no escape

chapter 4

After a few more minutes, Jessica stopped in her tracks. 

“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking at her. 

She finally stopped looking at the floor and was now looking at what looked like a store. 

It looked abandoned, which would be normal since there was literally nothing on that street, except for that store. 

The nearest building, if you could even call it that, was the gas station, which was probably 5 minutes walking from there. 

I think we had gone a little too far. 

Jessica smiled, trying to forget about our previous little argument. 

“I’ve heard that store is haunted” 

“Who told you that?” 

“Apparently, some years ago, a woman was murdered there” she added, completely ignoring my question. 

“And what are you suggesting?” 

“We should go in” Jessica answered, looking at me for the first time in the past 5 minutes. 

“I think it's closed” 

“No, it’s not” the teenager replied, walking towards the store. 

I took out my phone and looked at the time. It was almost 9 pm. 

“We should go home, it’s getting late” I said, but apparently I was talking to the air. 

She was already at the store’s door. 

I followed her and stopped in front of it. 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” 

“Are you scared?” she asked, avoiding answering me.  

“Well, yeah, of course I’m scared. What if someone catches us?”

But instead of replying, Jessica tried to open the door. When it didn’t open, I looked at her before speaking. 

“See?” 

“The back door is open” she said, walking towards the back of the store. 

“How do you know that?” 

Jessica didn’t reply again. Instead, when she arrived at the back door, she opened the door carefully. She walked in and after hesitating, I dragged my feet in, too, walking slowly behind her. 

“Jess? If the store was open, I’m pretty sure there would be a worker” 

“The worker has to be somewhere here” she assured, walking around the store. 

“If the store is open, then why are the lights switched off?” 

But Jessica didn’t answer. Instead, she took out her phone and turned on the flashlight, looking around the store. She then walked towards a door, opened it and walked in. 

There were some stairs leading down to what was probably a basement. 

Just then, I got a message. It was from my parents. 

“Come on, can we please leave? My parents just texted me. They’re going to be home in 20 minutes” 

Jessica groaned before answering. 

“Would you stop complaining?” she asked, mocking me. “It won’t take too long” 

She started walking down the stairs, disappearing. 

“Jess?” 

I got scared when Jessica didn’t answer. 

“Jess? Is everything okay down there?”