Chapter 6 - The Basement Cell
Caleb didn't take the elevator. He slowly, painfully walked down the heavy stone stairs into the dark, subterranean medical wing of the estate. Every step was agonizing, but the sheer, volcanic rage burning in his chest fueled his muscles.
He approached the old, reinforced steel door of the storage room. The lock was heavy and biometric. Only Dr. Vance had the clearance.
Caleb didn't try to guess the code. He raised his handgun and fired three deafening shots directly into the electronic locking mechanism. The steel door violently clicked open.
Caleb kicked the door inward.
The room was damp and completely stripped of comfort. Huddled in the corner on a small, dirty mattress was a fragile, terrified woman. She threw her hands up to protect her face, completely blinded by the sudden light.
"Elena," Caleb choked out, his voice cracking with raw, unadulterated agony.
She froze. She slowly lowered her thin arms. Even after two years of darkness and starvation, her eyes were unmistakably hers. She looked at the man standing in the doorway, completely stunned that he was out of the wheelchair.
"Caleb?" she whispered, her voice incredibly weak, utterly convinced she was hallucinating.
Caleb dropped his gun and fell to his knees on the concrete floor, pulling the woman he loved into a desperate, crushing embrace. She buried her face in his black dress shirt, sobbing with pure, agonizing relief.
May you like
"He told me he severed your spine," Elena wept, clinging to him. "He said if I ever screamed, he would give you a lethal dose and claim it was a heart attack."
👉 Caleb held his broken fiancée, but the sound of footsteps behind them meant the doctor had finally returned.
