Chapter 3

Tethered by an unseen force, my spirit floated after my three furious brothers, my heart sinking lower with every step.

Fuelled by righteous rage, they marched straight down to the basement where the cellar door stood barred.

"Alyssa! Hiding in there quietly won't save you from your punishment!" Julian barked.

Only heavy, suffocating silence answered him from the dark space beyond.

Carter's face contorted with disgust. "Alyssa, cut the damn crap! Get out here right now and get on your knees!"

"Don't think you can escape the consequences of trying to kill Maya just by turning off your phone and playing dead!"

Leo's eyes flashed with pure venom. "You're really testing our patience, Alyssa. You can't stand seeing us treat Maya well, so you're giving us the cold shoulder to spite us?"

"You think locking yourself in the cellar and throwing a tantrum is going to make us beg for your forgiveness?"

Still, there was no sound. Not a shuffle. Not a breath.

Julian turned his sharp, icy glare toward the trembling maids standing in the hallway. "Why are you shaking? Tell the truth. Did that little brat bribe you? Did you secretly let her out behind our backs?"

Carter sneered. "With her rotten temper, she probably couldn't last an hour down there and begged the staff to let her out the second we drove off to the hospital."

Leo looked deeply disgusted. "She almost killed our sister, and she doesn't even have the spine to face the music? Is this really the girl we raised?"

"Does she honestly think she's our only sister?"

The head housekeeper trembled violently, stammering, "M-Mr. Vance, we swear on our lives! Without your explicit orders, we wouldn't dare unlock the door! Miss Alyssa really has been locked inside for three whole days!"

Julian stared at the utterly motionless cellar door, a sudden, inexplicable dread prickling at the back of his neck.

He stepped forward and violently yanked at the handle, but the heavy door wouldn't budge.

"Alyssa! Enough is enough! The chain is off, and you're still pulling the door shut from the inside, aren't you?"

I looked at the warped, dented metal near the latch and offered a sad, ghostly smile.

When the air had thinned to nothing, I had hurled my body against that door, throwing all my weight into it just to catch a sliver of oxygen, just trying to survive.

The door had been bolted from the outside with heavy crates piled against it; my frantic hits had only warped the hinges, sealing it even tighter. I had died choking on my own screams.

Brothers, when you finally see what's left of me, will you spare me even a tiny shred of pity? Will you bury me next to Mom and Dad?

Julian's frustration boiled over. Losing his patience, he kicked the heavy wooden door with all his might.

Crack.

The warped door splintered, opening a narrow gap. A wave of sickening, nauseating stench billowed out into the hallway.

One of the maids gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth, her voice quivering with terror. "That... that smells like a corpse!"

Carter and Leo stormed forward, scowling.

"What corpse? She probably snuck out days ago and tossed a dead rat inside to freak us out!"

"Alyssa, do you really take us for fools?!"

Losing their tempers entirely, all three men kicked the door together.

BAM!

With a deafening crash, the heavy door flew open. A foul, overwhelming stench of advanced decomposition flooded the corridor, exposing the dark, narrow confines of the cellar to the bright light above.