Trespassing | ongoing

Chapter 8. The Hatch to Nowhere

Chapter 8. The Hatch to Nowhere

My head rolls to the side and the weight of my body shifts completely to the left. A scratchy, rough surface scrapes against my back and I groan in annoyance. In my sleep-deprived state, I shift over to the right and begin slipping that way until a tight hold yanks on my stomach and keeps me still. Not knowing what is happening, since again, I am still partially asleep, I twist and turn ignorantly. The tight hold on my stomach begins slipping upward and my feet begin to dangle in the air. Everything feels funny and I frown with my eyes closed.

The tight hold around my stomach slides upwards until hitting my breasts and I open my eyes, not only am I in pain, but also in a near death situation. My eyes widen and I gasp loudly when I notice that I am very high up in a tree and strapped to the side of a branch which I am slipping out of. My feet dangle in the air and my body begins slipping through the rope, but the tight hold of the rope pulls on my chest, causing dire pain.

"Everett!" I shout, but it sounds more like a scream.

The sound of a hushed curse word meets my ears as I try to grasp onto the branch to pull myself up.

"Hang on!" Everett calls back groggily as he cuts himself out of his own ropes.

Seconds later, the rope slides over my chest and stations itself around my underarms. My eyes betray me as they peer down at the huge drop awaiting my death and I let out a small cry for help. The sound of bark scraping against shoes is heard from behind me and a thud follows behind it. Suddenly, hands encircle under my arms and begin to pull me up from the deathtrap. I am yanked backward and both Everett and I fall against the back of the tree, my back against Everett's chest as I sit in between his legs and his back is against the tree.

Before I can shout at him for his brilliant idea to sleep in trees like monkeys, the sound of crunching twigs coming our way makes me shut my mouth. Luckily, Everett sees to it that I don't slip again, thus his arm is wrapped around my waist in order the keep me from falling out of the tree. Both of us peer silently down at the stranger who has a hat over their head, along with a hood over the hat, keeping their identity hidden from us.

The stranger, who you can tell is male based on their bulky build and male-like haircut, roams around the hatch, keeping his eyes glued to the door in the ground. He gets a closer look by falling to a knee and peering through the foggy, small window that is located atop of the door. His hand clutches the metallic handle and before he yanks on the door, his sights wander upon his surroundings, as if to make sure nobody is around. His head begins to tilt up towards the trees where Everett and I are at, but we both quickly lean away from the edge where we were peering down from and stick ourselves to the back of the tree.

After a few seconds, we gaze back down at the curious fellow.

He brushes his fingers upon the handle and instead of trying to yank it open, he turns the handle to the right and it scrapes against the metal base of the hatch. I widen my eyes at the new discovery and glance back at Everett who has the same expression on his features. My gaze returns to the strange being on the ground who takes out a key from the hollow inside of the handle and turns the handle back into place. The key is placed into a small slot on the other side of the hatch that neither Everett or I saw when we were examining it last night -- or this morning, I should say.

The man yanks the hatch open and a darkness that is extravagantly terrifying awaits. The owner of the hatch, I assume, grabs the first step of what appears to be a ladder and climbs down the dark abyss, but not before shutting the hatch closed above him.

"Holy crap," I breathe out and Everett sits up straighter.

"We gotta get down before he locks up," he quickly states as he squirms around me, letting my waist go.