PART 1
“Your parents aren’t here, Shawn. They went away for Christmas, and you should wait until they get back.”
Those words were the first thing Brenda said to her brother after twelve years without seeing him walk through the door of the old family home.
Shawn Miller had arrived on December 23rd in Pinewood Ridge, a small town in Pennsylvania, without telling anyone. He wanted to surprise his parents, Don Joseph and Doña Maria, who for more than forty years had lived off a plot of corn, a few animals, and a small grocery store on the side of the road.
Shawn had moved to Columbus when he was twenty-three years old. He started loading merchandise at a transport company and ended up building a logistics company that operated in several cities across the country.
His family knew he was doing well. What they did not know was how well he was doing.
Shawn never flaunted his money. Even when he began earning far more than he had ever imagined, he continued to drive an inconspicuous vehicle and send money to his parents monthly without telling them any details of his fortune.
During the last few years, he deposited two thousand dollars every month so that they would not lack medicine, food, or house maintenance. But he had also made a mistake that now weighed heavily on him.
He had stopped visiting them. First because of work, then through travel, and finally because he always found an excuse.
That was why on that Christmas he decided to return unannounced. However, from the moment he arrived in the town, he felt that something was wrong.
Mrs. Mabel, the lady who sold baked goods near the square, looked at him as if she had seen a ghost.
“It is good that you are back, boy,” she said. “It was about time someone from the family came.”
Mr. George, an old friend of his father, was even stranger.
“Have you seen your parents yet?” Mr. George asked.
“I am going there right now,” Shawn replied.
The man stared at him for a few seconds. “Then go quickly.”
Nothing else was said.
When Shawn arrived at the house, he also found changes he did not recognize. The facade was freshly painted, there was new furniture, and a huge Christmas tree was decorated like a department store window display.
Brenda appeared wearing an elegant outfit and a smile that was almost too perfect.
“Little brother! What a miracle,” Brenda exclaimed.
Shawn hugged her warmly and asked, “Where are my parents?”
Her smile tightened instantly. “They went away for a few days with Uncle Thomas.”
Shawn frowned at her words. “Uncle Thomas died four years ago.”
Brenda paled immediately. “I meant his son, Thomas Junior. You know I got confused.”
Shawn entered without arguing, but he began to observe everything around him.
In the yard was the old gray sweater that his father used every December, completely covered in dust. On a table he found his father’s reading glasses with one bent temple.
There was only one used dish in the kitchen. Moreover, his parents’ room was locked.
“Since I came back to town, I manage everything,” Brenda explained. “I handle the house, the accounts, and even the money you send because the old folks are not up to worrying about those things anymore.”
The phrase annoyed Shawn deeply. His parents may have been older, but they had never been irresponsible.
That afternoon he went out to the patio and found Mr. George waiting for him by the wooden fence.
“Shawn, it has been months since anyone has seen your parents,” the old man whispered.
Shawn felt his hands go cold. “What do you mean, months?”
“They are not at church, not at the store, and not even with the doctor,” Mr. George said. “Your sister always says something different, and four months ago she ran away Nancy, the woman who helped them, who came out crying saying your parents were in trouble.”
Shawn returned home feigning calmness. During dinner he asked to call his parents.
“There is no signal where they are right now,” Brenda replied quickly.
“And when are they coming back?” Shawn asked.
“Maybe after New Year’s Day,” Brenda said softly.
That night Shawn could not sleep. Around two in the morning he heard a strange noise.
There was a blow, and then another one. It was slow and weak, coming from right under the kitchen floor.
He walked barefoot there and placed one hand on the cold floor. Then he heard it again.
There were three small knocks, as if someone beneath that house was begging to be found. Shawn still could not imagine what he was about to discover beneath the home where he had grown up.
PART 2
Shawn immediately remembered the old underground cellar that his grandfather had built decades ago to store sacks of corn and jars of preserves during the rainy season. The entrance was behind a heavy wooden cupboard in the kitchen.
When he was a child, he used to go down there with his father, but he had not thought about that place for years. He carefully pushed the heavy piece of furniture and saw that the door was still there.
The strange thing was the lock, which was completely new. Shawn tried to open it, but it was locked tight.
He returned to his room before Brenda woke up. The next morning he had breakfast with her, pretending everything was normal.
“I am going to the bank in the next town,” Brenda said as she grabbed her car keys. “I will be back in a couple of hours.”
Shawn waited until he saw her car disappear down the road. Then he began to search the house.
He remembered that his father used to hide copies of certain keys inside a metal coffee can in the shed. He found it behind some old rust tools, and inside were four old keys.
One of them managed to open the new door mechanism. When he pushed the wood, a current of humid air hit his face.
He turned on the flashlight on his phone and called out, “Dad?”
There was only silence. He stepped down the stairs and called again, “Mother?”
Then he heard a weak breath. At the back of the basement they had placed a partition of metal bars and a heavy padlock.
Behind them, on a thin mattress, were two people covered with old blankets. Shawn dropped his phone on the ground.
“Mother!” he cried out.
Doña Maria slowly raised her head, and it took him several seconds to recognize her face.
“Shawn?” she asked weakly.
