Renata

Chapter 13

Serena

The small tubelight in the narrow hallway flickers as if deciding whether to be useful or not. The sound of rain thrashing against the broken windows nulled out the chaos that just happened. My body aches all over but my mind is completely shut down.

A sudden lightning followed by a thunder strikes, casting the dark living room with a luminescent glow.The large dead body and the blood pooling around it on floor comes into view and in a second, as if I blinked, the room goes back to darkness.

I look towards the hallway, the faint yellow light reflecting off the doorknobs of the two rooms. It is past 2 am and both of them are asleep, one drunk out of her mind and the other, tired of waiting for me to come back from work.

The storm outside doesn't seem to die down. A branch hitting the shed outside in the wind pulls me out of my mind and I look back at the broken window. The crack in the glass runs down the middle of my dark reflection. My eyes stand out the most, it looks barely alive yet haunted. The crack on the glass seems to reflect the one in my heart perfectly.

Lightning strikes again and this time, something in the reflection glints, something that I'm holding. I look down and my dull eyes stray to my right hand, clutching a knife covered in something dark. Everything goes silent as I watch the blood slowly drip down the knife onto the already wet floor. Drop by drop.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

I slowly blink open my eyes, the drowsiness not yet fully gone. I lift my head with a groan, the pain in my neck bringing back the memories of what happened and all the drowsiness vanishes. I look around the room with blurry eyes and realise it's more like a cell with dingy walls and door with metal bars.

My one hand is chained to the wall and I'm lying on the floor. Slowly sitting up, I strain to hear anything, but the only sound is the water dripping from a broken pipe in the corner of the room. I sigh and look at my body for any injuries but surprisingly, there are none, except the bruise on my right wrist caused by the chain. I pull at it but it doesn't budge. I need the key.

My clothes are as dirty as the dingy room and I cringe and close my eyes. Taking deep breathes, I try to distract myself. I place my hands on the walls and slowly stand up, walking towards the cell door, the chain stops me and I realise that it only let's me go as far as the middle of the room.

I look around the room as much the chain lets me after confirming there are no cameras. About 20 mins of me getting rid of the weakness in my legs, I hear it. The first sound other than the dripping water. Footsteps. Two of them. Faint yet loud enough to know that they are coming towards me.

I quickly go back to the corner and lie down in the previous position, making sure the chain doesn't make too much sound. I let my hair drape over my face and weaken my body to make it look limp. The footsteps get closer and a few seconds later, they stop in front of my cell. I hear keys jingling and a faint laughter from one of them. The lock clicks open and they enter, their lazy footsteps indicating that they didn't think they were in any danger.

"Похоже, она еще не вышла." (Looks like she's still out.) One of them says with a slight chuckle and slowly walks towards me, the other one stays near the cell door. Looks like he's the smart one.