They Call Me A Zero

Chapter Four

“The bed” I half whisper, half shout to Sonny. The bed has very low boards at the sides, which makes the bed look stuck to the floor, but isn’t. Sonny and I learned this when we were smaller and Nessa would always beat us at hide and seek. We eventually found out about her shoddy hiding place, and never again did she win. Her true skills at the game came out and it wasn’t adequate at all. Sonny slides the board upwards with her fingers and I crawl in before her. She slides the board back down very slowly with the tip of her fingers, trying to minimise the thud to follow. We could both hear a voice downstairs; it’s a male’s voice. He’s either talking to himself or on the phone. I say the latter. He meanders in the direction of the kitchen. His footsteps, loud in the deafening silence of the house. Sonny starts to take quick deep breaths.

“Calm down Sonny” I whisper to her.

“You know how I am in confined spaces” She maunders in between breaths.

“I know, just try to calm down” I cue her. We hear him stroll around the hallway for a while. The stairs start to creak, his steps getting louder and louder. He’s coming upstairs.

“Try not to make a sound” I whisper so quietly I’m not sure if she even heard me. Sonny quiets down slightly. The creaks and steps seize with a thump. He’s upstairs. We could hear him chatter about something that I can’t quite make out, his voice sounds familiar but I can’t put a face to it. His footsteps get closer and closer to the room and I can feel panic rise in me. Sonny shots her eyes trying to get the sounds out of her head, she’s trying to calm down and his feet just half a metre from her face isn’t helping.

“Are you sure the sensors went off cause there’s no one here” The man says. I could feel Sonny stiffen beside me. We can’t hear the reply; he’s definitely talking on a phone. He slowly walks into the en suite bathroom, totally oblivious to the loud breathing coming off Sonny and lingers there.

“Sonny” I whisper hugging her to me from the side. “It’s OK, calm down”

“There are no girls here, I suggest you look that over again, maybe the camera picked up wrong Jem” The man says walking back out the bathroom. There are cameras? We haven’t seen any in the house. He walks closer and closer to the bed. My breathing increases and I try to calm down by closing my eyes too but it makes it worse. I could see his shoes; Sonny has her eyes closed facing up, trying to be as quite as possible. He’s wearing colourless ankle boots, so white like they never touched dirt before. Who is he and what is he doing inside Nessa’s house.

“Fine” He says strolling out the room. We hear him go downstairs, taking his time. I hear his footsteps halt at the stairs. We both hear a loud beep and Sonny opens her eyes, but her breathing hasn’t slowed down. What was he doing? Was that the light! The LED light I saw, it probably has something to do with the light. It takes him quite a while but we eventually hear him amble out the door, locking it behind him.

“There are sensors and cameras in the house” Sonny whispers, her eyes wide in disgust. We can’t get out of here just yet and it’s eating her alive.

 “We could move slowly enough so the sensors don’t detect us” She suggests her idea, but that probably wouldn’t work.

“You can’t guarantee that it won’t detect us, plus the cameras will see us” I sigh. “Another option is that we could run and cover ourselves? They, or whoever, will know we were here but might not know who we are” I suggest. It’s the best we can do right now.

“OK” She exhales loudly wiping at her eyes. She doesn’t object because she wants to get out of here as fast as possible. What have we gotten ourselves into?

“OK, on the count of three” I say and Sonny lifts the board up with her fingers.

“One...Two…Three!” Sonny says and we both roll out the bed and run out the room. I cover my face as much as I can whilst trying to see and so does Sonny. We make it downstairs too fast to even trip and the front door decides not to budge. He locked it. Sonny eventually gets it to open and we both run out of Nessa’s house and out the driveway, once we’re out I turn left with Sonny on the lead. I’ve never seen her run so fast. She’s not the athletic type and she loathes running. I’m forced to stop when I crash into Sonny’s back. I look at her about to complain when I realise why she stopped so suddenly.