Chapter 8 – Blood Beneath the Marble Floor
Chapter 8 – Blood Beneath the Marble Floor
The scream echoed through the underground chambers.
"EEMMAAA!"
Then—
BOOM!
A massive steel door slammed shut somewhere beneath the labyrinth, its thunderous impact rolling through the stone passages like an earthquake.
For a heartbeat, the darkness was absolute.
Emma couldn't even see her own hand in front of her face.
"Emma..."
Lily's trembling voice came from only a few feet away.
"They're coming."
Emma dropped to her knees and reached through the darkness until her fingers found the little girl's hand.
"I've got you."
Lily's icy fingers clung to hers with desperate strength.
"They'll hear us."
"They already know I'm here."
Far away, the alarm continued to pulse through the underground maze.
Not loud.
Steady.
Deliberate.
As though the house itself had awakened.
Emma switched on her flashlight.
The beam flickered weakly before settling.
The room of forgotten toys looked different now.
The shelves cast long, twisted shadows across the floor.
The music box had stopped.
Everything felt unnaturally still.
"Lily," Emma whispered, "how long have you been here?"
The little girl lowered her eyes.
"I don't know."
"Days?"
Silence.
"Weeks?"
Lily slowly shook her head.
"I stopped counting."
Emma's heart ached.
"What do they tell you?"
"That nobody is looking for me."
"And Ethan?"
A faint smile appeared on Lily's face.
"He said that wasn't true."
Emma helped Lily to her feet.
The child staggered slightly.
She was painfully thin.
Her oversized sweater hung loosely from her shoulders, and her sneakers looked at least two sizes too big.
"Can you walk?"
"I think so."
"We're getting out of here."
Lily looked toward the stone doorway.
"No."
Emma frowned.
"No?"
"They won't let us."
Emma knelt in front of her.
"Listen to me."
Lily's frightened blue eyes met hers.
"I'm not leaving without you."
For the first time in what seemed like months, the little girl looked as though she wanted to believe someone.
The alarm suddenly stopped.
Silence.
Then came another sound.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Water?
No.
Emma aimed her flashlight downward.
A thin red liquid trickled across the uneven stone floor from beneath one of the shelves.
Her pulse quickened.
She handed the flashlight to Lily.
"Stay here."
The child immediately grabbed Emma's sleeve.
"Don't."
"I'll be right back."
"They want you to look."
Emma froze.
"What?"
Lily whispered,
"The walls lie."
Emma remembered Ethan's diary.
Don't trust the walls.
She slowly backed away from the shelf.
The red liquid wasn't flowing naturally.
It formed a perfectly straight line across the floor.
Almost...
As though someone had poured it there.
A trap.
Emma searched the room carefully.
Behind the toy shelves she discovered another narrow passage.
Unlike the others, it sloped sharply downward.
The air flowing from it was noticeably colder.
Lily immediately became frightened.
"Not there."
"Why?"
"They call it..."
She struggled to speak.
"...the Red Hall."
Emma's flashlight illuminated dark stains covering the ancient stone steps.
Old.
Brownish-black.
Countless layers.
She didn't need anyone to tell her what they were.
Blood.
Years of it.
Above them, inside Sterling Manor...
Isabella stood alone in the grand ballroom.
The celebration was over.
The chandeliers had been dimmed.
Servants quietly removed the last traces of the previous night's gala.
She gazed across the polished marble floor.
Beautiful.
Pristine.
Untouched.
Marcus entered silently.
"The alarm was triggered."
"I expected that."
"Emma reached Seven."
Isabella nodded.
"And Lily?"
"Still alive."
A faint smile crossed Isabella's lips.
"Good."
Marcus looked confused.
"You wanted Emma to find her?"
"I wanted Emma to choose."
"Choose what?"
Isabella walked slowly across the ballroom.
"Every rescue requires a sacrifice."
Marcus remained silent.
Isabella rested one hand on the marble floor.
"So many people think evil is loud."
She smiled sadly.
"It never is."
Deep underground...
Emma and Lily descended into the Red Hall.
Every few steps, Emma noticed more stains on the walls.
Some looked decades old.
Others...
Much newer.
The passage widened into another chamber.
Emma stopped breathing.
Rows of stone pillars filled the room.
Each pillar supported the mansion above.
Massive marble foundations rested upon them.
This was the true skeleton of Sterling Manor.
The place where centuries of wealth literally stood upon hidden darkness.
Lily pointed upward.
"The ballroom."
Emma looked.
Through narrow gaps between the marble blocks, tiny vibrations rippled with every footstep above.
The glamorous ballroom sat directly overhead.
The realization hit her with horrifying force.
Every charity gala...
Every wedding...
Every celebration...
Had taken place above this room.
Above years of suffering.
Something glimmered beneath one of the pillars.
Emma approached cautiously.
It was a bracelet.
Silver.
Covered in dried blood.
She recognized it instantly.
Olivia Bennett.
Samuel had shown her old staff photographs earlier that evening.
Olivia wore the same bracelet in every picture.
Emma carefully picked it up.
Engraved on the inside were two initials.
O.B.
Lily whispered,
"She was nice."
Emma turned sharply.
"You knew Olivia?"
The little girl nodded.
"She came for me."
"When?"
"Before Ethan."
Emma's heart skipped.
"What happened?"
Lily looked toward the floor.
"They took her away."
"Where?"
The child slowly raised one finger.
"Below."
Again.
Always below.
Emma examined the nearest stone pillar.
Something had been carved into its surface.
Tiny marks.
Names.
Dozens of them.
Children.
Adults.
Dates stretching back nearly forty years.
One name caught her eye.
Catherine Sterling
William's first wife.
Emma frowned.
Officially, Catherine had drowned hundreds of miles away.
Why was her name beneath Sterling Manor?
Below it, someone had scratched three desperate words.
I NEVER LEFT
Emma stepped backward in disbelief.
A distant engine rumbled through the underground maze.
Heavy machinery.
Marcus's construction crew.
The transfer had begun.
Lily grabbed Emma's hand.
"They're moving him."
"We have to hurry."
"They'll close the Heart."
Emma tightened her grip on the flashlight.
"Then we stop them."
At that same moment...
William Sterling sat inside his private jet preparing to return to New York.
The mysterious photograph refused to leave his mind.
Against Marcus's advice, he had quietly hired an independent digital forensic expert to examine it.
His phone vibrated.
The report had arrived.
He opened it.
His hands began to shake.
The expert's conclusion was only one sentence long.
The image shows no signs of digital manipulation.
William read it again.
And again.
It couldn't be fake.
Which meant...
Ethan had never been in Maine.
He immediately called Isabella.
No answer.
He called Marcus.
Straight to voicemail.
For the first time in years, William Sterling felt something he rarely experienced.
Fear.
Back beneath the mansion, Emma noticed a strange groove running through the center of the chamber.
A rail.
Old steel tracks disappeared beneath the pillars.
Lily whispered,
"They move the walls."
Emma knelt beside the tracks.
Fresh grease.
Recently used.
The walls truly moved.
Not metaphorically.
Mechanically.
Entire sections of the underground maze could be rearranged.
No wonder no one could find Basement Seven.
It never stayed in the same place.
Emma followed the tracks with her flashlight.
They disappeared beneath the largest marble foundation supporting the ballroom.
There, hidden behind enormous stone supports, stood an ancient iron elevator cage.
Its doors hung slightly open.
A single brass plaque remained attached beside it.
Covered in rust, only a few words were still readable.
AUTHORIZED ACCESS
LEVEL H
Emma frowned.
"There isn't an H on the map."
Lily looked up at her.
"There isn't supposed to be."
Emma slowly pulled the iron gate open.
Inside the elevator, someone had written a message across the back wall in dried, dark-red letters.
Not paint.
Blood.
The handwriting was unmistakably adult.
Steady.
Deliberate.
May you like
It read:
"If you're reading this... William Sterling is not the man you should fear."
