A Night With Mr. Woods

CHAPTER 18

The hidden chamber was colder than the tunnel, its walls slick with moisture that glistened like oil in the dim torchlight. The sound of dripping water echoed, sharp and steady, as if counting down to something inevitable. My breath caught as my eyes adjusted to the space.

Figures stood in a wide half-circle, each one cloaked in black, their faces hidden behind carved masks that gleamed with gold edges. The air shifted with their silent presence, heavy with power. In the center, elevated on a stone platform, sat an older man whose mask was darker than the rest.

“The Circle of Shadows,” Damian muttered under his breath, his voice laced with disgust.

The leader leaned forward, his voice resonant but calm. “You should not have come here, Allison Carter.”

The use of my full name made me stiffen. My father’s name lingered like a ghost between us. “You know who I am?”

A ripple of murmurs swept through the cloaked figures, quickly silenced by the man’s raised hand. “We know more than you imagine. Your father once stood where you stand now. He made promises. He broke them. And the debt he left behind has fallen on you.”

I clutched the file tighter against my chest. “What debt? He was a good man.”

A bitter laugh escaped from the man. “Good? He betrayed us. He thought he could walk away. But no one leaves the Circle. Not alive.”

My stomach churned. The pieces I had been gathering felt like shards of broken glass, cutting deeper the more I tried to hold them together. My father had been part of this. And his secrets had led me here.

Damian stepped forward, shielding me. “If this is between you and her father, then leave her out of it. She’s not him.”

“She carries his blood,” the leader countered. “And she holds what he died protecting.” His eyes flicked toward the file in my arms. “The ledger. The record of every transaction, every betrayal, every name. With it, we control everything. Without it, cracks begin to show.”

My pulse raced. So this was what they wanted. What Kira had been hinting at. What Adrian had chased us for. The Circle wasn’t just after me. They were after proof that could bring them down.

The leader’s gaze sharpened. “You will make a choice, Allison. Save your friend or protect the ledger. One will be sacrificed tonight.”

At his signal, two men dragged someone from the shadows. Maya. Her wrists were bound, her face streaked with dirt, but her eyes widened when they met mine.

“Allison!” she cried.

My knees nearly buckled. “No. Not her. Leave her out of this.”

“You decide,” the leader said coldly. “Hand us the ledger and your friend lives. Refuse, and she dies. You cannot have both.”

The room seemed to tilt, my chest tightening until I could barely breathe. Damian’s hand closed around mine, grounding me. “Don’t listen to him,” he whispered. “We’ll find another way.”

But the Circle’s eyes burned into me, waiting. Maya struggled against her captors, her voice breaking. “Don’t give it to them, Allison. Please. It’s too dangerous.”

Tears blurred my vision. My father’s shadow loomed over me. His choices had built this cage, and now I was trapped inside it.

I looked at the file, then at Maya, then at Damian. My heart felt torn in two. I opened my mouth to speak.

And then the torches flickered. The ground trembled. The chamber was plunged into sudden, suffocating darkness.

Gasps and shouts erupted around us. Hands scrambled. Metal clattered. I couldn’t see Damian. I couldn’t see Maya. I couldn’t see anything at all.

The Circle’s voice echoed through the black, low and commanding. “Choose, Allison. Time is running out.”

That’s the end of Chapter 18.

Now, would you like me to dive straight into Chapter 20, picking up from the exact cliffhanger where Chapter 19 ended, with the scarred leader declaring Allison was “never meant to escape” before the chamber was swallowed by darkness again?