The Boy From The Basement

Pain

"TRENT!" I screeched.
I watched as he held his hands over the wound and fell to his knees. His face was blank and he had his mouth open in shock and in agony. He fell onto his side and moaned with immense pain in his voice. Mike's arm then wrapped around my waist and pulled me away from Trent.
"Come on girl, we're done here," Mike growled.
"NOOO!" I screamed while punching his arm. My legs swung back and forth in attempt to kick him. I watched as I became further away from Trent, who was curled forward on the ground. His hand was soaked in thick, red blood. I then forcefully launched my elbow into Mike's face. Mike screamed as my elbow struck him directly in his eye. He dropped me onto the ground and held his eye.
"YOU BASTARD!", he screamed.
I quickly stood up and pushed him backwards, making him trip over a bench and slam his head into the metal platform that kept the bench to the ground. He screamed once more, and dropped his gun on the ground. I limped over and grabbed his gun. I threw it over at our duffel bag and turned back around. Trent was still curled over in pain on the floor. Tears filled my eyes as I limped over to him.
"Trent I'm so sorry, I thought I handled it fine before with Mike. I thought what I said would stop him," I sobbed.
Trent grunted and sighed.
"It's fine, just-" Trent sat up held his stomach tightly.
I pulled his hand away from his stomach to investigate the wound. It was a small hole, the bullet was visible from inside him. The area was drenched in a huge amount of blood and it soaked his shirt. I unzipped his jacket and took his arm out of the sleeves. Trent opened his eyes for the first time since being shot and widened them with terror, terror i had never seen from him before.
"Carly, WATCH OUT!"
I turned around to see Mike right behind me, holding a large, sharp knife. His hand was covered in blood and I could see trails of it running down the back of his neck. He breathed angrily and had his jaw was clenched. Mike then lunged at me with his knife, swinging at me. It was all happened so fast. Next thing I know, Mike was crouching in front of me and then my neck began to sting. Trent let out a painful sob while breathing intensely. My throat burned and I felt blood trickle down my chest. Then all of a sudden, Mike lunged at me once more as I clutched my bloody neck. The knife dug into my stomach, causing me to fall over onto my back. I couldn't even scream, my throat was so dry. Mike chuckled as he watched me cry hysterically and choke on blood. My hand was now soaked in my cold blood and Mike continued to watch in pride. My stomach throbbed and I held it tight with my hand. I laid down next to Trent, who was sitting up silently, leaning against the wall.
"Pathetic," Mike spat as he dropped the bloody knife on the ground. He then walked away and headed for the front door. Trent and I sat moaning in pain. The cut along my throat felt like it had been covered in gasoline and lit on fire. The wound on my stomach felt like someone pulling my organs from the inside. My sobs burned my throat, as well as my stomach. Just before Mike left the room, he turned around and smiled directly at us.
"Well I wasn't expecting this to happen. Oh well, I guess you to were useless after all." Mike then approached the door and left.
Trent sat in silence. He stared at the ground and I feared that I had lost him. I cried Trent's name as I clutched my hand over my stomach and put my other hand onto Trent's.
"Trent look at me," I cried.
Trent slowly yet lifelessly turned his head towards me, still looking at the ground. I forced myself to sit onto my knees, causing a great deal of pain to my stomach and legs. I then unexpectedly coughed up a pool of blood and spat it onto the floor. My stomach churned and blood poured down my quads. I cried, not caring anymore how much crying it hurt me to. Maybe Trent was right. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we died, we would be able to rest in peace . Trent placed his cold skinny hand on my knee. His touch felt like a blessing, it was so pure I looked at him with hope and he finally looked into my eyes. Before, his green eyes were full life, now his green eyes were dark and stripped of colour. I suddenly heard cautious footsteps approach from beside me. I turned to look at who the footsteps belonged to and to my surprise, it was Bethany. She stared at me with hundreds of tears streaming down her face. She began to sob and she stuck her arms out for a hug. I sobbed with her, but was in to much pain to move. After Bethany settled down she took a big deep breath and sighed.
"Let me help," she cried.
I looked towards the front of the room, were there was an emergency first aid kit.
"First aid kit," I stuttered.
Bethany ran to collect the first aid kit while I pressed my hands over Trent's wound. He stared at my body lifelessly.
"Trent keep breathing, you're gonna be okay," I instructed him.
Bethany ran over to us with the first aid kit and pulled the zip open. I grabbed a roll of bandages and lifted up Trent's singlet. His stomach was covered in blood and is trickled down to his pants. I pulled him towards me and wrapped the bandages around his flat stomach, over the wound.
"Carly let me do it, you're hurt," Bethany begged with a small sob.
I held my breath to stop my tears from coming out again. I was in so much pain, but I had to help Trent. Soon I felt a wave of nauseousness come over me and I slammed to the ground.
"Carly," Bethany called with panic.
My eyes were open but everything was a blur. My hearing began to fade and Bethany shook me harshly. All I could see was a blob of colours rummaging through a small red bag. My chest ached as my breathing slowed down and air was not passing into my lungs as much. I felt blood run down my chest and my torso. I was then rolled onto my back and my head was lifted up. Soon, a warm and soft fabric was placed gently but securely over my neck. I felt it wrap around and slowly the pain settled down a fraction. I closed my eyes and took a big deep and uncomfortable breath. My chest still burned and my hand laid over my stab wound. Bethany then placed a soft fabric over my stomach wound and wrapped the bandage around my waist. She then put her hands onto my face and suddenly I heard a muffled noise, a sob.
"Carly, wake up!" I struggled to make out what she was saying as her voiced became more and more muffled.
The pain in my chest grew and pressure was soon applied to it. After a few seconds my eyes flung wide open. My vision was still blurry but I could hear properly now.
"Carly! Oh my god..."
Bethany had performed some CPR on me to get my heart to beat properly again. Luckily she did, because I don't think I could of stayed alive for any longer. Suddenly, I remembered about Trent. I painfully turned my head to look at him. He looked more alive now. He breathed a bit more stably but he was still bad. I stuck my hand out for Bethany to help lift me up. She grabbed my hand and pulled me up. I groaned as I stood up, and my stomach burned once more. "Trent," I whispered.
I put my hand over his. I looked into his eyes desperately, hoping he would respond. His hand then turned over and he wrapped his fingers around my wrist. I winced in pain as he squeezed it a little. He then looked calmly into my eyes and forced a polite smile. He clearly was still in pain. I reached for the first aid bag and grabbed out some wipes and a pain relief tablet.
"Panadol?" Bethany questioned.
"I don't know Beth, this is all I can do right now. Go get your water bottle."
I wiped the blood off his stomach gently, if I wiped down to hard it would cause him pain. I picked out the tablet from the wrapper and handed it to Trent.
"Swallow this whole, don't chew it. It helps with pain."
Trent looked back into my eyes with hope. He put the tablet on his tongue and grabbed the bottle from Bethany's gentle hands. He unscrewed the lid and chugged down the water. He ended up drinking the whole entire bottle. I had forgotten how thirsty he must have been. He then exhaled loudly and pulled a small smile.
"You're gonna be okay," I assured Trent.
I rubbed my index finger on his hand and smiled. He smiled back at me, with more life in his eyes this time.
We continued to monitor Trent's health, and Bethany constantly made sure I was okay as well. I then remembered about Mr Curt. He had been severely beaten up as well. I looked over at him, and he was sitting down staring at the ground sadly. His arms were shaking a little and and he was breathing quite quickly. I picked up the first aid bag and crawled over to him. He turned his head slowly and looked at me. His eyes were small due to the swelling around his eyes. His face was covered in cuts and several blood stains. Blood still trickled down his forehead and around his cheek. He then smiled at me with dismay and wiped his wet eyes.
"Let me fix you up," I offered.
I grabbed some wipes from the first aid bag and began to wipe the stains of blood off of his face. He looked at the ground sadly and sniffled. I put aside the blood covered wipes and pulled out some band aids.
"Are you okay? What happened to you?", Mr Curt asked while he looked at me with sorrow. I sighed and put a band aid over one of his cuts.
"I was walking home from school one day and some man came along and kidnapped me. He then trapped me in his basement and... you probably know the rest," I explained.
"Oh my god, that's awful."
"Yeh I know," I laughed.
I heard Bethany sob silently from behind me. I turned to look at her, only to see that she was next to Trent crying.
"Bethany, what's wrong?"
She looked at me with her tear filled eyes.
"It was all my fault. I should not have left you alone that day, I should have texted you to see if you were getting home okay. Then none of this would of happened and you would have never had that incident with Brett. All this would not have happened if it weren't for me," she wailed.
I walked over to her and gave her a comforting a gentle hug.
"Wait, how did you know about Brett?"
Bethany wiped her eyes and sighed.
"Well, Brett told everyone that he saw you walking home and went to talk to you. He wanted to apologise for what he did and apparently you insulted him and ran away. When he turned around you were gone."
I raged with anger.
"You believe Brett? He harassed me and embarrassed me in front of his friends! He only told everyone that because I punched him in the face and he was embarrassed!"
Bethany paused and laughed for a bit.
"Obviously no one believed Brett after his friend Nick went around telling everyone what happened! Good for you for standing up to him," Bethany exclaimed.
I sighed and laughed, which hurt my stomach again. Mr Curt had put on all of his band aids, I assumed, and he stood up to go see if my classmates were okay. He took the first aid kit with him to go and fix up Kyle.
"So what really happened to you? What's with this Mike guy?" Bethany asked.

"Mike could be anywhere in the school right now. So many kids will already be dead," I explained with a faint sob.
I had told Bethany about Mike's plan. I also had informed her about half of what happened, I wasn't ready to go into detail about everything with the kidnapping.
"How are you planning on stopping them then?" Bethany asked. "Well Trent and I had a plan to go around and stop them one by one."
Bethany sighed and shook her head disapprovingly.
"Carly this is to dangerous, you just almost died! I already lost you two weeks ago and I'm not going to lose you again!"
Bethany's eyes filled with tears. I walked over and gave her a gentle hug. She sobbed into my shoulder and I put my face into her neck. I missed Bethany so much.
"I'm sorry Bethany, but I have to do this. This is the only way that I can stop them from killing everyone."
Bethany sighed and straightened up.
"Fine, only if I come with you."
My heart dropped.
"Are you crazy? There's no way I'm putting you in danger like that." "Well I'm not letting you go out there against 35 men and get yourself killed!"
"I will be fine, I have this all planned out okay? Besides I have Trent," I stated and looked at him.
Trent was staring at me with an angry and determined stare.
"No," Trent said firmly.
"What do you mean no, we already planned on doing this."
"Not after you almost got killed Carly! We both just almost died and you're prepared to go out there and potentially get yourself killed again!"
"I know Trent but this will work okay! We have to do something and stop them from killing everyone in my school!"
Trent sighed angrily he buried is head in his hands.
"I'm not going. Neither are you," Trent stated, very clearly.
I was starting to get mad. I had to go, I had to do something! I scrunched up my face in anger and walked over to the duffel bag. "Carly..." Trent groaned.
I opened up the duffel bag and pulled out a knife. I tucked it in the belt of my pants. I then pulled out another tranquilliser gun and hung it on the strap that was on the waist of my pants.
"I'm going Trent. I have to do this. Bethany look after Trent please."
Trent looked at me with pain and plead in his eyes.
"Carly don't do this," Trent begged.
I wanted to stay, and I would if I didn't have to go and save my school.
"I'm sorry Trent, I don't have a choice."
I walked to the front door and picked up my blood soaked ski mask. I put it over my head and took a big breath. I opened the door and peaked my head out. The coast was clear. I turned around and looked at Trent, who was staring at me and starting to tear up.
"Stay safe for me, please."