Chapter 2 - The Ghost of Charleston
I couldn't move,
I couldn't speak,
I could only watch the man I thought was dead.
My father,
Thomas,
was adjusting a small oil lamp,
the light dancing in his eyes.
Emily looked up and saw me standing in the shadows,
but she didn't look afraid.
She looked disappointed,
a look that hurt more than any scream ever could.
"You followed the path,"
she said,
her voice devoid of any warmth.
"I didn't think you would have the courage to leave her side."
I stepped into the light,
my legs feeling like they were made of water.
"Dad?"
I whispered,
the word feeling foreign on my tongue.
Thomas turned toward me,
his expression a mixture of sorrow and a strange,
distant pity.
"Hello,
David,"
he said,
his voice exactly as I remembered it from my dreams.
"You’ve grown into a man who looks just like his grandfather,"
"but you have the heart of a servant."
"How is this possible?"
I asked,
my mind reeling.
"The funeral... the grave... Mom told me..."
"Your mother told you what she needed you to believe,"
Thomas interrupted.
He walked over to a small table and picked up a glass of water.
"Eleanor didn't want a husband she couldn't control,"
"and when I tried to leave her,
she made sure I vanished."
"She didn't kill me,
David."
"She simply convinced the world I was gone,"
"and she kept me here,
in the bowels of this house,
as her silent prisoner."
"I escaped into the walls years ago,"
"living in the spaces she forgot existed."
I looked around the room,
noticing the small stove,
the books,
and the hidden vents.
He had been living beneath our feet,
watching us,
listening to us,
for three decades.
"You let me grow up without a father,"
I said,
a sudden,
sharp anger cutting through my shock.
"I didn't have a choice,"
Thomas said,
his voice cracking.
"She told me that if I ever showed my face,"
"she would ensure you were sent away to a place where I would never find you."
"I stayed to be near you,
David."
"I watched you take your first steps through the vents in the library."
"I heard you cry when you fell off your bike."
"And I heard her poison your mind every single day."
Emily stood up,
walking to my side and looking at me with those haunted eyes.
"He found me weeks ago,"
she said.
"He heard her talking to me,
heard her threats."
"He opened the panel for me last night when you turned that key."
"He saved our child from the woman you choose to serve."
I looked at Emily’s stomach,
realizing the magnitude of my failure.
I had almost let my mother destroy the only good thing in my life.
"I'm sorry,"
I whispered,
the tears finally beginning to fall.
"I was so blind,
Emily."
"Being sorry doesn't change the fact that you locked the door,"
she said.
"It doesn't change the fact that you let her treat me like a dog."
Before I could respond,
a sudden,
shrill scream echoed down the tunnel.
It was my mother.
"David!
Thomas!
I know you're in there!"
The sound of her footsteps,
heavy and purposeful,
was getting closer.
Thomas looked at the entrance of the chamber,
his face hardening.
"The queen is coming to her counting house,"
he said,
reaching for a heavy iron bar leaning against the wall.
"And this time,
she won't find us so easy to silence."
The air in the chamber grew cold,
and the smell of damp earth seemed to intensify.
The past and the present were about to collide in the dark,
May you like
and I knew that by the time the sun set,
one of us would not survive the truth.
