Hide and Seek

Chapter 7 - Nat's POV

Elise and Nat were sitting under the stairs and had been for around 30 minutes. Nothing had happened, no one had come down the spiral stairs into the dark room of the basement. The stench of dead, rotten corpses had leaked into the main room of the basement and Elise's face had gone from scared out of her mind to sour from the disgusting odour.

"Why don't we go up and find Brooke and Ray, maybe get out of this basement?" Nat asked with a concern tone from seeing Elise's face that looked like she was about to throw up. Elise nodded and clenched the metal road in her hands.

They started to climb up the spiral stairs, step after step, fear growing, until Nat stopped. She pressed her ear against the door, trying to listen to any footsteps going past the door. After a minute of listening, Nat opened the door slightly and stepped outside. She gestured Elise to come outside and put a finger to her lips.

No one was around the basement or the foyer, no one in sight. They could escape, they could be free from this hell hole of a house. But what about Ray, what about Brooke? If they escaped, they'd be leaving two amazing girls behind, girls that have been friends for a very long time. They still tried the front door but locked as they expected.

After half an hour of roaming the house and surprisingly, not being found, they found a room with nothing in it. Nothing in the room except for a chair, a chair with a life-like doll sitting on it. The two girls were confused. Why was there a doll sitting on a chair in the middle of a room that had nothing else in it? Why did it look so life-like? Was it really a doll?

Nat stepped forward and slowly gained closer to the doll. Elise stayed at the door, her metal rod loosening in her hands as she watched Nat walk towards the door and watch for any movement outside in the hallway.

Nat turned to face the doll sitting on the white dining table chair. What she saw in front of her was like what she saw in the basement. A rotting corpse sitting on the chair, still in the clothes with bloodstains from when they were murdered, just like the ones in the basement. Nat gagged slightly and turned around to the door where Elise was standing.

But Elise was gone, Elise had disappeared. All that was left of her, was the metal rod lying next to the door and her shoe. At this point, Nat was starting to lose hope of getting out of this house. What if Ray and Brooke were dead already? What if Elise was now on the verge of dying.

Nat ran out into the hallway, seeing blood drops on the hard wooden floors. It was in the same direction that they had come from but wasn't there when they were walking. Nat followed the blood drops until she came to a room, screams coming from the room. Nat froze, she recognised those screams. They belonged to Elise. Nat snuck into the room, and behind a cabinet where only those entering could see her.

From what she could see through the small window, Elise was being whipped across the back. She couldn't see who was controlling the whip in the other room. Nat looked over from her and saw one of the twins. He was standing there with his arms crossed and his rifle across his shoulder. His eyes were closed and head down, looking like he was trying not to hear those ear-piercing screams. His black shirt seemed like it had been ripped by fingernails. Nat knew immediately which twin it was. It was Timothy.