Chapter 5 - Hostage in the Pristine Mansion
Julian drew a sleek, matte-black semi-automatic pistol from his breast pocket. The muzzle was aimed steadily at David’s forehead.
Maya shrieked. Leo tightened his small fingers into David’s shirt, whimpering in terror.
“Julian, no!” Elena screamed, lunging forward, but Julian casually swung his left elbow backward, striking her squarely across the cheekbone. She collapsed against the coffee table with a sickening thud, shattering a crystal bowl into a thousand jagged pieces.
“You’ve complicated an elegant plan, David,” Julian said, his breathing entirely steady. “Now, instead of a tragic disappearance, we are going to have a horrific home invasion. A distraught father, suffering a psychotic break, murders his sister, slurs his children, and forces the defending homeowner to take lethal action.”
Julian reached into his pocket with his left hand, pulling out a slim smartphone, tapping the screen twice with his thumb.
Throughout the house, heavy metal security shutters began to descend over the oversized picture windows with a deep, mechanical hum. The smart-locks clicked, sealing every exterior door in deadbolts made of reinforced steel. The pristine house had instantly transformed into a soundproof, lightless bunker.
“Drop the weapon,” Julian commanded, nodding toward the brass poker.
David felt the cold calculation of a man with nothing left to lose. He knew that if he dropped the poker, Julian would execute all three of them on the spot. Julian’s story required bodies, not witnesses.
Leo whispered into David’s ear, his breath hot and shaking. “Daddy... the lights.”
David’s eyes flickered down to his son. Leo had spent weeks down in that suffocating darkness. He had studied the underside of this house while weeping in the shadows. Leo’s tiny finger pointed subtly toward the open crawlspace hole in the floorboards.
Directly below the jagged opening, nestled among the joists, ran a thick bundle of wires encased in gray plastic conduit—the main power trunk line for the living wing’s recessed lighting and smart control hub.
David shifted his grip on the heavy brass poker. “You think you’ve thought of everything, Julian?”
“I know I have,” Julian replied, his finger tightening on the trigger.
May you like
“You forgot one thing,” David snarled. “I built this neighborhood’s electrical grid.”
***
