Chapter 4: The Prison Beneath the Manor
The child's cry echoed up through the hidden elevator shaft.
It wasn't loud.
It was weak.
Exhausted.
The sound of someone who had long ago learned that screaming rarely brought help.
Alejandro's heart clenched.
He looked at Elena.
Her face had turned completely white.
She whispered only one sentence.
"They're still alive..."
Those words changed everything.
He had believed Elena had been the only victim.
He was wrong.
The emergency sirens continued to howl throughout Castillo Manor.
Every corridor flashed red.
Somewhere above them, heavy steel doors slammed shut one after another.
The mansion had entered lockdown.
Marcus's voice came through Alejandro's earpiece.
"We've reached the outer gate."
Alejandro looked toward the front windows.
Dozens of black armored SUVs were racing through the storm.
Castle Security.
His personal executive protection division.
Men he had hired years ago.
Men who answered only to him.
But before they could reach the mansion—
Massive steel barricades suddenly rose from beneath the driveway.
The vehicles screeched to a halt.
"What the hell?"
Marcus cursed.
"Those barriers weren't on the property plans."
Alejandro wasn't surprised anymore.
Nothing inside this estate belonged to the plans he had approved.
Vivian smiled.
"You always invested in security."
She slowly descended the last staircase.
"I simply... improved it."
Alejandro stared at her.
"How many people have died because of you?"
Vivian laughed softly.
"You ask that as if I kept count."
Several servants gasped.
Even the security guards looked disturbed.
For the first time...
Vivian's mask had slipped.
She wasn't pretending anymore.
Samuel stepped beside Alejandro.
His old voice trembled.
"Sir..."
"There isn't much time."
"The elevator only stays unlocked for ninety seconds."
Alejandro looked toward the opening.
Beyond the steel doors...
Darkness.
Cold air.
And somewhere below...
Children.
Adults.
Victims.
He turned toward the guards.
"I'm going downstairs."
"If anyone follows Vivian's orders instead of mine..."
"I'll personally see you spend the rest of your lives in prison."
No one answered.
Alejandro helped Elena into the elevator.
She froze.
Her breathing became ragged.
"No..."
"I can't."
He gently held her face.
"Look at me."
She did.
"You're not going down there alone."
"I'm with you."
Tears filled her eyes.
For a brief second...
She nodded.
The elevator doors closed.
The descent began.
No buttons.
No display.
Only darkness.
The machinery groaned deep within the earth.
Then...
A smell hit them.
Bleach.
Medicine.
Rust.
And something worse.
Fear.
Elena suddenly grabbed Alejandro's arm so tightly her nails dug into his skin.
"I remember this smell."
"They washed everything..."
"So nobody would believe us."
Alejandro felt rage unlike anything he had ever known.
Thirty feet below the mansion...
The elevator stopped.
The doors slowly opened.
A long concrete hallway stretched into darkness.
White fluorescent lights flickered overhead.
The walls were lined with security cameras.
Every few feet...
Steel doors.
Each one marked with numbers.
E-08.
E-11.
E-15.
E-17.
E-23.
Like hospital rooms.
Except there were no windows.
Only locks.
A tiny voice came from behind one door.
"Is it feeding time?"
Alejandro stopped breathing.
A little boy.
No older than six.
Another child answered.
"No..."
"She's coming."
The children weren't talking about a nurse.
They were talking about Vivian.
Alejandro approached the nearest steel door.
Small fingerprints covered the lower half.
As if children had spent years trying to push it open.
He gripped the handle.
Locked.
He looked around.
Electronic keypad.
Fingerprint scanner.
Military-grade security.
This wasn't built to keep people out.
It was built to keep them in.
Samuel whispered,
"The master control room."
"Second corridor."
"They can unlock everything there."
Alejandro nodded.
"Stay with Elena."
"I'm not leaving you."
Elena's voice was barely audible.
"If she finds me..."
"She'll finish what she started."
Alejandro placed both hands on her shoulders.
"She'll never touch you again."
For the first time in three years...
Elena believed him.
Meanwhile...
Above them...
Vivian calmly poured herself another glass of wine.
One of the younger maids stared at her in horror.
"How..."
"How can you still drink?"
Vivian smiled.
"Because panic clouds judgment."
She walked to the massive fireplace.
Removed an antique clock.
Pressed something hidden behind it.
A wall quietly opened.
Inside...
Rows of monitors lit up.
Every room in the underground prison appeared on the screens.
Vivian smiled proudly.
"My masterpiece."
Back underground...
Alejandro found the control room.
Its steel door stood slightly open.
Inside...
Computer monitors displayed dozens of surveillance feeds.
Children.
Women.
Elderly men.
Each imprisoned inside separate rooms.
Some slept.
Some cried silently.
Others simply stared at the walls.
One screen froze Alejandro in place.
Room E-17.
It showed Elena.
Strapped to a metal chair.
Doctors surrounding her.
Vivian standing beside them.
Date stamp:
Two years ago.
Alejandro's hands began shaking.
He pressed play.
Vivian's recorded voice echoed through the speakers.
"Increase the medication."
A doctor hesitated.
"She's beginning to remember her husband."
Vivian's smile on the recording was chilling.
"Then erase him again."
The doctor injected something into Elena's neck.
She screamed.
Over and over...
"I'M ELENA CASTILLO!"
"I'M ELENA CASTILLO!"
"I'M ELENA CASTILLO!"
The recording continued.
Hour after hour.
Eventually...
The screams became whispers.
Then...
Nothing.
Finally...
The broken woman looked at Vivian and whispered,
"My name..."
"...is Emily."
Alejandro felt his knees weaken.
They hadn't merely imprisoned her.
They had stolen her identity.
Marcus's voice suddenly exploded through the radio.
"Alejandro!"
"We're inside!"
"We've breached the north entrance!"
Gunfire erupted somewhere above.
Castle Security had reached the mansion.
The battle had begun.
At that exact moment...
Every monitor inside the control room turned black.
One sentence appeared across every screen.
WELCOME BACK, MR. CASTILLO.
Then another line slowly typed itself.
YOU'RE FINALLY READY TO SEE THE REST OF THE TRUTH.
A hidden steel wall behind the monitors slid open with a deafening rumble.
Beyond it...
Lay another corridor.
Older.
Darker.
Far older than the prison itself.
At the end of that corridor...
Alejandro saw a familiar object resting beneath a single light.
It was Elena's wedding ring.
The one investigators had searched the entire world to find.
Beside it...
Lay a leather journal.
And a photograph.
Alejandro picked up the photo.
His blood ran cold.
It showed Elena.
Smiling.
Standing beside Vivian.
Taken six months before Elena disappeared.
On the back, written in Elena's own handwriting, were seven devastating words:
May you like
"If anything happens to me, trust no one."
End of Chapter 4
