Hide (Mommy's House 3)

27

The door to the crawl space creaked open, and a patch of light poured inside.

Bella looked up, her heart nearly beating out of her chest. She imagined a police officer staring down at them, shining his flashlight right into her eyes. She imagined the pressure releasing from her chest and shoulders as he pulled her to safety.

But instead, her chest only tightened. Norman stared down at them instead, a horrifying grin plastered on his face as he dropped his arms inside and reached down, fingers extended. The guard beside Bella grabbed onto her shoulders and shoved her into Norman's grip.

Norman grasped onto her arms and pulled her up, with the help of the guard pushing her legs up.

Bella flopped down onto the hardwood floor of the bedroom, breathing heavily as she looked around.

The bedroom bathed in an early morning sunlight, golden and dreamy, which spilled through the window beside her bed. She lifted her head weakly off the floor to look outside. All she could see was an empty field of tall blonde grass and trees in the distance.

She pressed her cheek back against the cold floor as she forced her eyes shut. She gasped when suddenly, she was lifted from the ground. The barrel of the gun pressed up against the edge of her temple again.

She was dropped down onto her bed. Her fingers gripped the edges of the mattress to steady herself as she scrambled to quickly move to her back. She looked up at Norman as he grabbed onto her wrist and locked the metal restraint around it. Breathing heavily into the tape around her mouth, she continued to look into his small eyes.

Norman had a knife in his hand. He slowly moved the blade over to Bella's face, and she flinched away from him, exhaling shakily.

"Hold still, honey," Norman whispered as his other hand grabbed onto her cheeks to steady her head. He slipped the blade of the knife beneath the thick layers of tape and sawed through it, breaking the tape off.

Bella gasped for air once her mouth was free. Norman stood over her, tilted his head with a satisfied grin, and turned away from her.

He walked over to help the guard pull Darla out. As the guard walked Darla back to the bed, Darla limped, lifting her right leg up into the air and wincing in pain every time her toes touched the floor.

When the guard threw Darla on the bed, Bella turned her head to look away. She closed her eyes and listened to Darla's heavy breathing. Then, the restraint clicked around her wrist.

"Get some rest, girls," Norman said.

Bella refused to look at him.

She listened as Norman's footsteps left the room, and the guard's footsteps followed shortly after him, along with the door creaking shut. Muffled voices erupted from the hallway.

"I told you guys to take Elliot too," Norman spat.

"We had to make a deal with them, we didn't have a choice," the guard responded. "We didn't say anything about our location in front of the kid though, I swear."

"Well, now the cops have been called here, twice! That's what happens when you leave a witness behind," Norman let out an exasperated sigh. "We're gonna have to move them. I'll find somewhere, we'll get them out of here by tomorrow-" the voice trailed off as they exited the long hallway and walked out of earshot.

Bella's heart dropped down to her stomach. They needed to get out of there before he had them moved. She needed to share her plan with Darla. She turned over to look at the girl who was cradling her leg with her free hand.

"Are you okay?" Bella asked her.

Darla slowly looked over at her, her eyes filled with tears. Her bottom lip trembled with a heavy exhale. "No, my leg -" she groaned, "I fell on it."