Shawn parked his bike a few blocks away from the warehouse.
Part of him was convinced that Lassie had just tripped over his own feet and knocked himself out in a drunken stupor.
But then there was this other part…
The part that kept remembering one of the last things Lassie had said…
"No…blood on the wall…what the hell…?"
If something had happened…if someone else was there…the last thing Shawn wanted to do was lose his element of surprise by pulling up on a loud motorcycle.
But everything outside the warehouse seemed quiet as he approached on foot.
He didn't wait for Juliet to show up before climbing through the broken window, half expecting to trip over Lassie's unconscious…possibly even dead…body.
But the warehouse was empty.
Empty and completely silent.
He stopped when he stepped on the broken bottle, lying inches away from a smashed cell phone. He pocketed the phone absently, looking around at the walls.
Only one of them was close enough for Lassie to have been able to see if he had been standing there when he called Shawn; the one directly across the warehouse from the broken window.
He must have been looking at that wall over there…they came at him from behind, followed him in through the window most likely…but there's no blood on that wall…he said there was blood on the wall…
He approached it slowly, peering into the dark, wishing somewhere in the back of his mind he had thought to bring a flashlight.
At least, I can't see any blood…maybe it's there…
He ran his fingers over the large stones, as if trying to read Braille.
It's like one of those damn riddles my dad used to make me solve…
…"a man sees blood on a wall…twenty minutes later, there's no blood…
There's no sign it's been cleaned…it's not wet, so it hasn't been washed…no one's come in or out since…
…what happened to the blood…?...and what happened to Lassie…?"
The mortar between two of the stones at the base of the wall crumbled as his fingers grazed it.
One of the stones moved, ever so slightly at his touch.
Hello! What's this?
He quickly worked the stone, managing to pull it loose from the wall in only a few minutes. The stone to the left of it also came out, even easier than the first.
On the backside of the stones, Shawn could feel something wet and slimy.
Blood…?
Maybe…
Shawn quickly wiped his hand on his jeans and without a second thought plunged his arm into the hole in the wall. His knuckles hit against another layer of stone, but as he followed it down he felt it turn to cool, hard dirt.
A hole…?
A tunnel, maybe…?
Is this how they dragged Lassie out of here?
He sighed, knowing what he had to do.
…what the hell…
It was a tight squeeze, but he managed to slowly wriggle through the hole, jumping down into the tunnel feet-first.
If it was possible, it was actually darker in the tunnel than it had been in the warehouse, but it was surprisingly roomy. He could even stand up, only occasionally scraping the top of his head against the ceiling as he slowly moved forward, feeling his way along the dirt wall.
Where does it go?
Is it just a dead end?
Suddenly, he heard something…
Footsteps, coming from the other direction.
He froze, his heart beginning to pound.
For a brief moment, he considered trying to make a break back to the warehouse, but in the dark he knew he'd never make it.
It was too late, anyway.
There was a blinding light in his eyes now, a voice shouting at him.
"Who's there?"
He didn't even think about answering, not that the man looming in front of him
was looking for an answer.
Shawn's eyes started to adjust to the light, just in time to see the flash of a screwdriver in the man's hand.
It all happened so quickly after that.
He came at Shawn, wielding the screwdriver. Shawn tried to step aside, but the tunnel was too narrow. He was suddenly pinned against the wall, one of the man's hands closing around his throat as the other plunged the screwdriver into his stomach. He felt him pull it out viciously, then stab it in again, inches away from the first wound.
The hand around his throat slowly released as the man stepped back. Shawn felt himself sliding down the wall, collapsing into a heap on the tunnel floor. He tried to stand up again, but he couldn't.
He was starting to black out. He could feel the blood pooling around him, soaking through his shirt and pants.
The man had run off, but not in the direction he had come from.
He was running back towards the warehouse.
Jules!
Shawn listened helplessly, trying to summon the strength to even inch his way down the tunnel.
But he couldn't...
He just couldn't.
A few moments later, he heard a scraping sound…like stones being moved across a cement floor…
He's sealing me in…Shawn thought, a sudden wave of dizziness overtaking him.
He could hear the footsteps coming back down the tunnel towards him, silently walking past him.
Shawn tried feebly to reach out and grab the foot as it stepped over him, but to no avail.
He sealed me in…
They won't find me down here…
No one knows I'm down here…