I Survived A Horror Story *unedited version*

Chapter 23

Even though I had left Jet in the room, I was still thinking about him - to my slight annoyance. There was no way Danielle was going to go back to him, right? She'd said her "revenge" was over. Still, I felt uneasy at leaving Jet all alone. If I was in his place, without the use of my legs, I'd feel pretty darn useless... and scared. I shook my head, dispelling all thoughts of Jet, and instead tried to anticipate what would await me down in the basement. Would they all be okay? What if they're all... dead? No. Don't be stupid. I chided myself. I stopped before the basement door, which was shut closed. My heart automatically began to beat faster and slowly I reached out and grasped the silver knob.

Silence seemed to stretch out forever.

I stood there, waiting to hear something. It took me a while to realize what I was waiting for - Jet's scream. But this time, there was no noise. Rolling my eyes, and gathering my wits, I swung open the door fiercely. Cold air blasted me in the face from the force of the door opening. I took a few steps down the stairs when I heard footsteps and the light from the doorway, which was illuminating my way down, disappeared. I swiveled on the step to find Seica standing at the doorway, blocking what little light there was.

"Saryl? You don't have to go down there. We're all upstairs." Seica said.

"Wait, what?"

"Rocky... and Mallark were in the basement. We took them upstairs to let them rest on the beds."

"Why? What happened?"

Seica's face looked uneasy. "Rocky's fine." She said, "But Mallark..."

I waved my hands urgently for her to go on, "What?"

"Mallark's neck snapped."

"What?!" I rocketed up the stairs to stand in the doorway with her. "Wait, what did you say?"

Seica closed the door behind me and began to walk towards the staircase. I followed her blindly as she spoke. "Actually, we didn't go downstairs at all. We were about to go downstairs when the door opened and Rocky climbed out, holding Mallark. He was hysterical, his eyes were red from crying and he wouldn't calm down." She stopped talking for a second and sighed, troubled. "Mallark- his neck- it was just so..."

"So what?"

"It was- it was just unnatural."

"If Mallark's neck has snapped why the fudging heck would you move his body?! Everyone knows if it's a neck injury you do NOT move the body!"

"Not all of us want to be a doctor like you!" Secia shot back. "Normal people don't care about that kind of stuff because we think we'll never need to use it!"

"Well we do! Okay?!" I was nearly screaming now. Seica looked shocked. I drew in a huge breath. "Is he- is he still breathing?"

"Yes." Seica whispered.

It was like a huge weight lifted off of me. "Ah, thank god. So where is everyone again?"

"Upstairs. We put Mallark on a bed and Rocky fell asleep almost immediately. I came down to get you. Come on." She placed her hand on the railing and took a step up the staircase, but I didn't move.

"Wait, what about Jet?"

Seica looked back, realization dawning on her face. "Oh I forgot about him."

I frowned and turned away from her back towards the living room. "How are we supposed to get him up the stairs?"

She sucked in a breath. "Oooh, that might be a problem."

I scoffed. "Yeah, you got that right."

"Why can't we just leave-"

"We're not leaving Jet down here."