His House

Chapter 2

I was still very much here and pinching the side of my leg as I continued to have my eyes trained on the dead boy's body. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the man turn away like he hadn't just killed him and walked back to the front of the room. I finally closed my mouth and turned my eyes away from the bloody mess and instead toward the man who had now returned to face all of us.

"Like I had said before," his voice was low and had a raspiness to it, "if you misbehave in any way you will be punished." His eyes then landed on me and an amused expression flashed across his face. "Congratulations. I had my doubts, but you shockingly survived."

My eyes trained on his and I could feel the dizziness which had gone away momentarily now start to float back into place. I was unable to look away, no matter how hard I tried. I felt as though I were in a trance. My eyes were slowly becoming blurry around the edges.

The man gave me one last long look before finally looking away and meeting everyone else's eyes. As soon as his had finally left mine, I let out the oxygen that had been trapped in my lungs. I hadn't even realized that I was holding my breath.

"There's a garbage bag and some cleaning supplies in the far cupboard. I want this room cleaned by the time I get back," he ordered. Then without another word uttered in our direction, the man turned his back on us and walked down the hallway, leaving us dumbfounded and yet still greatly terrified.

I looked away from where he went and instead focused my attention on the teens around me. Most of them looked as though they didn't know what to do next. They either continued to stare down at the dead body with looks of pure disbelief or were staring at each other, waiting for someone to take charge.

The dark-haired boy seemed to have gotten the memo and spoke up, the look that had been on his face moments before was now completely gone. "Search all of the drawers everyone. We'll find a few weapons and get out of this mess." His voice was thick with a strong Italian accent that seemed to meld a few of his words together.

A blond haired boy gestured with one of his hands toward the boy who remained still on the ground. "We have a knife already."

A girl who was to the boys' right shook her head. "Do you really want to be the one to... take it out of him?"

The room fell into silence once more as no one wanted to do the unthinkable task. My eyes roamed over a few of the teens who were near before returning to the dark-haired boy and his clenched jaw. He seemed to have come to a conclusion and glanced over his shoulder toward the cupboards before staring back at all of us.

"Just leave that one. We'll only use it if it's absolutely necessary. I'll search the far cupboard," he then pointed at a few of us who were closest to the drawers by the small fridge, "and you guys can get those ones. Let me know if you find anything."

We were all about to make a move toward our designated sides of the room when the girl that was still beside me turned to the dark-haired boy with a small scowl on her face.

"Who made you in charge?"

The boy who had taken a step away, turned back to face us, a confused expression momentarily freezing his features into place until his eyes landed on the girl. "It looked as though no one else was going to take the role," he said down to her. He then raised his eyebrows in a sort of mocking way. "But if you have a better idea than be my guest."

She crossed her arms over her small chest. "I think we should just do as the man says until we get a decent chance to escape. He seems to be all alone so it shouldn't be that hard."

"Precisely!" The boy smiled and nodded. "So, once we get the chance, we'll attack him all at once. He would have no time to defend himself if we all work at the same time."

"Okay... but there's still a chance that he could hurt a few of us before we even knocked him unconscious, and what's your plan for if we do succeed? Where would we even go?"

I looked over to the boy for his response. They both seemed to have good arguments and I wanted to see where this went. I didn't exactly have a side that I was on quite yet, but it could potentially change with whatever the boy said next.

"Fine, if you want to stay here longer than go ahead, but I'm getting out of here. Now."

Yep, I changed my mind, but not for the boy's side. He didn't have a plan, and I was expecting for him to at least make something up to give us some hope, but he didn't. I thought maybe after what he said, the teens would just do as the girl suggested, but the thought of escape must have seemed too good.

Many of the teens that were listening in, all nodded their heads in agreement with what the boy said. I watched, unsure of what to do, as the teens all resumed with what they were about to do; starting to pull out drawers and opening up cupboards. I wanted to do as the girl suggested, but it wasn't going to work if we all didn't just listen.

After deciding to just follow the crowd, I started to make my way toward one of the drawers closest to me when I got stopped by the girl and the desperate look that showed across her face.

"Help me, please." She looked towards the dead body on the floor and then back to me. "I don't want to just leave him there and especially don't want to make the man mad. I'd rather not end up hurt or worse dead."

I nodded my head before she could even finish and walked with her towards the far cupboard where the man said the cleaning supplies were. The dark-haired boy was already there, kneeling down and pulling out a bunch of the supplies.

He sounded mad as he pulled out a sponge and threw it in the ground next to him. "Cazzo! Non c'è niente qui."

"Find anything?" The dark skinned girl asked as we came up behind him.

"No," he growled. He then stood up and looked around the room and at each of the teens who were looking in the drawers and cupboards. "Has anyone found anything?"

Many of them looked up at him and shook their heads. A brown-haired boy around fifteen gestured to all the drawers and cupboards. "There's literally nothing here. Everything is empty."

Rage seemed to boil within the dark-haired boy as he looked at the cleaning supplies and then the dead boy who was still lying in a puddle of his own blood. "Cazzo." He then looked back at the girl. "Fine, we'll do your plan." He bent down and picked up the black garbage bag. When he stood back up, he looked towards the brown-haired boy who had spoken up. "Can you help me put the boy in the bag?" The dark-haired boy didn't wait for a response, he just walked right by the girl and I, and made his way over to the puddle of crimson and the body.

A few of the stronger looking teens moved towards the dark-haired boy to help, while many of the others stayed behind and closed the drawers and cupboards.

The girl then bent down and picked up the bleach and a few sponges. She handed me one with a smile that seemed forced. "Here."

I took the sponge from her with the same type of smile and made my way over to the bloody mess.

I should feel better now that we weren't going to be putting ourselves into more danger, but regardless of the thought, the gut twisting feeling didn't leave me.