Chapter 50
GRAHAM
As soon as the loud thud appears from above, Graham knows they are trapped. He turns to Sophia, whose eyes have turned to saucers. She grasps the bars, her knuckles white, shaking her head side to side in quick succession.
‘Sophia, is there another way out? How did your dad get in and out all the time?’
‘As far as I know, he used the ladder every day, but as he’s got older, he’s been making the trip less and less. We have stores of food down here, but we have run out once or twice.’
‘Where is your mother?’ asks Graham, looking behind her into the darkness.
‘She’s resting.’
‘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 …