Silent Night

Chapter Eleven

Chapter eleven

My head throbbed, eyes remained close, too filled with dread to make a single movement. Every attempt I made to raise my head off of the floor with the rest of my body, a striking pain would hurt whichever part of me I tried to move that time. Come on, you can do this, Marla. After encouraging words from my brain, I pushed myself up off the floor, agony traveling it's way throughout my body. I was too determined to give up.

Finally I had opened my eyes, looking around me, ignoring the searing discomfort I had everywhere. I was stuck in a cage of some sort, one big enough to fit ten people without it being uncomfortable.

Outside of the cage was nothing, it was just a room with a cage in it and a light hanging from the ceiling, giving off a dim light, dim enough to only see little things. Concrete walls, concrete floors, concrete everything. Even the stairs leading up to the door was concrete.

A groan came from behind me, sounding as if someone woke up. Oh great, don't tell me that there's a cannibal pet to feast on me in this cage. I turned around, expecting to fight off a flesh-eating human being.

"Ginger." I spoke in disbelief, having mixed emotions. To an extent, I was happy she was here, but that extent only reached so far because I didn't want her here. She didn't deserve it, none of my friends deserved this. Neither did I, but I'd risk my lives for them. I embraced her in a hug, holding her tighter than I have before. Tears threatened to spill from my eyelids, but I held them in, trying to be strong in front of her.

"Marla." She hugged back, tears of hers staining my shirt in little spots.

Then tears slid down my face, not able to hold them in anymore. We both let each other go, facing each other. "We're such girls." A laugh slipped from my lips, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Did you see any of our friends out there?"

Ginger bent her head back, stopping the eye liquid before they went falling down her face again. "Those fuckers never gave me a chance." Her voice shook. "Before the watch went off, a few of them surrounded me. I think it was only three people. They.. They taunted me. When the watch went off, they got me and took me back here." Her head bent into one of her palms, her hair falling in front of her face as she whimpered. She lifted her head back up, looking at me. "I never did have a chance to begin with. Somewhere in the back of my head I thought I can do this, but the fact is I never could."

Her words broke my heart. She was in a negative bubble I needed to pull her out of. "I could lie, say that maybe any of us has a chance. Hell, maybe one of our friends will get out and find help, but that's wishful thinking. We all never had a fighting chance. These fucking psychos probably know the woods as if it were common everyday knowledge." I stopped, taking a seat on the floor, patting the ground next to me. "Sit." Ginger took a seat next to me and I continued. "They have Jackson, you and I. That means there are three of our friends out there and three of their people. Let's put all negativity to the side and hope they get out, find help, and we'll be rescued."

Ginger smiled, the negative bubble around her popping. "I like that thought." Her eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Your math is wrong though."

"Wrong?" I looked at her, mirroring the same confusion she had.

"We have three friends out there, they have four people out there."

I thought about it, forgetting she had no idea what Lainey and I done. Mainly what I did. "No, they have three now."

She looked as if she were trying to put an equation together. "What did you do?" She gaped.

"I did what had to be done." I patted her leg, looking into her wide eyes.

"Who'd you kill?"

"Ken. Lainey and I jumped him, Lainey was being choked by him, I had to do it." I tried to dignify what I did. I did it for the right reasons.

"Where's Lainey?" Her questions piled up. "Did she get away?" I nodded my head. "Makes one of us." She rested her head against the cage, letting out a sigh. "What'd it feel like?"

"It doesn't feel like I killed him, it feels as if it never happened. I remember thinking I had to do this, it needed to be done. Nothing.. I feel nothing for doing it, but I like to think it's my survival instincts kicking in." I paused. "I like to think that.." I stared ahead, looking at nothing in particular.

"It was survival instinct. You saved Lainey's life and I'm positive she's thankful for that." She showed justice in my actions, making me feel better about it.

"Where's Jackson? Have you seen him?"

"No." She frowned. "I just woke up. What if they're lying to us about where he is? They probably already killed him." Her accusations stung. That was the last thing I wanted to be thinking of, the thought of losing my friends was unbearable. "When I get out of this damned place, I'm going straight to my little sister and hugging her tight. Even at her young age, she's the only one I could ever trust or rely on."

"You're not going to hug your parents?"

Her head shook. "No, they don't care. Probably wouldn't notice me if I set myself on fire and danced in front of their eyes. They're always out, never caring that their children want to spend time with them." She started to choke up. "One time I ran away for about a week, they didn't notice. The letter I left for them was still in the same place I left it. I walked into the house after being gone for a week and they were watching tv together." Tears formed at the bridge of her eyelids. "Their own daughter was missing and they didn't notice because they had better things to do."

"Did your sister notice?"

"Of course she did." Through the tears, she formed a broken smile. "I told her I was leaving. In fact, I told her to not tell our parents to seem how long it'd take them to notice. It crushed me knowing they were that oblivious to their children."

"You've got me. And the rest of our friends."

"For how much longer?" Her words registered in my head. She was right. How much longer until we were goners?

A creak came from the door leading down to the basement. Ginger and I stood, watching as the door slowly made it's way open. The sound was close to a rat being killed in a painfully slow death. A girlish figure made her way down the concrete stairs, flicking a switch. The sudden brightness made me squint my eyes till they adjusted. Things became more clear. The concrete walls were splattered in dry blood, my body tensed up as the girl made her way to me.

"Is that blood?" Ginger's voice seemed distant as I watched the woman. She had to be in her early twenties. Something was off about her.

She moved down the stairs as if she were sneaking in, her body shook like an addict having withdrawals. She jerked her head side to side as if she were looking for enemies. Her slightly frizzed brown hair fell down to the middle of her white nightgown.

"Should we talk to her?" Ginger asked as she watched her.

"No." My attention never turned away from this woman. I didn't know what she was doing down here and frankly, it made shivers go through me.

And then she spotted us. Her eyes went wide and she sighed, running over to the cage. Instinctively, I backed up, pushing Ginger along with me.

"Oh thank god you guys found me." Her voice was soft with a shake in it. Her hands held onto the cage. "These people.. They have me trapped in here. They do bad things to me and my friends are dead because of them. They killed my only friends and I'm stuck here. You got to help me out. If I don't get out, they'll kill me too. Since you guys are out, find the key to unlock this cage. Then we'll kill them. I don't know how long I've been in this cage." That's when it hit me..

"You're bat-shit crazy." Ginger took the words right out of my mouth. "She thinks she's the one in the cage." A forced laugh came from her lips. "I'd love to switch places with you, crazy."

The door opened again, only this time came Daniel. "Maria! What did I tell you?" He got onto her, his voice roaring through the room.

Her head fell, looking at her feet. "Not to come down here." She moved her feet back and forth, looking as if she were kicking the non-existing dirt. "But they were asking for my help! They were asking me to find the key and to let them out. They said they were going to kill us all when they got out!" Maria exclaimed, leaving Ginger and I in shock.

"You're a liar, you crazy bitch!" Ginger shouted at Maria, fury coming out in her tone.

Daniel sighed, rubbing his temples. "Shut the fuck up. Maria, go back upstairs." He walked towards the both of us when Maria obeyed his ordered and left. "You don't think I know she has screws missing, but call her crazy again, I'll have your fucking head." He reached through the cage, yanking Ginger's hair forward, her face pushing against the cage. "Got it?"

"Yes." She muttered.

He let go, staring at me. "Anything you want to say?" His eyes challenged me.

"Where's Jackson?"

Daniel laughed, pointing at me with his index finger. "He's being punished for what you did."

"Don't hurt him." I said through gritted teeth.

"Or else what? I'll feel guilty?" His eyes stared down at me, a smirk painted on his face. "He's being hurt because of you. If he dies, that's on your conscious, not mine." With that said, he walked away, leaving me with a heart filled of guilt, he was right, this is all my fault.