HOW YOU LIKE THAT | JENLISA

Chapter 25

Jennie

"Hold her down." The man said to the other. I watched in horror as they injected Lisa with the syringe. I moved away from the bed when Lisa caught the corner of my dress. Her brown eyes stayed on me, already losing the spark. I cried when I exited her room.

She was sleeping now, and the maid said she won't wake up until morning. What was disturbing was how the house staff acted casual, like this was a routine and something that they witnessed every other day. I'd decided. If I was escaping from this house, I would take Lisa with me and think of the consequences later. She was suffering in her own home and I won't let that happen.

On the other side of the mansion, I'd seen a set of steps leading down to a tunnel. It would be scary for me to go through it alone, but it's not like I had any other choice. I needed to see where the tunnel led and if there was a way through it, then I could find another opportunity to leave.

It took me several minutes to locate the tunnel and, as expected, it was pitch black inside. In other situations, I would have skipped walking through it, but claustrophobia and ghosts were the least of my concerns right now. There was no greater monster than man, itself.

I switched on the flashlight and took slow steps ahead; the ground was muddy and watery, and my shoes were getting caked in the dirt, but I continued to walk forward. The tunnel's ceiling was covered in large pipes and I was following the same route. I thought the pipes had to go somewhere and wherever that it led to, had to be the way out.

This was a pure gamble again. I knew the risk that I was taking. I could live and get tortured or get killed in the future. And I refused to go down like Diana did.

I came to a stop when the tunnel split into two different directions. I went with my gut and took the straight path. At this point, I'd spent fifteen minutes walking, and the tunnel seemed to be never-ending. If I found nothing after five more minutes, I would go back through the way I came from. The tracker was blinking a yellow signal; it was usually bright green.

I saw a door ahead, a tiny grey door that had a bolt. I slid the bolt aside and the space inside grew narrower. Stepping in, I saw a staircase leading into nothingness.

I tried to calm my breathing and wondered if finding out what was down there would be worth it. If there was a way out from this dungeon, maybe I could try. There was no way the tracker could show my location as the blinking light was completely gone now.

I descended down the stairs, with my heart in my throat, and expected to see a pile of bodies like the ones the movies always show. But if there were dead bodies down here, wouldn't there be a powerful and horrid stench? As I stepped down further, I heard whispers and some voices echoing, so I stopped short and hid against the nearest wall.

When I took a peek, I saw four people dressed in dark cloaks huddled closely. The small and dank place was illuminated by candles and it's when they moved in a circle that I noticed they were standing on a pentagram, while chanting something. There was a picture of a diagram but I couldn't see it clearly.

Was this family involved in a cult?

Or was it someone else?

Two more people joined the ritual.

In the centre was the head of a dead animal. One figure stood tall between them while the others continued to chant some words and kneeled before the figure, who wore a hooded cloak and a mask of an animal with horns. I couldn't tell the person's gender, it could be a man, or even a woman and I noticed that the person holding a round bowl with some liquid in it, is wearing a ring in his or her index finger that had a black crystal-like gemstone and a chain with a locket.

They passed the bowl filled with liquid between the members; each of whom from the circle took sips from it. This felt so unreal, like I'd walked into a twisted episode of 'The Twilight Zone'.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and couldn't move an inch. I needed to get out of here now before someone caught me. I turned out to leave and in a haste, my shoe stumped over the first step and that made the sound of a rustle.

The chanting stopped, and a voice boomed, "Who's there!?"

I didn't stop as I climbed the stairs two at a time and when I reached the top; I shut the door and made a mad dash for the path without even bothering to turn on my phone's flashlight.

As I was running, someone said, "Found you!"

And before I could dodge, the person seized my arm, and the next thing I knew, something like a rod or a metal bat swung at me and I went down, with my body splattering against the slippery floor. I sat up but my head was spinning in circles and I kept thinking that I needed to get away from here. The sounds of thunder continued to fill the silence in the background, muffling my cries. I was wondering why I was being put through this when I hadn't hurt a single soul in my entire life. All I'd done was to help people with whatever little I had. My life kept flashing before my eyes, all of it, the good and the bad memories.

"Was she trying to escape again?" That was Nichkhun's voice.

I tried to crawl, to stand up again, but it was so difficult to see anything in the darkness.

"Yeah." That sounded like Sorn. "But I'm gonna make sure that she thinks a dozen times before she makes that mistake again. You'll remember this, won't you, Jen?"

The next swing came to my legs, followed by the continuous hits and the sounds of my bones cracking.