The Basement

Chapter 13

When I'd taken the last mouthful of spaghetti bolognese that I could succumb, I placed my dirty cutlery on the counter. Jack told me that he would clean up everything which caused me to shrug and make my way up the stairs. I wasn't going to stop him and insist that I do it all.

I stopped on the second step at the top as i remembered it being just me and Jack alone in the house for hours. I walked down a few steps and began saying "Jack where's-" only to be cut off by his instant reply to my unfinished question.

"They went out for dinner and drinks with friends after" he scooped a second portion onto his plate. I nodded although I knew he wouldn't have seen and continued to make my way back up the wooden stairs. Dragging my feet up each step as slowly exhaustion started to cloud my mind.

Having not seemed it but walking to the park and back, along with crying was the most I'd done in a day in years and my body didn't like the amount of activity that I'd started to do. I struggled to pull off the skinny jeans that felt like they were cutting off the blood from circulating through my legs and eventually, with some mini bum wiggles, I'd managed to pull them off and put on loose shorts and a checked pyjama top.

My vision had slowly, over the time it'd taken to remove the jeans, gone blurry and before long I decided to close them and feel my way around the room. I ran my hands along the wall until I reached the light switch and flicked it off. Wandering aimlessly to where i thought my bed was, i threw the duvet back and slid myself under, falling asleep listening to the sound of the tv playing from the living room.

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"Hey Derek" i smiled, walking up to him and wrapping my arms around his waist in a hug. I pulled back slightly and looked up at his face to see him smiling down at me.

"Someone's here to say hello" he said, tucking a loose strand of my hair behind my ear and rubbing his thumb against my cheek affectionately.

I gave him a quizzical look and was seconds away from asking who when i heard footsteps coming closer from the hallway entrance. I turned around and my arms fell limp to my side, Derek removed his hands from my hips as my eyes held contact with my father's.

"What?" I mumbled, folding my arms in confusion. I looked at Derek to see him wear the exact same, wide smile that was painted onto the man's face that stood opposite from me. "Is this a joke?"

I took a step back as Derek smoothly walked past me towards my father who held a blade in his palm. Derek gently cradled the blade with both hands as he took it from him and suddenly straightened his back, my eyes on the blade that he held in his left hand. He tightened his grip on the handle and swiftly spun around to face me, no emotion in his eyes nor his facial expression.

"D-derek stop!" I told him, holding my hands up as the more steps i took back the closer he came until he had me until my back had hit the counter and he was just a few steps away from touching me.

With a shrill laugh he sunk the blade deep into my torso, i screamed and sunk to the ground holding the wound. Both my dad and Derek stood over me, laughing.

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"Emily time to get up!"

I groaned and pushed myself up, wiping the covers against my forehead to clean it from the sweat that had settled during the nightmare that was ongoing. I felt as if i would collapse from exhaustion if i stood up, my head was dull with the beginning of a headache and without needing to even smell myself could i already tell that i stunk of sweat.

It took all of my energy to stand up and walk from my room to the bathroom. I was stopped on the way there as Jack came from his room, smoothing his hair to the side with a comb. He froze when he saw me and frowned, lowering his arms. "Are you okay? It looks like you didn't get much sleep"

"Nightmare" was all i said and it seemed that it was all i needed to say before Jack nodded, gave me a smile and continued on to go down the stairs. I stared after him a while and then carried on into the bathroom, turning the shower on and sitting on the closed toilet seat as i waited for the hot water to come through.

I must've dozed off because the next thing i knew, my aunt is shaking me awake. "Oh god you're ok!" She pulled me into a hug, much to my discomfort because of my sweaty state.

"I think i just fell asleep" i assured her with a smile, noticing the shower had been turned off. "I was actually just going to have a shower, i must've dozed off when i was waiting for the hot water"

She gave a sympathetic smile and patted my arm "Okay dear, well I'll leave you to that just try not to fall asleep in the shower"

I chuckled as i locked the door behind me and turned the shower back on, removing my clothes and stepping in, not caring about the temperature.

The fact that i could have a shower whenever i wanted was still new to me, not having to wait for weeks, months just to clean myself was a relief. One of the up sides to getting out of that hellhole of a basement.

As always, i took my time washing my hair and body. Relishing the feel of the ongoing hot water shoot from the shower head and onto my now healthy body. I arrived at my families house being far below the normal weight of a girl my age, since then I'd put on half a stone and to say that it made a difference to what i looked like was an understatement.

Drying my hair with a towel, i glanced at the mirror and smiled. For once i genuinely looked happy. When i arrived, i looked into this mirror and saw a skinny, sad 17 year old who's eyes were lifeless. A few weeks later and I'm looking into exactly the same mirror but the only difference being that i looked healthy and that i was FINALLY living.

I turned my back to my reflection and wrapped a towel around myself. I tucked my dirty clothes under my arm whilst the other held my towel up.

This was the moment that I dared to open the door and see if it was clear to make the all important run to my room without being spotted. I'd made this run before, many times, and not once had I gotten caught. Today was not going to be the day that happened.

Thinking that no one was around, I opened the door wider and started my fast walk to my room. I'd forgotten to check to see if anyone was on the stairs so the least I expected was to walk into someone.

I slipped on the wooden flooring and fell on my back, the dirty clothes I'd previously held fell around me.

"Oh god sorry" I was helped up by a boy with brown hair that was in a messy bun. I immediately let go of the hand that he'd helped me up with and moved towards the wall, a good distance put between us.

"Who are you?"

"You must be Emily! I'm Austin" he gave me a warm smile and held out his hand for me to shake.

I stood my ground and refused to move a muscle. He lowered his hand when he realized I wasn't going to shake it but kept the smile on his face.

Just as I was about to ask him why he was here, Jack appeared behind him and looked between me and Austin.

He rose his eyebrows at me stood in a towel and frowned. "Hey guys.."

I gave them both one last look before I quickly picked up the clothes that I could find on the floor and shuffled to my room. I closed the door, leant against it and breathed out a have sigh.

I got dressed thinking about what had just happened when someone knocked on my door. "Come in!" I called to whoever was on the other side, shoving clothes into my laundry basket and pulling down the green baggy jumper I'd decided to wear.

Austin came into view and he held out what looked like a piece of clothing towards me. I wearily walked to him and I could feel my whole face instantly go red as I saw that what he held was none other than my underwear.