Chapter 12 - The Trap in the Cellar
Before Daniel could take a step toward the tower door, the heavy oak door slammed shut with a thunderous BANG.
The sound of a heavy iron bolt sliding into place echoed through the thick wood.
CLACK.
Daniel dropped the journal, rushing to the door and throwing his shoulder against the iron-reinforced wood. The door didn't budge an inch.
From the other side of the oak door, through the small, brass-grated viewing hatch at eye level, Victoria’s pale face appeared. She was wearing her deep red velvet gown once again, her platinum hair pristine, a wicked, triumphant smile curving her lips.
"You really are your mother's son, Daniel," Victoria’s voice drifted through the brass grate, muffled and chilling. "So sentimental. So easily led by lingering ghosts."
"Victoria, open this door!" Daniel roared, slamming his fist against the oak panel.
"I don't think so, my dear," Victoria purred. "You see, I knew your father hid that journal in the tower. I've been waiting six months for you to find it for me. I couldn't open the strongbox without Eleanor's birthday—your father suffered his stroke before I could force him to give up the combination."
She held up her gloved hand through the grate, displaying a small, silver remote control unit with a single red button.
"Do you know what this is, Clara?" Victoria called out, her pale eyes locking onto the redheaded girl standing behind Daniel. "This house was fitted with an automated fire-suppression system in the nineteenth century. In the event of a gas leak, the tower rooms are sealed airtight to prevent the spread of flames."
Clara’s heart dropped into her stomach. "She's going to suffocate us."
"Not suffocate, my dear," Victoria corrected with a terrifying chuckle. "The ventilation ducts in the East Tower are connected directly to the old coal furnace in the cellar. In three minutes, I am going to flood this room with carbon monoxide. By the time the servants find you tomorrow morning... you, your father, and your bastard child will have succumbed to a tragic, accidental gas leak."
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Victoria pressed the red button on the remote control.
Deep within the stone walls beneath their feet, a heavy mechanical pump roared to life, accompanied by the low, alarming hiss of pressurized gas flooding into the ventilation shafts above their heads.
