My friend, Demise

Chapter 35

Still Demise's POV and will be for a bit

Once Caine was brought down and we bandaged Azriel's neck, we all just sort of sat around and tried to think of a way out.

Amanda and I sat in the corner, taking turns with my large jacket to sleep with. "I don't think there's anything we can do. We should just wait." She frowned and leaned her head against my shoulder. "We've been trying to break the pipe for hours."

"We could yell until his sister hears us." Caine mumbled. "Demise might go through withdrawal symptoms soon so we should try to get out."

"This is fucked up." I tightened my fists and stood up, glaring at the concrete ceiling above me. "He's my fucking dad, he can't do this."

"Unfortunately, he can."

I slammed my fist into the ceiling at least five times before Azriel felt the vibrations and stood up, pulling both of my hands into his own. "You'll hurt yourself."

"I don't care!" I scoffed. "You could get killed!"

"That's my problem, not yours."

I ignored him and yanked my hands away, punching at the ceiling again. "Jasmine!"

I heard a stomp above me and frowned. He wants me to shut up. I hit the concrete harder, raising my voice louder than I thought it could go. "Let us out you bastard!"

The heavy footsteps trailed off, growing louder outside the door after a few minutes. Azriel immediately pulled me behind him as the door flung open and then slammed shut. My father shoved Azriel to the floor and grabbed me by the hair, slamming my face into the wall. "Shut up. Jasmine won't be home for a while now that she's in college, you know that."

"I have to try."

"Give it up." He held both of my arms behind my back. "If I hear that shit again, I'll kill them."

"Get off of him-"

"You too. Shut up." My wrists hurt in this position but I'm only worried about everyone else getting hurt because I wouldn't shut my mouth. "You hurt your hands hitting the ceiling like an idiot?"

"I'm not an idiot."

"Would a smart guy be locked in a basement with no way out?"

"He's not an idiot." Amanda stood up and aimed his own pocket knife at him, her arms quivering. "Now get off of him."

My dad snapped my wrist and dropped me to the ground, stepping closer to her with a grin. "You think I'm scared of a little girl?"

I cradled my wrist in my hand, the throbbing pain nearly making me nauseous. "Amanda-"

"You're just gonna kill your own son?"

"If it comes down to it, yes."

"You're horrible." Her eyes filled with tears when she heard that, glancing down at me. "How can you be so inhumane?"

He easily snatched the knife from her and stabbed her in the side of her neck, making any trace of light fade from her eyes. "You should remember how useless you all are to me before you try to intimidate me." He pulled the knife from her neck and left the room. "Stay quiet."

Azriel did his best to crawl over and hold my jacket to the side of her neck once she fell. "What should I do?"

Neither of us responded, not that he would have heard us if we did.

"Demise! Caine! Help me!"

"He cut into her esophagus. She's going to die no matter what we do, so just give up already." Caine, the only one not injured stepped over to him and signed his words as he spoke them so he'd understand.

"But- she-"

"Give up." He watched her start to choke on her own blood, the liquid slipping down her cheeks and into her hair. "She'll suffocate."

I watched her clutch onto Azriel's pants, her eyes looking around aimlessly as if she couldn't see. "But she protected him! Isn't that worth trying?!"

"We're all gonna die." I looked at Caine, who seemed hardly fazed. "Aren't we?"

"Don't say that."

"You never sugarcoat anything Caine so tell it to me straight. We're totally fucked, aren't we?"

He didn't say anything.

"Say it!" My voice broke a bit when I yelled too loud. "We're all gonna fucking die just like Amanda! That's our fate, isn't it?!"

"Yeah okay?! You want me to be honest then yeah! We're all fucked!" He yelled back, stomping over to me and pulling me to my feet by my broken wrist. "So cut the fucking act! I'm sick of you acting like everything's fine and this is all normal!"

"How am I supposed to act? If we all give up this fast then we'll never get out!"

"We're never getting out anyway!"

"Stop yelling." Azriel stood up and walked over to the boxes piled up the corner. "I'm deaf and you're still stressing me out. Have we been through all of these boxes?"

"Yeah. There's nothing helpful." Caine signed to him for me since he was too far away to read my lips.

"It feels like there's air coming through here though." He began to move the boxes aside, revealing a vent near the ground. "I was right...does this lead into the house or outside?"

"I don't know-"

"We're underground. It would lead into the house." Caine bent down to the vent, trying to listen for any sign of another person.

I began to wobble in place watching my movements slow down as I popped my wrist back in place. When I didn't feel any pain, I started to worry. "Guys I don't feel great."

"Are you okay?" Caine stood up and quickly checked my pulse. "Your pile is kind of fast, do you feel sick?"

"Yeah I think I might puke-" I gagged and pushed my hair back as a wave of heat fell over me. "I can't feel anything."

"What do you mean?"

"I popped my wrist back into place and felt nothing."

"Can you feel this?" He pinched my cheek, but I felt absolutely nothing.

"No. Is something wrong with me?"

"It's probably just withdrawal symptoms. What all have you been taking?" The world in front of my seemed to glitch for a moment, Caine's face distorting enough to freak me out. I backed away from him and stared at the floor. "Demise?"

"Ah uh....meth, cocaine...some other stuff that I can't remember. Mostly those."

"Would you look at me for a second?"

"No."

"If it's meth and coke, you'll experience hallucinations and paranoia. Maybe vomiting and restlessness. They're prone to cause nightmares too so...probably try to stay up until you feel better."

"It doesn't help that there's a fucking dead body in here!" I pulled my knees to my chest, tears filling my eyes as paranoia settled into my skin. Caine bent down and wrapped his arms around me.

"It'll be fine. Even if I look scary for a while, it's still me." He let go and wrapped the chain around my ankle a few more times to shorten it. "I'll shorten this so you don't hurt anyone."

"Thank you. But why would I hurt anyone?"

"Meth withdrawal can cause psychosis and can last up to twenty days. You're in for hell."

"What?!"

"You should have known this before you started doing drugs."