “Use this. You’ll need it.”
“You’re not going down with me?” I clench the key tight in my hand.
“I don’t like being down there. But your father is there. You can get him. But you need to do it now before…”
My heart rate spikes. “Before…?”
“Beforehecomes back.”
Her words startle me so much into standing up straighter. “Who is he?”
“The one who owns this house. Now, go get your father back. I never agreed with this. I don’t like what he does but he pays well and is nice to me. A woman has to do what she has to do to survive in this world. But I can see you’re an innocent, young woman. You don’t deserve to lose your father. So go down there and get him back. Hurry.”
I have so many questions but none of it matters. All that matters is finding my father.
My footsteps are loud on the stone steps. The air is cold the further down I go. My breath shows when I exhale and goosebumps break out on my skin.
When I reach the end of the steps, I stumble forward. In the darkness, I can’t make out anything. There has to be a light somewhere.
My hands fumble on the wall until I touch something. A light switch. I flip it on to reveal… a prison cell. The room I’m in is more like a dungeon. Cold, stone walls. Leaky ceiling. Musty smelling. The one light up ahead is small and only showcases a tiny bit of the room. The rest is still covered in darkness. The light itself is fluorescent, making everything seem colder and more sickly.
None of this matters though. All that matters is what I see before me: my father, stuck inside the small prison cell.
“Aurora?” he groans, his eyes widening. His voice sounds like he hasn’t had water in days. And it’s been days since he just disappeared out of my life. “What are you doing here? You need to leave this place. Now.”
I don’t listen to him and instead surge towards the cell. I unlock it with the key the woman gave me. “Dad, what happened? Why are you in here?”
He doesn’t get off the floor.
“What are you doing?” I ask. “We have to leave. Now.”
“You’re better off without me. I’ll only get you hurt. You came here and this is the last place I ever wanted you to be. You have to leave. Please, Aurora. Just go.”
“But I can’t survive without you.” My tears hit me before I can stop them. “I barely make enough money to eat without you. I can’t take care of the cottage. And money isn’t even important. What’s important is that you’re my father. I love you. Why are you doing this? Come on. We have to hurry. That woman said we had to leave before he came back. I’m not sure whoheis butwe have to leave. Now.”
At my words, my dad gets to his feet. Finally. Relief fills me for just a moment before he nudges me back and shuts the door of the cell, locking himself back in.
“Dad? What are you doing?”
“You don’t know the life I once lived,” he says. “The life I left when I had you. To protect you. But we were low on money. I didn’t want you to starve forever. I’m so sorry, Aurora. I got us in this mess but you don’t deserve to be dragged into this life. So go. Please. Just go.”
My dad was always a thin man but in the four days since I’ve seen him, he looks even more gaunt. It’s shocking how fast a person can deteriorate.
“The life you lived?” I shake my head. “What are you talking about? What life?”
“The mafia,” he hisses, gripping the bars. “So you need to leave now.”
I suck in a breath. “The mafia? Are you… are you saying… Who did this to you? Who put you in here?”
When I went in search of my father, I found one of his friends – an older man named Antonio who would come around occasionally – who led me straight to this gothic mansion. He had mentioned that my father had got into trouble and that most likely he was here as punishment. I tried asking Antonio for more but he refused to answer and only told me, ‘good luck.’ That was it.
I came straight here afterwards, in the pouring rain and darkness, to find my father locked in a cell.
