The House on the Hill

Chapter 7: The Basement

Finally, after what seemed like forever in the darkness, the lights flickered back on.
"Is everyone okay?" Brian asked loudly as he helped Ava's mother up from the couch.
"Yeah...I-I think so..." James said as he scratched his head.
"No! Nothing's okay!" Ava yelled as she felt a sudden surge of anger rush through her. "There's no doors! No one can escape!!"
"It's okay," Nick said in a comforting voice. "It'll all be figured out."
"Remember, we are all trained and experienced for this type of thing," Brian agreed.

"Harry? You okay?" James asked as he set a hand on Harry's shoulder, who was on his knees, staring at the door.
"She's gone.." he whispered. "Riley's gone!"
"What!" Brian said as he ran over to Harry.
"She disappeared after the lights went out!! She told me she saw the old man!"

"Oh no..." Brian said in dismay.
"We need to find them!" Nick said desperately. Quinn was speechless.
"We've never lost a member of our team before!!"
Harry and Ava exchanged glances of terror as the house suddenly got colder.
"What now? We have barely any evidence. We don't know where to look next. We're all going to die!!" The mother cried as she hid her face in her hands.
"I...I don't know," Brian said shamefully. "I honestly don't know."

....................

After a few hours of nervously thinking of what to do next, the team and the family decided to quit.
"We can't hunt a spirit with no evidence. We don't have any equipment. We can't leave. I just say we all..." Quinn said as he glanced at Harry, "split up and look for clues."
Harry's face lit up. "Really?"
"Yeah, I mean we can't really do anything else...."
"YES!!" Harry smiled as he pumped his fist in the air. "I call James!" He said grabbing James's hand and pulling him closer.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, not so fast gentlemen, I would advise that you take a grown up with you," Brian chuckled as he exchanged amused glances with Quinn.
"I'll go," said Nick as he stepped closer to the two brothers.
"Great. Okay, Ava? May I join you? I mean I would let you go with your mother, but neither of you have had the proper training," he explained. "So Quinn, please go with Ava's mother."
Quinn nodded and put an arm around her.
"Me and James and Nick will go upstairs," Harry declared proudly.
"I guess we'll search down here," Quinn suggested.
"We'll check out the basement," Brian said.
"Yeah...wait-what!" Ava yelled in shock. "The basement!? No, no, no, not the basement!!"
     "Where else would we go?"
Ava stayed put in her spot, frozen in fear.
     "Basements, first of all, are always creepy. Basements, second of all, are always dark! And basements, third of all, most likely have a dead body down there or something!! Nuh-uh, no way, I'm not going in there..." She muttered. Brian sighed.
     "Listen, Riley and your brother are both missing. If we don't get to the bottom of this, they might be gone forever," Brian paused to let that sink in before continuing. "And I know it's scary, I know. The spirit wants us all gone. But what other choice do we have? There are no more doors, not even windows. Please Ava," Brian urged. "I'm here for you. We're here for you. But someone has to be there for Riley and Will."
Ava looked around at the team; her family. All trapped in this house with an evil spirit on the loose. Brian was right. She knew he was. But she really really wanted him to be wrong. She's gone down to the basement a couple of times and she hated it. It was weird and cold and dark but worst of all it was big. Big enough to where you could loose sight of someone quickly.
"Brian, I don't know..."
"C'mon...please?"
"Yeah, please?" Harry asked as he stepped in front of his brother. "Ava, we need you...."
      "Don't you dare do the puppy dog eyes!" Ava raised her eyebrows as Harry did the puppy dog eyes.
      "I told you not to!!"
Harry laughed. "Well, I think you should face your fears Ava. Now is the time to do it." And with that, Harry, James and Nick headed up the creaky stairs and out of sight. Ava looked at her mom for support, but she just shook her head.
     "Ava, Brian is right." 
     "Aw why do we get the basement!!" Ava mumbled as she gave up trying to fight. "Ugh, fine, I'll go."
     "That's my girl," her mom beamed at her as she and Quinn stepped into the kitchen to investigate.

     "Well, I guess that just leaves you and I," Brian said as he slowly walked over to the basement door. 
     "You ready?"
     "Ready as I'll ever be, which isn't very much," Ava answered nervously as Brian rested his hand on the doorknob.
     "Same here, let's go."
He opened the door, which gave off a low creaking sound that you could barely hear.  The opened door revealed nothing but pure darkness. Brian grabbed Ava's hand and stepped inside. As soon as the two stepped in, the air changed drastically to cold, and damp. Ava shivered. Brian felt around the wall for a light switch as suddenly, a loud noise erupted from the darkness, startling both Ava and Brian. Ava let out a little scream.
     "W-what the hell was that!?" She quivered as she hung on to Brian's arm.
     "I don't know, just keep calm while I find a light switch..."
Ava's eyes widened and her heart seemed to stop as she heard movement coming from in front of her. 
     "One second....aha!" Brian said. "Found the light switch." He switched it on and....

....nothing happened. No light. They were stranded in the dark. And suddenly, as they were about to turn and get out of that basement, the door slammed shut from behind them.
     "Very funny!!! Trying to scare me like this! You're so immature, please open the door," Ava scolded Brian.
     "I-I didn't close the door, Ava."
     "You didn't...?" Ava's voice trailed off as she started banging on the door.
      "HELP!!!" She yelled. She turned and pushed and pulled the doorknob but nothing was working. The doorknob was jammed.
"Brian!! I told you, we never should've came here in the first place!!"
"Shh, calm down Ava, I think I have a flashlight in here somewhere," he said as he rummaged around in his bag.

The only source of light in the room emanated from the flashlight held tight in Brian's hand. He shone the light around the basement, revealing many boxes knocked over and toys and clutter scattered on the floor.
     "Wait what? I swear, all those boxes weren't on the floor!" Ava said, her breathing getting rapidly quicker.
     "That must be the noise we heard..."
     "Brian, you're scaring me. No one lives or even sleeps in this basement. Who could've knocked it down?"
     "Are there windows down here?"
     "No! Even if there were, the house already covered them up!! It couldn't have been the wind, the boxes are too heavy anyways. And who closed the door, huh? It's trapped us!!"
     "Ava, please clam down, okay? Everything'll be fine. Just...calm down," Brian pleaded as he descended the stairs leading to the floor. Ava quickly grabbed hold of Brian's hand and followed close by.
"Brian, I'm scared...I feel like we're not alone..."
     "It's okay, it's okay," Brian cooed as he stopped on a stair and squeezed Ava's hand tighter. "You'll be okay. So will I. And we'll find Will and Riley. I promise."

Ava smiled at Brian's confidence. Brian smiled back and began descending the stairs once more. The flashlights light had revealed only the little space before them.
"Now let's see..." Brian said as he stepped on the floor and circled around the fallen boxes. "You're sure it couldn't have been of natural causes that these boxes fell, right?"
"I'm positive. The things in the boxes are way too heavy to be pushed over by the wind. It had to be something strong, and tall."

     "Hmmmm," Brian hummed in concentration as his face was scrunched up in deep thought. "Here, I'm going to give you the flashlight, while I check things out. Shine some light in my dirction, would ya?" he said as he handed Ava the flashlight and examined the boxes. Ava held the flashlight in her trembling hand as as felt Brian's presence fade into the darkness of the basement. She shined the light in Brian's direction, constantly looking over her shoulder in insecure fear.

Suddenly a loud noise made Ava jump and drop the flashlight.
     "Brian!"
     "Hey, don't worry, I'm still here!"
Ava bent over and grabbed the flashlight. She shined it's light upon the spot she heard the noise and saw that yet another box had fallen on the other side of the basement.
     "Brian..." Ava whispered loudly, not taking the flashlight off the fallen boxes. "Brian, whatever's knocking the boxes down....we're trapped in here with it."

Brian didn't answer. Instead, he ran up the stairs and bolted to the door, trying desperately to open it.
     "Gah! It's no use!" he panted. Ava dropped the flashlight as another noise erupted from the near side of the room.
     "It's getting closer!!"

Ava felt around in the dark and eventually found a hand. She slowly wrapped her hand around it and squeezed.
     "Brian, why are your hands so cold?"

There was a pause.

     "What?" His voice rang from the top of the stairs...

...but Ava was at the bottom.