When All Hope Is Lost

-chαptєr nínє: thє díscσvєrч-

Chapter Nine- The Discovery

"Please!" I screamed, as he brought me into the cabin and threw me down onto the floor. "Please let me go, I won't tell anyone," I begged, scurrying back against the wall of the wooden place and grasping tight onto the floorboards that stuck out like daggers.

"If I had a penny for every time someone had said that and not meant it, I wouldn't even be needing to kidnap any of you ungrateful creatures. I would have enough money to just hire who I needed for the night," he said as he came over to me with chains and cuffed me up against the bed post nearby in the main room. Staring wide eyed at the black bearded man, as he walked off into the other room of the cabin, I had never been more scared in my life...

"Hope! Hope! You're okay," I heard someone say, sending me banging out of my memory and back into reality. Toby? I questioned to myself, as I looked over at him in the cabin we were in and sighed out of relief. His fear filled face lit up as he stared down at me who had apparently fallen on the floor and helped me up immediately. "What happened?" he questioned, holding me up carefully. Confused myself as to what exactly happened, I shrugged.

"Just a flashback I guess..." I hesitated, grasping onto Toby's black jacket for dear life.

"Well, it's all alright, nothing is going to happen," he replied, giving me back my hand gun that I had dropped as well. "Remember, I will never let anyone hurt you. You are mine now, and I protect what's mine," Toby ended, before letting me go and motioning for us to continue through the cabin. Swallowing down every small particle of fear inside of me, I followed him slowly, moving out of the empty main living quarters and into the kitchen adorned off of it. A rancid smell entered into my nose then, something I had not remembered when previously being trapped here. Upon looking into the kitchen all the way, I noticed trash thrown about nearly everywhere on the floor, flies swarming around broken eggs splattered against the wooden, decaying walls and rats scurrying to hide behind molded counters for shelter.

"This mess wasn't here when I was," I recalled to Toby, taking in all of the ugly features of the small kitchen as well, including the bullet ridden, broken refrigerator, and multiple counters that leaned heavily against the walls. It looked to be a mine field of disaster, which I soon understood as to why... "They were mad, because I escaped," I absentmindedly told, looking deeper at the kitchen to notice small newspaper bits torn apart and thrown around. Hurrying into the mess that Toby tried keeping me from, I fell down into the trash to retrieve every shredded piece I could and placed them together to form the ultimate picture: me.

"Why do they have that picture of you?" Toby asked, coming over to me and looking closer at the black and white image from a 'Found Persons' article I had placed together.

"I think they figured out I had been found and escaped themselves before police would come," I said, looking deeper into the happy eyes of my own on the newspaper. "They tore up this place before they left, taking all but Laura and Elizabeth that the police saved,"

"Why would they just leave two girls behind? It just makes it worse for them?" Toby wondered, making me wonder as well.

"Maybe they didn't have enough time?" I thought out loud, as I placed the newspaper picture of me inside the pocket of my white, button down coat and trampled my way back out of the trash with Toby. "The only true way to find out, though, is to ask the other victims themselves. We need to ask Laura and Elizabeth what they remember before the police came," I thought once more, already upset that my mind had come to that. I still was weary about anything regarding this whole mission and would prefer to stop it completely. I, however, couldn't let Toby down like that. He needed me just like I needed him right now.

"But how do we contact them without anyone knowing about what we are doing? We are done for it if anyone finds out," Toby sighed, walking aimlessly throughout the rest of the small cabin and into a single bedroom decked with four mattresses propped against the wall and a broken lantern thrown in the corner. I had never spent much time in here, but when I did nothing good came out of it...

"We'll figure it out," I noted to him, trying my best to distract myself from flashbacks that were trying their hardest to escape into my mind.

"Where is the basement? Didn't you say you heard girls down there?" Toby asked. "I would like to check, even if there is nothing," he said, searching for another door that could possibly lead underground. Contemplating as well as to where it would be, since I had never once been down there or even seen an entrance, I then figured it out.

"What about a cellar?" I questioned, sending Toby rushing outside to search for one before I even finished my sentence fully. Following him, like usual, I came around to the back to notice a cellar up against the cabin, busted open from the police most likely.

"Come on, let's check it out," Toby gasped, stepping down into the dark pit and holding out his hand for me to grab. Pink lips trembling and body shaking, I wanted to tell him no, but I knew it wouldn't fly. So, walking in closer to grab a hold of his trusty hand, I eased myself down after him into the cellar.

Darkness entered into my eyes then, blinding me completely other than the small amount of sunlight streaming in through the open cellar doors which danced against my waved light brown hair. What did I get myself into? I thought, taking in a deep breath of air and nearly choking. Unlike the kitchen in the cabin that smelled like rotting trash, the cellar smelled merely of death inside; something that scared me from not being able to see a foot in front of me.

"There is a flashlight in our backpacks," Toby told, making me reach my hand back to dig around and pull one out that lit up effortlessly with a simple press of my thumb. Light then flooded in a stream in front of me, as same did Toby's all within seconds. Gun in one hand and flashlight in another, both of us then had the security we needed to remain at least somewhat calm whilst down there.

"It smells terrible," Toby complained, making me nod in agreement as I crinkled my nose in disgust. "makes me wonder where it's coming from..." he hesitated, before scanning the place back and forth with his flashlight. Once hitting the right corner with the light, however, a discovery neither of us were expecting came into view...