Chapter 2 - Underneath the Vinyl
The icy water enveloped Liam like a shroud of needles, but adrenaline burned hotter in his veins. He kicked upward against the buoyancy of his clothes, cutting through the water with powerful strokes until he reached Clara. She was already drifting into unconsciousness, her hands moving weakly in the darkening gloom. Above them, the heavy automated cover sealed completely shut, blotting out the last rays of afternoon sunlight and plunging the pool into a suffocating twilight.
Liam wrapped a strong arm around Clara's waist, pulling her tight against his chest while using his free hand to propel them upward. But when his head collided with the solid, unyielding surface of the vinyl cover, a cold dread gripped his heart. He slammed his fists against the underside of the heavy material, but it absorbed his blows with heavy resilience. The motor had locked the cover in place.
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"Listen to me, look at me!" Liam shouted underwater, his voice distorted by bubbles and pressure. Clara's eyes fluttered open, wide with sheer terror as she clutched her pregnant belly. The oxygen in their lungs was depleting rapidly, every second ticking away like a countdown to doom. Liam pressed her face close to his, sharing what little air he had left, refusing to let her give up.
Outside on the deck, Victoria paused by the drainage grate. With a cruel, deliberate twist of her wrist, she unclasped her heavy designer key ring—the master override remote attached to it—and dropped it straight down into the narrow, iron-slotted floor drain. The keys clattered out of reach into the sub-flooring pipes, ensuring that no one could reverse the mechanism from the outside. Victoria smiled to herself, a toxic sense of triumph washing over her features as she vanished into the shadows of the mansion, leaving them to suffocate in the dark abyss.
