The darkness swallowed the tunnel.
Daniel heard breathing.
Someone stumbled.
A hand caught his shoulder.
He recoiled.
“Don't touch me.”
“Daniel, it's me.”
Arthur.
Daniel couldn't see him.
He could barely hear anything over the pounding of his own heart.
The tunnel behind them filled with distant footsteps.
Thomas whispered, “Keep moving.”
Daniel followed.
After several yards, a faint emergency light appeared.
They emerged into a maintenance chamber beneath the old railway station.
Thomas shut the iron gate.
Marcus pushed a metal cabinet against it.
“That won't hold.”
“It only has to slow them.”
Daniel turned toward Arthur.
“Show me your wrist.”
Arthur stared at him.
“Why?”
“The scar.”
Arthur looked down.
Daniel stepped closer.
“You had it in the photograph.”
Arthur's expression hardened.
“Many people have scars.”
“Not like that.”
Evelyn whispered, “Daniel.”
He turned.
“Did you know?”
She shook her head.
“Did you know he was involved with the Star Circle?”
“No.”
Arthur finally spoke.
“The scar came from them.”
Daniel's heart sank.
“You were one of them.”
Arthur nodded.
“For a short time.”
“How short?”
“Long enough.”
Daniel backed away.
“How long?”
Arthur looked at the floor.
“Three years.”
Marcus swore.
Thomas closed his eyes.
Daniel felt betrayed all over again.
“You told me Samuel was the monster.”
“He was.”
“You were with him.”
“I left.”
“Why?”
“Because of Michael.”
Arthur's voice broke slightly.
“Your father discovered what the Star Circle was doing. He tried to expose them.”
“And you stopped him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they threatened Evelyn.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
Arthur continued.
“They knew she was pregnant. They knew you would inherit the trust.”
“So you chose them.”
“No.”
Arthur's answer came immediately.
“I chose you.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You don't get to call that protection.”
“I know.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“Arthur wasn't the person who betrayed Michael.”
Daniel looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because I heard the final conversation.”
“What conversation?”
“Between Michael and the person who took him.”
Daniel stared.
“Who?”
Thomas hesitated.
Before he could answer, a noise came from the other side of the chamber.
A woman stepped from behind a concrete pillar.
Clara.
Daniel stared.
“You're alive.”
She gave him a tired smile.
“I'm difficult to kill.”
Marcus moved toward her.
“You knew about Arthur.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about the Star Circle.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Michael was alive?”
Clara's expression changed.
Daniel looked at her sharply.
“What did you say?”
Clara looked at him.
“I said your father was alive when I last saw him.”
Daniel could barely breathe.
“When was that?”
“Four years ago.”
The room went silent.
“Where?”
Clara looked toward the ceiling.
“In a hospital.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Which hospital?”
“He was unconscious.”
“Which hospital?”
“St. Agnes.”
Daniel knew the name.
It was the hospital in the next county.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because he didn't know you existed.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“Michael lost his memory after the attack.”
Thomas nodded.
“He remembered his name eventually.”
“But not me?”
“No.”
Daniel turned toward Evelyn.
She was crying.
“You knew.”
She shook her head.
“I knew he survived. I didn't know he remembered nothing.”
“Why didn't you find him?”
“I tried.”
Clara interrupted.
“And someone stopped her.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Who?”
Clara reached into her coat.
She removed a hospital bracelet.
Michael Vale.
Daniel took it.
The admission date was four years earlier.
The discharge date was two weeks later.
“Where did he go?”
Clara hesitated.
“He left.”
“Where?”
“He was taken.”
“By whom?”
Clara looked at Arthur.
Arthur said quietly, “Me.”
Daniel stared.
“You took him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he remembered something.”
“What?”
Arthur looked at the bracelet.
“He remembered who betrayed him.”
Daniel's pulse accelerated.
“Who?”
Arthur didn't answer.
Clara did.
“Evelyn.”
Daniel turned.
His mother shook her head violently.
“No.”
Clara's voice remained calm.
“Michael believed she had betrayed him.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
Daniel looked between them.
“Then why?”
Clara looked at Thomas.
Thomas lowered his eyes.
“Because someone forged evidence.”
Daniel felt a terrible realization forming.
“Who could forge it?”
Arthur answered.
“Thomas.”
Thomas looked up.
Daniel turned.
“You?”
“I had no choice.”
“Everyone says that.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“I was protecting Michael.”
“By framing my mother?”
“By making the Star Circle believe she had betrayed him.”
Daniel stared.
Thomas continued.
“They were going to kill her.”
“So you made Michael hate her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because hatred kept him away from her.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That is insane.”
“It worked.”
“Until when?”
“Until four years ago.”
Clara nodded.
“Michael began remembering.”
“What did he remember?”
Thomas looked toward the gate.
“That Evelyn was innocent.”
Daniel's breath caught.
“Then where is he now?”
Nobody answered.
Thomas finally said:
“He was moved three days ago.”
“Where?”
“We don't know.”
Daniel felt his knees weaken.
Three days.
The same time Arthur's strange letter had appeared.
The same time the ledger was uncovered.
The same time someone began searching for him.
Daniel looked at Arthur.
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Michael was alive when you wrote the letter?”
Arthur nodded.
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I wasn't sure who had him.”
Daniel looked toward Clara.
“Do you know?”
She shook her head.
“But I know who can find him.”
“Who?”
Clara pulled out a folded railway map.
A red circle marked an abandoned station nearly fifty miles away.
“Michael left this before he disappeared.”
Daniel opened it.
On the back was a handwritten message.
The person who knows where I am is the one who never stopped looking.
Daniel looked at his mother.
Evelyn whispered, “I never stopped.”
A loud metallic crash came from the gate.
The cabinet shifted.
The men outside had reached them.
Marcus braced his shoulder against it.
“We're out of time.”
Thomas grabbed the map.
“We need the station.”
Daniel took it back.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“We go after Michael.”
Arthur stepped forward.
“You don't know what you're walking into.”
Daniel looked at him.
“For thirty-five years, everyone else decided what I could survive.”
He folded the map.
“That ends tonight.”
The gate shook again.
Clara moved beside him.
“I know a way out.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Where?”
She pointed toward a narrow service passage.
“Under the tracks.”
Arthur looked at Daniel.
There was something in his face Daniel had never seen before.
Not fear for himself.
Fear of what Daniel would discover.
Daniel noticed.
“What are you afraid I'll find?”
Arthur's eyes met his.
“The last truth.”
“What truth?”
Arthur swallowed.
“The person who arranged Michael's disappearance is still alive.”
Daniel waited.
Arthur continued.
“And that person has been helping you all your life.”
The gate burst inward.
Everyone turned.
Men flooded into the chamber.
Daniel grabbed Clara's hand.
They ran.
Behind them, Arthur shouted something.
Daniel couldn't hear it.
The passage narrowed.
Clara pushed open a rusted door.
They emerged beside the railway tracks.
Daniel turned back.
Arthur, Evelyn, Marcus, and Thomas were nowhere in sight.
Only one thing lay on the ground.
Arthur's old brass key.
Daniel picked it up.
A number had been scratched into the metal.
Not 17.
Not 35.
A date.
06-14-1988.
The day Michael disappeared.
Beneath it were two initials.
D.V.
Daniel stared at them.
His own initials.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
A man's voice whispered:
“Daniel, if you want your father alive, come alone.”
Daniel looked down the dark railway line.
“Who are you?”
The voice replied:
“Someone your grandfather has been paying to protect you since the day you were born.”
The call ended.
Daniel looked at Clara.
She had heard every word.
Her face had gone white.
“Who was that?”
Clara shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Daniel looked at the date engraved on the key.
Then at his own initials.
For the first time, he wondered whether the secret his grandfather had protected was not about Michael at all.
Maybe it was about Daniel.
Maybe the reason everyone had spent thirty-eight years protecting him was because they were afraid of what he would become if he learned the truth.
And somewhere along the abandoned railway, someone was waiting for him to find out.
Click here to continue reading: PART 9: Daniel Followed the Railway Into the Dark, Where a Stranger Finally Explained Why His Own Initials Had Been Hidden for Decades
The Letter Arrived Before Dawn, and What It Demanded Would Split the Family Before Breakfast
Part 8 of 20
