Chapter Fourteen
Mac
“It looks like…a tunnel.”
Roxie slips back in the hole and bends down to take a closer look. The hole seems to go back further.
“We need flashlights.”
“We need to be careful.” I remind her gently. “We don’t know if it’s safe or if the tunnel will collapse if we start poking around in it.”
“I have a snake camera we can run through the tunnel, find out what’s at the end of it if nothing else.”
“Go grab it, Tray, and try to keep this between the four of us.”
He nods and takes off running. He’s back in hardly any time at all. We get busy working the camera into the hole while the girls watch on the video feed that Tray has set up close by.
“Mac! Mac! You’re going to want to come up here and look at this!”
I pull myself from the hole and go take a look. The image staring back at me has my brows climbing upward. “What the fuck?”
“It’s…it’s a door.”
“Do you think it’s a basement access?” I shake my head and run my hand down Cori’s back. I know that would be easier for her. I have no talents, and even I feel…something dark waiting behind that door.
“I want to know what’s behind it. Don’t you?”
“I do…But I want everyone to be safe too.”
“I’ll go.” I turn to look at the small woman standing beside me. “I…I think I need to go find out what is behind that door.”
I step closer to her, not liking the idea at all.
“Is this because of what you saw?”
I make sure my words don’t rise above a whisper so only she can hear them. She meets my eyes and gives me a quick nod.
“There’s a reason we found it the way we did, Mac. There’s a reason both of us were led here.”
“Fine, but I’m going with you.”
I look over to find Roxie staring at the two of us. She pulls Cori a few feet away.
“Does he know?” Cori nods.
She turns to me. “He…realized when he looked back over the footage of our EVP session.”
This time, Roxie looks at me, too. “Something showed up on the voice recorder?”
This time I answer her, “And more. I’ll show you when we get back. For now…,”
“Go get the hard hats? Got it, boss.”
Once we are all suited up in overalls and hard hats, we crawl into the tunnel on our hands and knees. I take a small camera that I hook onto my hard hat and go in first.
“Be careful right here, Cori. It gets slippery.”
I turn back and help her find her hand placement before we continue going further into the hole.
It gets bigger and bigger the further it goes back, until I can finally stand up if I crouch low.
I help Cori to her feet, and we stand looking at the door.
I test the knob, and it swings open, letting out a woosh of stale, stagnant air.
Thoughts of mold spores and bad air have me checking my air quality monitor hooked to my belt.
“How long do you think that thing has been closed up?”
“Hard to say, really. I just hope our monitors are working properly.”
I take her hand and walk through the settling dust and gloom as we use a larger flashlight to give us more light than the ones on our hard hats.
“What the hell?”
“It looks like…like a bedroom.”
In the middle of the room sits a bed with a lamp on the table beside it and books and a little hand mirror.
“What is this place?” Our lights flash over the unsettling scene.
“I don’t know. It’s not on any of the blueprints for the house.” I know. I studied them extensively before I even got the go-ahead on the show. When I’m investigating a place, I am very thorough.
“It damn sure isn’t in the history of the island.” She gives me a cute as fuck look before taking another step into the room. “Why…why does it feel so…?”
“Repressive down here?”
“I was going to say terrifying, but yeah, repressive fits too.”
“There is a sense of…unease that just clogs the air. I'm not sure what it is?” I watch as she looks over everything in the room. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah. I’m good. For now.”
She goes over to a picture sitting on a dresser. When she turns to me, her eyes are huge and scared. “It’s…it’s Jebidiah Anders, Mac.”
“The cult leader?”
I take the picture from her trembling fingers and bring it closer to the light. She starts pulling the drawers out like she’s looking for something.
“All these clothes? They’re all women’s clothing.”
“This is…what? A hidden bedroom?”
“This isn’t a bedroom. It’s a cell.” She starts yanking out the drawers now and dropping them on the floor behind her.
“How do you know, Cori?”
She sticks her hand through one of the holes and pulls out a thick leather-bound book.
I cut the feed to my camera. “How did you know that was there?”
“I don’t know. I just…did.”