Claire touched his shoulder nervously. “Daniel, please, come back.” But he couldn’t. The hole had taken more than their yard; it had stolen certainty itself. Whatever was beneath their house wasn’t natural. And as the debris cleared, it was beginning to look more and more like a secret passage.
The clearing work continued late into the night. Each scoop of soil revealed more of the tunnel’s shape, until the cameras finally caught an opening: a narrow passage reinforced with crude timber. It wasn’t old—the beams looked freshly cut, soil still loose around them. Daniel’s pulse quickened.