Don't Look in the Basement

Chapter 8

Well its been awhile, but now I'm out of school for the summer and I will probably have more time to update and post new chapters!! :) As always thanks to everyone who has read and commented on it, your feedback is greatly appreciated!

   My heart was still pounding and at any second it felt like it was going to fly through my chest. I barely felt Dominic's arms around me as he carried me back to my room. I still couldn't believe or process what had happened. It had been frightening and strange. My throat stung from where Jacob had bitten me and I felt drained and weak. I closed my eyes briefly and the next time I opened them, we were back in what I now liked to call my "prison".

    Instead of just setting me back down on the ground, I was dropped by Dominic, who appeared like he wanted to get away from me as soon as possible. I stared up at him from where I had fallen on the carpet. His eyes had turned black again,but they were hardly focused on me. They darted around the room and his jaw was tightened. He hated me as much as Jacob did and I felt humiliated for thinking that he would help me. He was right outside of the door the whole time and he had stayed there doing nothing, true to his word. I started to climb to my feet, feeling tears start to form. He was watching me, but I didn't meet his eyes. Slowly I turned and walked towards the bathroom I heard him saying my name, but I didn't respond.

    "Alice don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you." he continued to demand, but I ignored him and as soon as I started to hear his footsteps behind me, I ran the last few feet into the bathroom and slammed the door shut,managing to lock it behind me in time.

      A few seconds later there was a loud boom that echoed loudly in the bathroom, as I assumed he had smashed his fist into the door. I could hear him outside still talking, even yelling somewhat, trying to get me to come out, but I ignored him and sat curled up in the farthest corner of the bathroom. He didn't try to break in and he didn't threaten to, but he continued to demand that I open the door. Eventually I didn't hear his voice and I assumed that he had left. I stayed in there for maybe another five minutes, trying to stop crying. This whole thing was a bad dream and I wished more than anything that I would wake up.

    After drying my eyes, I stood up and made my way back to the door. I was certain he had left, but after opening the door I saw he was sitting on the bed with a melancholy expression on his face as he stared at the wall. It must have been at least three a.m. and I was exhausted, but still somehow highly alert. I was prepared for almost anything to happen. Even though he seemed calmer then he had been moments ago,I had a feeling he was someone whose emotions changed as quick as lightning. So when he suddenly spoke to me, in a quiet voice I wasn't surprised.

  "You know things weren't always like this," he paused momentarily before continuing, "a very long time ago things were different. Jacob, before he became...well what we are now, he was a boy that everyone looked up to, including me. I suppose he would have done great things if everything had turned out differently. If our uncle hadn't held him back, if he had never met Franchesca and if he had never left Whitby that night, yes I am sure he would have done great things."

  Already I had many questions. For one thing who was Franchesca? But Dominic continued before I could ask anything. I had a feeling he wouldn't answer very many questions of mine anyway.

   "I was only six years old when Jacob left. You see Jacob and I are half-brothers. He married my mother several years after Jacob's had passed away. Our father was never home with us. He was always traveling abroad, I never actually met him until I was eight years old. My own mother died a few weeks after giving birth to me, so our uncle raised both of us." He spoke slow and cautiously as if he was trying to remember everything exactly as it had been.