When The Light Goes Out

Chapter - 27

She had been watching the door since she heard voices come into the other room. He wasn't alone. There was a woman's voice with him. It sounded like the woman that had been thrown into the room once. They hadn't seen her since that day. They thought she might have been dead but now they knew. She was helping him.

Casey and Marcia were the only ones in the room now. When something slipped in under the door Marcia hesitantly moved in to take it. She brought it to Casey and they read it in silence. Marcia looked up to Casey with wide, unbelieving eyes. "She's helping us," she whispered. "Then...maybe she isn't working with him."

Casey said nothing as she folded the paper and put it in her pocket. 

"Should we believe her?"

Casey's eyes were thoughtful as she listened to what she could of the conversation beyond the wall. She waited until the door was heard closing again before getting off the bed and going to the door. "It might be our only chance," she said. "But we have to move. You can't be slow." Marcia nodded quickly. "We can find Clare once we're out of here."

They waited a little longer than ten minutes although those ten felt like an eternity knowing what waited on the other side. Once Casey felt they were truly gone, she set to work trying to get the door open. It was locked, of course, so they had to make something happen. They searched the room and bathroom- everywhere they could. There was nothing loose or out of place to just grab and use. 

The thought to put a hole through the wall and just go did cross her mind for a fleeting second, but she also knew it was better that they left as little evidence to their escape as possible. If that woman couldn't keep him away as long as she thought, the longer it took him to notice their absence the better. They would have had to find something to make a hole in the first place. Something drew her back to the bathroom and the bucket Dennis had brought them. 

She took the handle from the bucket and sought to finding some use for it. It was far too big to fit into the lock, but... 

"This is taking a long time," Marcia said. "We don't have anything to open the door."

The thought of putting a hole in the wall was not ideal but they were losing time. Casey knelt by a corner to the right of the door and started to work at the new material with the bucket handle. When she had stabbed enough holes in it that she thought their bodies would fit through, she started to kick it out. If they needed more space it could be done. 

Marcia helped her and they made a hole big enough for both of them to fit through with some effort. Once they had pulled themselves through, they moved somethings from around the room in front of the hole. It wasn't well hidden but it would likely still take some time to be noticed. They looked around the room any clues that Monique might have left. 

Their adrenaline was rushing and their hands shook as they looked under and around things. Marcia found the yellow sticker on the back of the hat. She took the hat down and there was a ring of keys hanging there. "I-I found the keys!" Marcia exclaimed then quickly covered her mouth. Casey took them and nodded. It didn't take long to find the one that opened the door. 

The clock was still running against them but they were frozen there for only a few seconds. The door was opened and they were actually going to leave. They were going to escape. Casey started out first with Marcia in tow. Clare was in the storage room right next to the room they were held in. 

Clare sat up. "Marcia?"

"We're getting out Clare," she said as she helped her stand.

"We don't know how long we have," Casey said as she looked down the tunnel. "We have to hurry."

Clare got to her feet and followed them out. "It's a long tunnel that just goes on and on. I don't know how long it is though. He found me before I could reach the exit."

They ran down the length of the tunnel. All of their minds were already whirring with thoughts of the outside world. They had no indication of how many days they had been down there. An opportunity had been presented and they were not willing to waste it.

They came to the end of the tunnel and Casey ran up tot he door. She tried it and found it locked as well. She cycled through the keys until she found the one that opened the door. The breath left their bodies as the locked clicked.

Casey alowly pushed the door open and they rushed out into the dark. The cold air on their faces sent shivers down their spines but their bodies felt warmer. They ran towards the streetlights with no intentions of stopping for anything. They were outside again.

They reached the gate and climbed it without reserve. When they reached the otherside they took off running again. They had to get as far from there as possible. That woman, whatever her name was, has given them their opening.

She had created an opening and kept it open long enough for them to figure things out. Now they were out if that prison- out of that hole in the ground. They could go back home.

They stopped a few blocks down and fell to their knees. "We... We're outside again," Clare said. "We can go home now. We're free."

Marcia hugged her and cried. She wrapped her arms around the other girl and fought back her own tears.

Casey looked to the key ring in her hand. She hadn't dropped it nor thrown it away. He'd notice the keys were missings but it didn't matter now. They were free.

He couldn't touch them any more. They had escaped him.

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A/N: Hello everyone! I said that I'd update in regular days if I could and here we are! It might be later/earlier for some of youb but it's only 10pm where I am.
I thought it would be interesting to do a chapter focused on the girls and their escape. I was wondering how they would escape with no way out of the room. Honestly, I think Casey could have been even more resourceful but, meh.

Thanks for reading :D