Chapter 1 - THE CRY BENEATH THE LID
Lily’s scream reached Grant before he understood where it was coming from.
He dropped the cardboard box in his hands. Old picture frames, winter gloves, and a ceramic Christmas ornament spilled across the garage floor, but he barely heard them break. The cry came again, muffled and thin beneath the steady mechanical hum near the far wall.
“Daddy! Please!”
Grant ran toward the white chest freezer beside Taylor’s bicycle. Its motor vibrated against the concrete. He grabbed the handle and pulled, but the lid resisted as though someone were holding it down from inside.
His stomach turned.
He yanked harder.
The seal broke with a wet gasp of cold air.
Lily lay curled between bags of vegetables and wrapped packages of meat. Her blond hair was crusted with frost. Her blue hoodie had stiffened against her shoulders, and her lips had taken on a color Grant had only seen once before, when she had fallen through thin ice at a school skating party.
“No. No, no, no.”
He reached inside and lifted her against his chest. She felt terrifyingly light. Her knees were pulled tight to her stomach, and her fingers stayed bent as though they had forgotten how to open.
“I’ve got you,” he said, backing away from the freezer. “Daddy’s here. You’re safe.”
Lily clung to the front of his navy hoodie. Her teeth struck together so violently that he could feel each tremor through both their bodies.
Grant stripped off his jacket and wrapped it around her. He rubbed her arms, then her back, then her hands, not knowing which part of her needed warmth first.
“How long were you in there?”
Lily shook her head.
“Where’s Mom?”
Another shake.
Grant reached for his phone.
Lily caught his wrist.
Her fingers were colder than the metal freezer handle.
“Daddy.”
He crouched until they were eye level. “Tell me.”
Her gaze moved past him toward the open freezer. Beneath the lid, several pale scratches cut through the plastic lining.
“Grandma locked me in.”
Grant stopped breathing.
“Evelyn?”
Lily nodded.
“She puts me there when I’m bad.” Her voice cracked. “She says the cold helps me think.”
A mechanical click sounded behind them.
The garage door began lowering.
Grant turned toward the driveway. Evelyn’s silver sedan sat beneath the yellow bulb, its engine still warm.
May you like
Someone was standing beyond the windshield.
Watching them.
