The Boy From The Basement

The Office Room

It had now been a week since my kidnapping, one week that I had been held captive by these men. I have gotten to know Trent a lot more, given as we both have had spent so much time together in this basement.
Trent confessed to me how he was often abused as a child, because he did things wrong or didn't know how to do them. He was forced into learning most things by himself, however Mike did teach Trent some things as he got older. Trent learnt how to use knives, harvest and plant crops, how to cook and how to clean. Trent had to teach himself a lot of things, like counting and speaking. Carl also taught Trent some stuff, like digging and burying things as well as some basic English and Math. He was also taught about animals, because he needed to know what they were so that he could keep them away from the crops.
As a child, Trent was kept in the basement for days and developed sight and hearing problems, but the older he got, he was allowed out of the basement more often, only for the purpose of doing chores. Another thing I learnt about Trent was that every Friday, Trent was allowed to eat all the leftovers from the week, only if there were any. Lucky for him in his case, there were leftovers, but they were only a few chunks of meat, some vegetables and some fruit.
There were still many things Trent didn't know about his life. He didn't know a thing about his mum or if he had siblings.

I opened up to Trent about myself. I filled him in with what my life was like at school, I even taught him some things. I informed him about Bethany and all my friends and I informed him more about my family, something he craved to have. I ranted to him about my experiences with Brett, and I ranted to him about how Brett was a selfless human being. I ended up confessing to him about the day of my kidnapping and the trauma that I went through.
We confessed a lot of things to each other over the past week, and the more Trent confessed to me and I confessed to him, I felt I could trust him. I also feel sort of guilty and weird to admit that I have a soft spot for him. He is so nice and caring and understanding of me. I truly hope he doesn't turn out like Brett.
Trent and I sat next to one another calmly, leaning against the wall of the basement that faced the stairs.
"I'm still confused, so your Dad and Mum also have a Mum and Dad?"
I laughed, not to much so that I didn't embarrass about how he didn't know about grandparents.
"Yes! There called grandparents. My Mum's parents are Elizabeth and Joe, my Dad's parents are Kathleen and Morris."
Trent had his mouth open in a smile and began to laugh in shock. "Wow, that's so cool."
Trent sat silent for a moment, processing this information.
"Tell me about your grandparents, what are they like?", he asked contently.
"Well there's my Mum's parents Elizabeth and Joe, who I call Grandma Beth and Grandpa Joe. Grandma Beth is so kind! She always has to make sure I eat enough and that I'm not to cold or hot. Grandpa Joe is funny and always has stories to tell. Every time he visits he tells us the same annoying story about the McLennan's, who used to live in his neighbourhood. He always has to share a new theory about what he thinks happened to them. Then there is my Dad's parents who I call Grandma Kath and Grandpa Morris. Grandma Kath is okay. She is always grumpy and has an attitude, so I don't get along with her that well. Grandpa Morris is so sweet. He always make sure that Grandma is okay, as well as myself and my parents."
Trent looked at me with intense curiosity as I spoke.
"Sounds nice. So what's the thing about the McLennan's?"
"Oh the McLennan's. They used to live in my Grandpas old neighbourhood. It's a long story, about a husband and a wife, they get married, the wife gets pregnant, no one hears about her for a long time, then the baby dies and she gets pregnant again, no one hears about her, then she has a baby and no one hears from her. Then apparently my Grandpa claims that he saw some lady running away with a baby in the middle of the night, he thinks it's the wife. Then the husband moved out of the house, but my grandpa says he looked very suspicious. The amount of times I have heard his annoying theories is just.." I rolled my eyes and threw my hands up, which made Trent laugh.
Trent's laugh was so lovely and gentle. It made me feel some weird kind of happiness and I wanted to hear it more.
"What kind of theories?", he asked still half laughing.
"Ugh, like, they killed the baby, they divorced, the dad didn't want the child so the wife left him, a bunch of weird and unrealistic stuff. Part of me thinks it was all just a figment of his imagination."
Trent smiled and me and let out a small chuckle.
Trent's attention was then turned away from me and to the door of the basement. Trent had taught me to listen for the tap on the door, which meant that Mike was coming to let us out. Trent stood up and his left hand waved for me to stand up. I stood up next to him, just as the door opened. We both squinted and blinked because of the light, before proceeding to walk towards the steps. Once getting to the top of the stairs, Trent headed for the front door, while I headed to the kitchen. It had become strict routine that I make the boys breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as having to clean up any mess they made. This meant that I had to clean the whole entire house, including bathrooms and bedrooms. I had to do their laundry as well, which was the cherry on top of it all. I was only allowed to do chores in the house as they thought if I did some outside that I would run away. Also by doing chores, I became more familiar with the interior of the house. It had an upstairs floor with 4 bedrooms and a bathroom. It smelled of mens sweat and cigarettes, and I cringed every time I had to go up there to clean. Downstairs however, there was a kitchen, a bathroom/laundry and an office room that has a lock on it.
"What would you boys like to eat?" I said in a polite tone.
Part of pleasing Mike meant acting lady like, as well as acting like an attractive house maid.
"Hmmm, just some eggs and bacon."
I proceeded to cook whilst listening in on the men's conversation. It was always some conversation about gun brands, trucks and cars, every now and then they would make discrete comments about some big plan.
This big plan was obviously so important that they couldn't fully discuss it in front of me. I assume this big plan involved guns and killing, as they often mentioned using really violent weapons.
I served the boys their food and stood at the end of the table to wait for anymore orders.
"Girl, clean up the mess at the front door," Mike ordered with a mouthful of bacon.
I looked at the front door to see trails of mud splattered across the floor. I turned around to retrieve the bucket that was under the sink and proceeded to fill it up. Just as I started filling up the bucket, as scheduled, Trent entered with his basket of fruits and vegetables. I had learnt not to communicate with Trent at all while doing chores, I learned that the hard way.
After cleaning up the mess, I rinsed everything out in the bathroom sink and retreated back to the kitchen. Trent was already back in the basement I assumed, so I headed to join him. Just as I approached the door, Mike yelled for me.
"Stop, come here girl."
Slowly, I turned around and looked at him anxiously. He used his index finger to wave for me to come over. I walked over to him cautiously as he sat at the table watching me contently, only once did his eyes quickly look down at my body that was becoming unhealthy skinny.
"Not quite yet, I need you to do this weeks laundry," he said teasingly.
With a faint sigh, I nodded and headed upstairs to collect the dirty clothes. I went into each room and collected all the clothes that were piled out the front of the room, that's were they put their dirty washing. My arms began to ache as I carried the heavy basket of clothes, my legs trembled trying to support the weight. As I put my foot down on the first step, my leg gave way and my knee slammed into the stairs. I began tumbling down the stairs, the dirty clothes fell out from the basket. The scab on my head scrapped one of the stairs, causing my it to bleed. Once I reached the bottom, I laid there for a bit with my head throbbing. I looked up and noticed that the men were gone. I then realised that they were all in that office room, the door was slightly open. I sat up and looked through the opening in the door from where I sat. They were standing around a table with a map on it. Mike pointed to areas on the map marked in red crosses. On the wall, several newspapers hung up by thumbtacks. The men spoke with muffled voices, so it made it hard for me to hear what they were saying. I continued to listen in on them, but then the front door opened and Trent came in.
Trent looked at me and frowned confused. He touched his forehead while looking at me concerned. Oh right, my head. I put my hand to my head and I realised just how much blood the cut had made. Trent slowly approached me, keeping an eye on the office room door. He then trotted over and picked up a dirty sock. I then noticed how dirty his hands were. Trent had probably been gardening. He used the sock to put over my cut, and using a T-shirt from the floor, wiped the blood off my face. He held the sock on my head while looking into my eyes with care.
My heart began to beat faster as his cold breath tickled my face. It made me blush almost as red as my blood. Trent smiled while shaking his head. He then moved his face towards the office room. He was curious as well.
"What's going on?" I whispered.
While facing away from me, his hand still holding the sock to my head, he shrugged. We both looked into the opening of the office room door and continued to watch Mike talk to the men. I put my hand over Trent's to take the sock so I could hold it myself.
I then noticed that the place on the map looked vaguely familiar, I just couldn't put a finger on it. After thinking about it for a minute, I realised what the place on the map was, my school.
I gasped.
Trent looked at me concerned. Why would the men be looking at a map of my school? What was the big deal with my school?
"What's wrong?" Trent whispered worriedly.
"Trent, that's my school, on that map, why are they looking at a map of my school?"
Trent looked at the map and frowned.
"The big plan, your school must have something to do with it."
I was so confused. Then it hit me. The big plan was to shoot my school down. A school shooting. All that talk about guns and killing people, now I knew what it was all about. My hands flung to my mouth and I gasped. Trent looked at me with a highly concerned expression as I stared into the office room. I could not believe this. Trent put a hand on my shoulder and turned to face me.
"Carly, are you alright?"
I looked at him and took my hands away from my mouth. I continued breathing heavily in shock and tried to get my words out. Trent then snapped his head towards the door of the office room and froze.
"Carly," He said warningly.
I looked into the office room to see Mike and all the men staring right at us.
Mike boomed out of the office room, the rest of the men following behind him.
"WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK YOU'RE DOING. YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO BE SPYING ON US YOU LITTLE BRATS!!!" He yelled as he stormed at us.
"I wasn't spying I, I.." I stuttered.
Mike came at me with his fist in the air and as I closed my eyes, I was pushed into the wall, missing the punch. I opened my eyes to see Trent pushing Mike away. I gasped for air in shock of the moment, and watched as the men approached Trent. Carl and Scott grabbed Trent by each of his arms and held him off the ground.
"Aw look at little Trent, trying to protect his girlfriend, you pathetic child," Mike said mockingly, then proceeded to give punches to his face.

I cringed as I watched Trent get beaten, whilst the men laughed and yelled. Tears burned in my eyes and I stood up.
"STOP IT STOP IT!!" I screamed, while grabbing onto the arm Mike was punching Trent with.
With one arm, I dug it into the inside of his elbow, then I twisted his arm and held his wrist to his back. I pulled his wrist up to the back of his neck and my other hand pushed his elbow upwards, this caused him to scream. He now faced away from me and was on his knees on the floor. He groaned and then with the elbow on his free arm, used it to stab my stomach. This caused me to loose grip on the arm I was holding, and eventually let go. Mike then grabbed my neck and pinned me to the ground. I screamed as he pushed down on my neck and I sobbed hysterically while he threw punches onto my stomach and face.
My face grew heavily numb and blood poured it's way into my eyes.
My stomach growled and forced anything in it to come up my throat and into my mouth.
Then eventually, everything went dark and quiet.