Decaying Hope

Repaying Debts

"Commencing Echo playback."

"Loading audio file 'soren_2.mp3'"

My body still aches all over from having slept on the concrete last night. It's been about a half-hour since the girl left, and I've been sitting in this room the entire time, still chained to the wall. The flame of the lamp went out while I was asleep, so the room was pitch black.

I'm sitting up, leaning against the wall, twiddling my thumbs.

I slowly sit up and lean against the wall, twiddling my thumbs. Surely the girl would've visited me by now, or, I don't know, something feels...off...

Since there wasn't any light coming through the cracks of the trapdoor, either it was night outside, but it seemed unlikely that the girl wouldn't have stayed down here if the upper level was exposed to the storm, so therefore the light upstairs must've been turned off, and the girl is out.

"Ughh, I'm going to go insane down here..." I grumbled to myself, starting to fidget with my fingers in the dark. I realized that my wrists were extremely itchy, and when I went to feel the shackles I noted that the texture was very flaky. It seems that the metal has experienced a lot of rust, given how I could brush a few flakes off with ease. I remembered that I still had access to the empty can of beans, and I considered finding a weak link in the chains and bashing them off. Then again, if the girl came back and realized that I had broken out, she would most likely see me as a threat and throw me out. Given that I had no knowledge of this world, being sent out of a place that seemed safe would be a death sentence. So, in the meantime, I decided to just stay put and wait until she returned.

...

"Two hundred fifty-four bottles of beer on the wallll, two hundred fifty-four bottles of beerrr... Take one down, pass it around, holy shit I'm going insane," I sang weakly, resisting the urge to scream. I have run through every means of entertainment that I knew, and the girl hasn't returned. Holy hell, this is boring. The urge to attempt to break the chains has grown significantly, and any second I might give in so I can stretch my legs. "Maybe she'd understand-"

Suddenly, I hear a muffled bang coming from upstairs, followed by a voice. I strain my ears, trying to make out what they're saying. I can barely make out a voice saying, "Please, let me in..!" The voice seems to be feminine, and it sounds familiar...

Oh, no... Is that..?

"Let me in!!" The voice is much more frantic, and it definitely is the girl's voice. She must've gotten caught in that storm that I was in when the helicopter crashed. But shouldn't she be able to open the door..?

It doesn't matter. Better safe than sorry, I suppose. I make up my mind and grab the can of beans, feeling the chain of the right shackle for a weak point. Since it's clearly been rusted for a long time, I should be able to break through if I find a spot that I can break through. Finally, I find a link that feels much flakier than the others. I ready the can of beans, and swing the can down with as much force as I can muster. To my satisfaction, the link crumbles under the force of the can. I repeat the process with the other chain, quickly finding a weak link and shattering it with the can.

I quickly try to stand up, completely forgetting I'm still missing my left leg, and faceplant back to the ground. I grumble to myself, reminding myself that now's not the time to worry about minor scrapes. If I remember correctly, the ladder should be...this way. I crawl over to where I believe the ladder is located, and I quickly collide head-first into it. I feel up the ladder and grasp a rung, pulling the rest of my body up, and plant my leg onto a lower rung. I climb the ladder and once again hit my head on something, this time that something being the trapdoor. The door didn't budge, so it must be locked from the outside, but it did seem rather soft. It must be as old as the chains.