The entrance to the tunnel was his only way out. A surprising way out, since he could swear there’d never been a rocky cave entrance hidden next to the library fireplace before.
He’d only opened the cabinet’s lower doors to hide away the limp body in his arms. The plan after that was to sneak out and create a distraction in another room, hoping that in the triumph of capturing him, they would forget about his missing daughter.
But now there was this tunnel.
He set Laura down gently in front of the cabinet and crawled a few steps in. The air was dank and humid, smelling of dust and minerals. He wrinkled his nose involuntarily.
If it had been just him and not his daughter as well he would have gone for it, no questions asked, but to drag her into a magically appearing cave felt risky.
However, the sound of muffled footsteps outside the library pushed him forward to explore further. It was dark but enough light filtered in from the room that he could see the tunnel open up after a few feet. Even if it didn’t lead anywhere it was a place to hide.
He went back for Laura and saw her eyes fluttering open. His own body trembled with relief at this sign of consciousness.
“My…my head,“ she whispered. “Why did the Colonel have that lead pipe?”
Her eyes were scrunched into little slits against the light. Her father smiled and brought a hand down to cup the large bump on her skull. He was still sick with worry over their pursuers but Laura awake and talking filled him with hope and new-found energy.
“Shh, sweetie. It’s okay but we have to stay quiet. Can you crawl?”
She didn’t answer. He watched as she rolled over and gingerly climbed up onto all fours. The resiliency of children, even at 14, amazed him.
He led her into the cabinet, which seemed even larger than it had been a minute ago. There was plenty of room to reach back and pull the doors shut behind them.
“Stay right behind me, Laura,” he whispered, his lips inches from her ears. “Keep your hand on my ankle and follow me.”
“Where are we going?”
“Someplace safe,” he lied.
This was inspired by the #freewrite prompt by 
Image from here.
