Chapter 3: Unmarked Vehicles At The Gate
The light under the corridor door disappeared, and the estate returned to dimness. I kept one hand on the doorframe while Dr. Leon continued working beside Allie. Lily stood at my elbow with the blanket around her shoulders, her bare feet tucked beneath the hem of the nightgown. She had stopped asking for anything. That silence made her seem younger.
Through the narrow window in the staff passage, I saw the gate lamps brighten.
Two vehicles approached along the road beyond the estate wall. They were unmarked, dark against the night, and moving without the hurried noise of an emergency response. Their headlights crossed the bars of the gate and swept over the grounds. The first vehicle stopped. The second held back far enough to remain partly in shadow.
I did not know whether they belonged to Victor. I knew only that Allie had said he was coming, and that the vehicles had arrived after she said it.
The ordinary defenses of the estate suddenly felt insufficient. A gate could slow someone down. It could not decide whom to admit. The staff quarters had one narrow entrance and no useful way out. Lily was too young to carry herself through the corridors if the room became unsafe. Allie could not move without help. Dr. Leon could stabilize her, but he could not make her strong by force of attention.
I looked at the two drawings again. Mother. Little girl. Yellow suns. No windows.
The first vehicle's door opened.
I left the staff-room door partly closed and guided Lily behind the wall beside it. She held the rabbit with both hands. I pointed toward the floor, and she lowered herself without a sound. Dr. Leon glanced up, saw the change in my posture, and shifted his body between Allie and the doorway.
I moved through the passage toward the security station. The house seemed to listen with me. Every small sound separated itself: the faint movement of Dr. Leon's case, the hum of the old lights, the soft mechanical click from the gate controls.
The estate guard's station was empty for the moment. A monitor showed the approach in grainy black and white. The first vehicle remained at the gate. A figure stood beside it, indistinct beneath the lamp. The second vehicle's engine continued running.
I reached for the communication switch, then stopped.
Calling the gate would announce that the house had seen them. Opening the gate would give them a direct route to the residence. Leaving it closed might turn the estate into a visible challenge. Behind me, Lily and Allie had no protection except distance measured in doors.
I checked the monitor again. The standing figure raised one arm, not waving, only signaling toward the vehicle behind him.
A second shape emerged from the dark car.
I returned to the staff quarters and found Lily looking at the wall. Her gaze rested on the two windowless houses, but her body leaned toward Allie. Dr. Leon had covered Allie's wrists with a clean cloth. Allie's eyes were open now, fixed on the ceiling, while one hand searched weakly across the floor until it found Lily's rabbit.
May you like
Lily took it back.
I closed the room door until only a thin opening remained. From the hall, the estate's gate mechanism began to move.
