In this story, a man marries Claire, a single mother with two young daughters, Emma and Lily. Soon after moving in, he notices the girls acting oddly around the basement, with Emma asking cryptic questions and Lily making an unsettling comment about “Daddy” hating loud noises. Claire had only ever told him that their father was “gone,” so this raises questions. One day, while Claire is at work, Emma and Lily approach him and invite him to visit “Daddy” in the basement. The man, now anxious and uncertain, agrees to go with them, wondering if Claire has been hiding a shocking secret: that their dad might still be alive and kept in the basement.
