Trapped in the Basement

5 - Rules

It was hard to run when she didn't know where to go. She'd never been here before, she realized. There was nothing she could do but keep running away from the footsteps not so far behind her.

"Come back here you bitch!" the familiar voice yelled at her. Perrie didn't listen and turned a corner. She knew that wherever they were right now, the twins had been here before and knew the floor plan like the back of their own hand. On the contrary, Perrie had absolutely no idea how to even get back to the room she had woken up in, and it had only been around ten seconds.

Perrie saw stairs going upwards, leading to a closed door. She realized that she had been in the cellar of a building, and by opening that door she would be free. Or at least be closer to freedom.

Her hand grabbed onto the wooden railing and she pulled herself up onto the stairs. From there she bolted up, the twin behind her hot on her heels. Perrie continued with adrenaline pumping through her. She continued running up the steps, two at a time, getting closer and closer to the door each time. Closer and closer to freedom.

The door opened up, right in front of her face. She almost fell over from a near impact with the door, but she sprinted right up the rest of the stairs, to the top floor. Her body crashed into another body, almost knocking her towards the stairs descending behind her. Instead, a hand gripped onto her upper arm and pulled roughly as the person in front of her locked the door behind her. She was trapped in the basement.

The lights were dim here too, but Perrie knew that the other twin was the one "holding her safe". She tried to wriggle out of her grasp, only to realize that there was no point, she really was trapped in here.

Perrie was dragged back to the room she had woken up in. The other twin stayed walking in front of her, while the one next to her started yelling at her.

"Don't you dare even think that you can get away from here while we're not done with you, you'll be staying here for quite some time, don't even bother thinking about escape, you'll never make it out."

Each of the words felt like a slap to the face. Perrie choked on a sob as she was shoved back into the room. Locked in with both of them.

"I-I don't understand, why are you doing this to me?" Perrie cried. "Are you so upset over what I said?"

The twins looked at each other.

"You know our secret, you realized that we are using you for fame," one of them explained. "And we can't just let you leave us, especially when we really need  you."

"You're already pretty famous! You both are verified on Instagram and your YouTube channel is successful! You don't me I've already helped you enough! The only people who don't follow you on Instagram or are subscribed to you are the people who know you're using me for fame!" Perrie fought back, feeling victimized.

It was silent for a moment, and Perrie hoped they had come to their senses. That what they were trying to do was extremely stupid and useless.

Both of them burst out laughing.

"You must be really clueless! Tons of your fans don't even know we exist!" they replied.

"So when all of them know about 'your existence', will you allow me to leave?" Perrie challenged.

"No."

"What the fuck?! What's wrong with both of you?!"

"Perrie, you can't possibly think that that is possible," they laughed. "So, no matter what, you're stuck here for a long, long time."

"You will be caught, don't think you can get away with this," Perrie shot back, determined not to lose hope. "Work starts soon and you can't just keep me here anyways, not when tons of people depend on me."

"There's no need for you to worry, Pez, we'll—," they started but were cut off by a familiar ring tone playing.

Perrie immediately looked at one of the twins' pockets and spotted her phone from the rectangular silhouette. A hand hesitantly pulled out Perrie's phone. Perrie tried to look at the screen but didn't manage to see it.

"Alex is calling you," one of the twins said to her.

Her breath hitched.

The last time she'd seen him was right before his football practice, and now he had been in a car accident while she "went away for a vacation with family for a while" right after they had just moved in.

"You are going to say exactly what we're going to tell you, nothing else," Perrie was told. "Otherwise, there are consequences, and you probably don't want to know them."

Perrie wanted to ask what they were, so that she might have known what she was going to lose, but before she could ask, her phone was already in front of her face, and on speaker.

"Hey Alex," she cringed. "How are you?"

"I'm okay I guess, I'm going back home later today," he replied. "Where are you now?"

"You're at your parents' house," a voice whispered in her ear.

"I'm with my mum and Jonnie," Perrie lied, feeling horrible inside. Some part inside of her was screaming that she should tell him the truth, or something short about what had happened, but she was too scared of what was going to happen if she did. Before she could stop herself, a sob racked through her lips.

The twins glared at her. Perrie realized now that she had to save herself from the situation before it became any worse.

"Are you crying?" Alex asked worriedly. Perrie couldn't help but release another sob. He cared for her more than she did for him even though she was straight out lying to him.

"I-I'm just so sorry that I left without saying anything last night, a-and that I never told you that I was supposed to leave, and I can't even come see you in the hospital because it's a five hour drive, and I'm just so sorry that you're hurting right now and I-I feel so bad that I can't be there right now like you always are for me," Perrie rambled on, tears flowing freely again. She spoke mainly from the heart, since she did feel extremely heartbroken that she couldn't go and see Alex and if he was okay.

"Baby, I'm alright, please don't stress yourself over me," he told her. She could almost hear his smile from the other side of the line. "It's just a little scar on my forehead, nothing too much to worry over." Perrie calmed down a little bit.

"I hope you're alright by yourself, babe," she told him. "Get well soon!"

"Thanks Perrie, I'll hang up now so you can have more bonding time with your family, tell them I said hi," he said.

"I will." She smiled a bit, despite the situation she was in. "Love you."

"Love you too," he said, then the line was cut.

Perrie's smile disappeared immediately from her face the moment her phone was removed. She knew what was going to come now, and even though she hated it and thought it was so embarrassing, tears came to her eyes again.

"Stop crying, you saved yourself today so we're not going to do anything," she was told. Perrie didn't know if she should have felt relieved or not. She barely paid attention to when a water bottle was tossed onto her cot and the twins left, locking the door behind them leaving her alone by herself.