Chapter 7 - TRAPPED IN THE DARK
"David, what was that sound?" Sarah asked, her voice laced with sudden, sharp anxiety as she pulled out her phone flashlight.
The bright beam of light cut through the darkness, illuminating the panicked faces of the twenty-five trapped relatives.
David rushed to the front foyer, grabbing the brass door handle and pulling with all his strength, but the oak door didn't budge an inch.
"It's deadlocked from the outside... someone barred the exterior storm shutters!" David yelled back to the family.
Margaret walked out of the dining room, holding a lit wax candle in a heavy brass holder with absolute steadiness.
"Chloe had a duplicate key to the heavy storm shutters we installed after the 2018 hurricane," Margaret explained smoothly.
"She locked us inside a mansion with no power in the middle of a sub-zero blizzard?!" an uncle shouted from the back of the hallway.
"She didn't just lock us inside," Margaret added, her candle light catching the framed US flag on the wall behind her.
"She turned off the main gas line valve located on the exterior wall near the garage before she padlocked the shutters."
Panic erupted through the dark foyer as relatives realized the temperature in the massive house was already beginning to drop rapidly.
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With no heat, no electricity, and no way to open the heavy reinforced storm shutters, the mansion was fast becoming a freezing tomb.
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