A quiet night turned into a horrific nightmare. He walked in to find his mother brutally attacking his wife right over their crying baby's crib. He stood between them, unaware that a dark family secret had just shattered their lives. / Chapter 26 / 50

Chapter 26 - Into the Fog

A thick, blinding, sulfurous white smoke erupted in the narrow hallway, instantly obliterating all visibility.

The acrid chemical fumes burned David’s eyes and choked his lungs. He coughed violently, lowering his weapon as tears streamed down his face.

"Leah! Get back in the room!" David coughed out, blindly reaching out with his free hand to shove her behind the threshold of the nursery.

"David, I can't breathe!" Leah choked, coughing uncontrollably as the smoke poured into the bedroom like an invading ghost.

Through the thick white fog, David heard the violent scramble of boots. Julian wasn't retreating down the stairs—he was charging forward into the smoke.

A heavy blow struck David across the temple, sending him sprawling to the carpet. His handgun skittered across the floorboards, sliding under a piece of furniture into the blindness of the smoke. David groaned, his vision flashing with black spots, his ears ringing from both the gunshot and the alarm.

He scrambled on his hands and knees, sweeping the carpet frantically for the weapon. "Leah!"

From inside the nursery, he heard the terrifying sound of wood splintering.

Julian had kicked through the walk-in closet door.

"No! Get away from her!" Leah’s scream pierced through the chemical haze. A loud metallic *CLANG* followed—the sound of the heavy fire poker striking bone and muscle.

Julian bellowed in pain, followed by the sickening sound of a heavy body hitting the floor.

David dragged himself up by the doorframe, coughing blood, his eyes stinging so badly he could barely keep them open. He plunged into the nursery.

The smoke was thinner in here, drifting out through the open hallway.

Leah was on the floor beside the overturned crib, clutching her arm, which was twisted at an unnatural angle. In the closet, Julian was standing over Maya’s travel crib. Despite the bleeding bullet wound in his shoulder and a deep gash on his forehead from Leah’s strike, he was lifting the screaming, thrashing toddler into his arms.

"Maya!" David lunged forward like an uncoiled spring.

He didn't need the gun. He tackled Julian around the waist with the full force of his body, slamming the larger man into the closet shelves. Clothes, shoeboxes, and plastic hangers rained down upon them.

Maya tumbled onto the soft pile of winter coats on the closet floor, crying hysterically but uninjured.

Julian drove his thumb directly into David’s open gunshot wound near his collarbone from years ago, using David’s old physical trauma against him. A searing, white-hot agony shot through David’s entire nervous system. He gasped for air, his grip loosening.

Julian threw David off him with terrifying, adrenaline-fueled strength. He grabbed Maya by the back of her fleece pajamas, hauling her out of the closet.