Always

0.5

When I came to, I once again found myself in the dingy basement I had been in before, only this time, I wasn't tied up, all the tools and piles of clutter had been cleaned up, however. The room, musty and dark, seemed to have gotten smaller, despite the fact that the tools and clutter had been cleaned up. I didn't know why Richard decided to do this again, I knew and he probably knew that Ben and Chuck would come for me again, we would probably just leave, again. The door opened, and Richard walked in.

"Hello Ashley, how have you been these past five days?" he questioned smugly.

"If you just wanted to catch up, you should've just called, we could've gone out for coffee" I replied, my tone laced with sarcasm.

"Ouch, not in a friendly mood I see" he replied, getting on my nerves.

"What do you want?" I sighed.

"That's for me to know and you to hmm... not." he stated.

"Fine, but you know Ben and Chuck will be coming for me soon." i said, wanting this to be over."

"Yes, I'm counting on them coming to rescue you." he said in a malicious voice, sending shivers up and down my back.

He was counting on them coming? What was he planning? Getting lost in my thoughts once again, I didn't notice Richard leaving. Lately it had become easier for me to do that, get lost in my thoughts. It had been a stressful week, I'd been studying for exams with Ben, worrying about Chuck, and being paranoid about Richard. I began to think about everything going on in my life to the point of exhaustion, and eventually fell asleep.

∘∘∘

Once again, woken by a jolt, I couldn't tell if it was a dream or not, but Ben and Chuck were here now, no Richard, however. Ben moved forward to talk to me, and somehow fell down the short flight of stairs, he recovered himself and turned to Chuck.

"Why'd you push me?" he accused.

"I didn't do anything!" Chuck exclaimed

"You just shoved me down the stairs!" Ben shot back

"Well I was hoping that you would fall and get knocked unconscious, or something like that, but oh well." Chuck responded, his eyes and voice turning dark and cold.

"Why would you want that?" I butted in

Chuck looked over at me and his eyes softened, then hardened once more before he said, "Because I want my brother to be here when I k... "

"Chuck!" his uncle cut him off, "We do not scare our guests, nor do we tell them what will be happening."

"I'm sorry, what?!" I broke in, "Brother?! You have a brother?! I've known who your brother is, but not who your brother is?!"