Chapter 41 - The Ticking Underwater Crypt
The shock of the black lake water punched the breath straight from Arthur’s lungs.
Darkness closed in instantly, freezing, merciless, and reeking of rot.
Beneath the shattered floorboards of the boathouse, Arthur kicked violently against the iron chain biting into his ankle.
His boots filled with ice water, dragging him toward the flooded vault.
Just inches from his face, Eleanor’s bloodshot eyes glowed through the subterranean murk.
She smiled around a trail of rising air bubbles, her jaw slack in demonic triumph.
In her right fist, the heavy bronze candlestick pulsed with a cruel, rhythmic red beacon.
The digital timer mounted inside its hollow base flashed frantically: *00:14... 00:13...*
Eleanor had planned to die here all along, dragging Arthur into her watery grave.
Arthur clawed at her wrist, trying to tear her fingers off the mooring chain.
Her grip was like petrified wood, hardened by sheer venomous obsession.
Suddenly, two powerful hands broke the surface of the freezing foam above.
Detective Vance plunged into the black water headfirst, his service jacket billowing like a shroud.
Vance did not hesitate.
He rammed a heavy steel crowbar directly between Eleanor’s forearm and the iron links.
With a roar muffled by the water, Vance heaved against the rusty fulcrum.
Eleanor’s pale face twisted in rage as bone cracked beneath the leverage.
The iron loop slipped free of Arthur’s crushed ankle.
The digital display on the bronze cylinder flashed *00:04... 00:03...*
Vance grabbed Arthur by the collar of his thermal shirt, hauling him upward with desperate strength.
Beneath them, the heavy iron safe plunged into the deepest trench of the flooded foundation, pulling Eleanor downward into the dark.
Her fingers clawed uselessly at Arthur’s fleeing heels.
Then the red light hit zero.
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A blinding flash illuminated the underwater crypt in sickly emerald fire.
The concussion hit like a freight train, lifting the water and the collapsing floorboards into the howling blizzard above.
