# Chapter 2 – Beneath the First Floorboard
The pry bar scraped beneath the loose edge of the hardwood plank.
"Daniel, stop!" Patricia shouted, grabbing his arm again.
He pulled free without looking at her.
"No."
His voice was calm, but Mariana recognized the tone. It was the same voice he had used the night Leo disappeared—the voice of a father who had nothing left to lose.
Another faint knock echoed beneath the floor.
Three slow taps.
Then silence.
Mariana covered her mouth as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Inés..." she whispered. "Stay with Aunt Rosa outside."
Their neighbor gently led the six-year-old toward the front porch. Inés didn't resist. Before stepping outside, she looked back at her father.
"He's waiting, Daddy."
The words made Daniel grip the pry bar tighter.
With one hard pull, the first floorboard cracked loose.
Dust rose into the air.
Underneath wasn't a hidden room.
Instead, there was an empty crawl space barely two feet high, crossed by wooden beams and old plumbing lines. A rush of cold air drifted upward.
Daniel grabbed a flashlight from the hallway closet and pointed it into the darkness.
Nothing moved.
No child.
No body.
Only dirt.
Patricia let out a shaky breath.
"See?" she said quickly. "There's nothing there."
But Daniel wasn't listening.
Near one of the support beams lay something small and white.
He carefully reached through the opening.
It wasn't a fingernail.
It was a tiny plastic dinosaur.
Green.
Its tail had been chewed nearly flat.
Mariana gasped.
"Oh, God..."
Daniel stared at the toy in disbelief.
Leo had carried that dinosaur everywhere.
He had refused to sleep without it.
The police had searched every inch of Patricia's property ten months earlier. They had never found it.
Patricia's face lost every trace of color.
"I've... I've never seen that before."
Daniel slowly turned toward her.
"Don't lie to me."
"I swear."
"You remodeled this entire house after Leo disappeared."
"It was already planned."
"Then explain how my son's favorite toy ended up underneath your brand-new floor."
She opened her mouth, but no words came.
The room fell silent until another sound drifted upward.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
This time it wasn't coming from directly below them.
It came from farther back beneath the house.
Daniel widened the opening and shined the flashlight deeper into the crawl space.
A narrow tunnel extended toward the rear foundation.
Something metallic reflected the light.
Ignoring Mariana's frightened protests, he lowered himself into the cramped space.
The air smelled damp and stale.
Cobwebs clung to the wooden beams as he crawled forward.
Every movement echoed through the narrow passage.
About fifteen feet in, he reached the object.
It wasn't metal.
It was an old battery-powered baby monitor, covered in dirt.
Its tiny power light flickered weakly.
Static crackled through the speaker.
Then a child's voice whispered only two words before the batteries finally died.
"Help me."
Daniel froze.
Mariana screamed from above.
Patricia collapsed onto the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
May you like
For the first time since Leo vanished, Daniel realized the truth had never left this house.
It had been waiting beneath the floor all along.
