The Boy From The Basement

Lonely

I looked tiredly at the window as light slowly filled the basement. I barely got any sleep last night, I was constantly getting woken up by horrible thoughts, scary noises and coldness. Trent was sound asleep over at the other side of the basement. I stood up drained and approached the window.
The sky was a dark orange, the sun was glowing gold. I could see rows and acres of trees and bushes surrounding the house. The window was in level with the surface of the ground outside, so every now and then a leaf or stick would fly across the window.
I then heard soft shuffling from behind me. I turned to look at Trent as he stretched and groaned. He blinked several times as he looked towards me.
"Good morning," he murmured.
I smiled kindly and went to pick up my blankets, wrapping them around myself. I sat back down and leaned my head against the wall.
"Did you sleep?" Trent asked softly.
I looked over at him and sighed responsively, shaking my head. "Not really, I couldn't."
I lowered my head and look down to the ground ashamed. As more light filled the basement, my head began to throb. I rubbed my eyes and forehead to try and stop the pain.
"Sore head?" Trent asked me curiously.
Without looking at him, I nodded responsively.
"Here," he said as he stood up to approach me.
He came over and bent down in front of me. He grabbed my hands and placed my fingers onto my temple. His hands were cold and soft. My heart started pounding at his touch. It was a weird feeling, but I just ignored it.
"Press your fingers into there, hard."
I did as he said, and pushed my fingers into my temple.
"Ok, now rub them around."
I rubbed my fingers on my temple. The pain didn't go away but I was thankful for his help.
"That helps, thanks," I lied.
He smiled at me and then moved to sit down next to me.
"I get sore heads as well, I find doing that helps."
I frowned at him confused.
"Sore heads?"
He looked back at me even more confused.
"Yeh, sore head?" he stated in confusion.
I laughed a little and smiled.
"I think you mean a headache, not sore head."
He frowned and sighed with embarrassment.
"Is that what people call them?"
"Yeh..." Suddenly I felt bad.

Clearly he had received no form of basic education, and had taught himself things.
"Sorry, it's just I haven't been taught stuff, so I don't know as much as you do." He smiled to try make the comment sound less depressing.
"Hey it's okay, it's not exactly your fault that you're being locked away in here," I assured him, hoping to make him feel better.
Looking down at the ground away from me, he smiled.
I jumped as I heard a sudden loud thud from upstairs, shortly followed by laughter. I looked at Trent startled as he stared at the basement door. The door quickly creaked open and the man stood at the door.
"Hurry up boy, the lads are hungry," he boomed.
Without paying attention to me, Trent stood up and walked towards the stairs that lead up into the house. The man looked at me with the exact same ghoulish stare that he did when he watched me in class that day. He then shut the door behind him and everything went silent. I stood up and approached the stairs hurriedly. Slowly, I placed a foot on one of the steps and began to walk up them. After 10 steps I reached the door and knelt down quietly. I peaked through the gap under the door and I could see bare feet pacing around the room. I remained quiet as I listened to what the men were saying.

"So what about the girl? You must like her cuz she made the night without ending up in the crop farm."
"Oh I think she is the one, she's a beauty, my greatest one yet! She, has been what I've been looking for."
"So what's the plan then Mike, you gonna make her another one of your 'slaves' and put her to good use? Women are great in the house you know."
"You know what, maybe that's a good idea. I mean then Trent can have less to do and that means the less he will be hanging around us like a leach. The jobs will get done quicker and we can finally start making some progress."
The men laughed and I suddenly felt terribly bad for Trent. However despite feeling bad for him, all I could think about is what they were gonna do with me. What, did they just kidnap me so I could be their house slave? The men stopped laughing and I focused my attention back to the men.
"Where do you think you're going boy?"
"We, have um, run out of eggs, I'm going to fetch some more from the farm," Trent said cautiously.
Someone slammed their fist onto the table, I assumed it was the man, I now knew his name was Mike.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO RESTOCK YESTERDAY," Mike yelled furiously.
"Yes I was but then you - "
I then heard a thundering slap which made me cringe.
"DON'T YOU BACK CHAT TO ME BOY, GO GET THEM EGGS AND HURRY UP!"
I then heard another slap followed by a moan, Trent's moan.
I began to shake terribly as I listened to Mike hurt and yell at Trent. I then realised that I hadn't felt this way when I had seen Trent get punched by Mike yesterday. The front door then slammed as Mike yelled at Trent. After Trent had left the house, I continued to listen to the men as they talked horribly about Trent for minutes. Suddenly, I heard a door creak open. The men then fell silent.
"That took you long enough, now hurry up we're starving."
I saw Trent trip forward as Mike pushed him towards the stove.
Soon, the delicious smell of fresh eggs filled the kitchen and it made me feel sick. I hadn't yet realised just how hungry I was. Trent was so lucky to have been getting some food. It made no sense how he was being fed, yet was so unhealthily skinny.
Plates clanked and the sound of metal rattling echoed in the kitchen. I watched as Trent slowly approached the table. He then placed plates full of eggs on the table for the men to eat. I didn't see Trent sit down, I only saw him walk to the front door and leave the house. I sat at the door for a while, listening to the men chew and mutter and laugh. I slowly fell asleep as I listened to them. I was startled when I was woken up by a door slamming right into me, causing me to loose my balance and tumble down the stairs.
"What do you think you're doing?" Mike boomed at me.
I stuttered as he approached me and grabbed my bra strap. With my bra strap in his hand, he pulled me up the stairs and into the kitchen. He slammed the basement door behind us and turned to me, still gripping onto my bra strap.
"Here are the rules around here, you do as I say, once you have finished your chores you go straight back in there (he said pointing to the basement), and you don't make a sound."
He then shoved me towards the kitchen and let go of my bra strap. "Clean this up, now," Mike ordered, pointing to the dirty plates and cutlery on the table. I walked over to the table and stacked up the plates. My hands and legs shook whilst I carried the plates over to the sink, and my legs nearly gave way. With all my strength, I gently put the plates into the sink and began to fill it up. The door then opened behind me and Trent walked in.
"You took so long that I had the girl do your job for ya."
Trent sighed in annoyance and went over to to stand next to me. He carried a basket of vegetables, fruits and eggs. I looked at him thoughtfully and out the corner of his eye he looked back at me. He smiled kindly and then began to wash his vegetables under the tap.
Two cloths were folded next to the sink, and I grabbed one of them to start washing. Trent then grabbed my hand and took the cloth off me. I looked at him confused, as he put it back and handed me the other cloth instead. I smiled at him and focused back to washing the dishes.

We both washed our dishes and fruits. Once I had finished my dishes, dried them and put them away, I turned to look at Trent. He had put away most of his food in the pantry, except for two apples. He took the apples and put them in the waist on his pants. He then winked at me, looked at the basement door and put a hand on my shoulder. I continued to stare at him in confusion until I realised that he was making me go back in the basement. My eyes filled with tears because I didn't want to go back in there. With his hand firmly gripped on my shoulder, he walked with me to the basement door.
We walked down the basement stairs and Trent stopped at the bottom. He grabbed the apples from the waist of his pants and handed one to me. I took it from him and stood there confused.
"Why did you have to hide them?" I asked.
"I'm not exactly given food, nor am I allowed to take any without consent." He answered, taking a bite from his apple.
I took a bite from mine and looked meticulously at his face. The left side of his face was red and was imprinted with a large hand mark. He noticed I was looking at him, and sighed awkwardly.
"Like I said, I'm used to it so it's not that bad."
Trent rested his back on the wall of the stairs.
"So, Carly, tell me about yourself, I've already told you so much about me."
I laughed a little before shaking my head.
"What do you wanna know?" I asked.
He squinted his eyes to think.
"Tell me about your people. The people in your house."
"Ok well, I have a mum, her name is Melissa. Then there's my dad and his name is Ryan and my older brother Mason. What about you, do you have a mum or dad?"
I hit me that that question might be a bit confronting. Trent sighed wistfully.
"Mike is um, Mike is my dad and.... I don't have a mum or a brother."
I had so many mixed emotions. Mike was his dad? Mike was literally abusing his own son and treating him like a slave! I wasn't going to ask him about his mother though, that seemed to personal, and if he hadn't already mentioned her it indicated that he didn't want to mention it.
He sat there in silence before speaking again.
"I know what you're thinking, about Mike being my Dad."
I smiled. "I'm sorry it's just, I'm so confused?"
He laughed a little before returning his eyes to mine.
"It's hard to believe he is my dad, after everything he does to people and to myself, but he has been with me for as long as I can remember, and for as long as I can remember I've never exactly had a good relationship with him."
It was obvious that he didn't have a good relationship with Mike, his dad.

"You're probably wondering about my mum, aren't you?"
He said smiling. I looked at him with my mouth open before nodding ashamed.
"It's okay, actually I've never told anyone this, well I've never had anyone to tell anything to, but I did have a mother."
My eyes widened curiously. I was intrigued.
"Mike and I got into an argument one time, and he told me that I was 'just like your mum'. He meant it as an insult of course, but that means that I have or had a Mum. Before that I never knew I had one."
I sat in silence again, not knowing how to respond.
We talked for a bit more. I informed him more about my life, my friend and my school. However I still wanted to ask him more.
"Who are the other guys with Mike?"
"The blonde one with the scar, that's Carl. Jake is the one with short brown hair and the other one is Scott, the guy with brown hair and huge biceps."
When I was peaking under the door earlier, I had noticed a man on the left side of the table with huge calf's, that must have been Scott. The blonde one was the guy who met Mike at the door when I was kidnapped. Jake was the one who I had seen sitting next to Scott.
"Ok and why are they here? Are they just some friends of his?"
"Pretty much. Their like a gang or something. In a way, there kind of my family, except they beat me and use me as their slave. I believe Carl is Mike's brother though. They seem to always make these comments and references to things as if they have known each other for ages. Mike has never said anything about it though."
It seemed rather strange how all these men just lived together. For what purpose? So what if they were a gang, it made absolutely no sense.
I looked out the window and watched as the men came out of a small shed. Earlier when I had looked out the window, I hadn't noticed this shed, because it was near the front of the house, and partially out of my view . Trent exhaled with nervousness behind me.
"They will be coming to get us for lunch."
I sighed heavily.
"Let's just hope nothing bad happens this time," I said in reference to Trent being beaten up earlier.