I didn't sleep.

Could I?

Not after what I heard.

Not after that weak, broken voice from within the wall.

Please… help me…

The voice had disappeared by morning.

Like it had never existed. It seemed like I was hallucinating. I knew better, though. I hadn't imagined it. Someone else was here

She was pleading for help too. By the time the guard came for me at dawn, I was already dressed. My hair pulled back, my expression blank. I slipped into the performance they wanted, the silent, obedient girl. The only one too terrified to fight back. But inside, I was burning.

I was shown a brilliant hallway I had never seen before rather than the war room. Delicate cream paint coated the walls. Big windows looked outside to the limitless mountains along one side. Isaac was standing at the end of the corridor as well. No tie, a fitted black suit, crisply unbuttoned collar shirt, and dark stubble along his chin. He seemed like sin made flesh. He also watched me as though he was aware of every thought in my head.

" You are up early," he said.

I shrugged. “Didn’t sleep well.”

“Hmm.” He looked amused. “Regretting your decision already?”

I didn’t answer.

He opened a door beside him. “Come. There’s something I want to show you.”

Inside was a high-tech surveillance room.

Monitors lined the wall. Camera feeds from every inch of the mansion and beyond. Some with time stamps. Some in night vision.

But that wasn’t what made my stomach twist.

It was what I saw on camera seven.

A corridor.

Narrow. Dimly lit. With steel doors on either side.

And from one of those doors… a hand.

Just a hand. Pale. Slender. Sticking out beneath a gap.

Clawing.

I stepped closer. My breath caught in my throat.

“Is this live?” I asked.

Isaac didn’t respond immediately.

Then: “Yes.”

“Who is that?” My voice cracked. “Why is she locked in there?”

He finally turned to me. “Someone who crossed me.”

“That’s your answer?” I snapped. “She’s a person.”

“And so were the men she helped kill,” he said, calmly. “Choices have consequences, Ariana. That’s a lesson you’d do well to remember.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. The hand had stopped moving.

“Is she still alive?”

“For now.”

I spun on him. “Why show me this?”

“Because you need to understand what happens when loyalty is broken.”

I clenched my fists. “You think this will scare me into obedience?”

“No,” he said simply. “I think it’ll remind you that not everyone gets to walk away.”

He was clearly trying to tell me what will happen to me if I disobeyed him.

I was sent back to my room after that.

Not locked in but watched. Always watched.

But something had changed. I was no longer terrified. I was angry.

And that anger gave me clarity.

There was someone trapped beneath this mansion. Maybe more than one. And no matter the risk, I had to find her and I had to leave this place because I don’t belong here never will.

That night, when the camera’s red light flicked off for exactly twenty seconds as the strange girl had told me it was go time.

I moved to the corner of the room, pressing lightly on the molding.

I’d spent hours pretending to read while secretly knocking along the walls with my knuckles. And there, in the far-left corner, the echo had been… off.

Hollow.

I pressed again and knelt.

Then I realized it.

A little give. A loose board.

I drew it back with thumping heart. There was a small tunnel under the floor. Wide only enough to crawl through. Dust heavy in the air. I paused half a second then went inside. The tunnel was darker than everything I had ever known. My breaths sounded too loud. My heart, louder.

But I kept going. It began to open slightly after a few minutes.

Another board above me.

I lightly urged it.

It creaked.

I held my breath and winced. Then slowly....I lifted it. And saw myself looking into something resembling an old wine cellar, bottles covered with dust on the shelves. Barrels.

Something, though, was not right. A steel door half-hidden behind a bookshelf. And from beyond it a sound. Crying. Extremely delicate. choked. I tiptoed closer. The door was closed, but there was a crack the light slipped through. I got on my knees and whispered, "Hello? Are you there?"

Silence.

Then

“Ariana?”

I froze.

How did she know my name? I asked myself.

“Who are you?” I whispered back, voice trembling.

“I was you… once,” she sobbed. “I thought I could survive him too.”

I clutched the doorframe. “What happened? What did he do to you?”

But before she could answer footsteps.

Close.

Fast.

Coming down the stairs.

I panicked, slipped back into the tunnel, pulled the board shut just as the door opened above.

Through a crack in the wood, I saw boots. Then the hem of a coat.

A man’s voice. Not Isaac’s. Harsher. Rougher.

“You talking to yourself again?” he growled.

A whimper.

Then a slap.

Hard.

I flinched.

“She doesn’t exist,” the man hissed. “Forget her. You’ll rot here alone.”

He turned and left.

I waited ten heartbeats, then twenty, before slipping back down the tunnel.

My body shook the whole way back. But not from fear.

From rage.

When I finally crawled back into my room and fixed the board, I curled up in bed fully clothed.

I didn’t cry. I couldn’t.

She’d called me by name.

And she’d said something else…

“I thought I could survive him too.”

That meant she hadn’t.

At least not fully.

And if I didn’t act fast I wouldn’t either.