These Demons Within Us

Chapter 6

Five minutes have passed. Where is she? Her words replay in my mind over and over again in a never ending cycle. Murder. Did the same thing happen to them? Did they wake up to find their loved ones ripped to pieces? The thought creates goosebumps on my skin.

As I stare at the poorly painted wall, I start to hear some voices. One of them female, one male.

"What the fuck do you mean you just found her?" yelled the male.

"Hey, she found us!" corrects the female. Her voice seems to belong to Blair.

"Well tell her to leave, we don't run a homeless shelter. There's already too many here." answers the male.

The sound of footsteps coming towards me keeps me from hearing the rest of the conversation and a few seconds later, Aria enters the room with a pile of folded clothes in her hands.

"Here," she says while handing me a pair of faded jeans and a loose white shirt that stops just below my stomach.

"Thanks but uh, do you have any less revealing shirts?"

"Don't worry it doesn't show anything as long as you keep your arms down."

"Thanks." I say not finding anything else to talk about.

"Um, exactly how many people are here in this underground maze?" I force the question out.

"Well you've already met Blair, Ashton, and I so that leaves Mason and Eli." She answers and immediately notices the worried look on my face.

"Don't worry, Mason is really nice, you'll like him and just don't get in Eli's way and you'll be good,"

"Nice to know. . ." I say and the energy in the room shifts to an uncomfortable silence.

"Are you hungry? Or thirsty or something?" She asks after a few seconds.

I never really payed attention to my hunger until right now. Last thing I ate was a nibble of scrambled eggs that I never finished this morning. Now that she brought it up, food seemed like a really good idea.

"Uh yes please" I say trying not to sound greedy. Her face lights up in a huge smile, a type of smile I would usually see on Macey.

"C'mon, you can meet everyone while I get you something to eat," she says as she walks out of the room, signaling me to follow her.

I gently get up trying not to move my ankle as much and follow her out of the room, down the infinite hallways and doors until we have arrived in a huge area that seemed to have served as a living room area. The room was mostly empty with mattresses spread out everywhere that served as seating furniture and blankets hanging everywhere. The whole room looked like the inside of a fort you would build as a kid except without the blankets suffocating you from above. A set of counters and sinks are lined up in the right side of the room where Aria walks in.

I find Blair sitting down on one of the mattresses in the far corner with her back pressed against the wall and her knees bent. Next to her is a guy with a plain black T-shirt and black pants laying down with both of his hands under his head, not even noticing my presence. Ashton is sitting on his side on another mattress that is distanced from Blair and the stranger but not too far away. A male in plain blue jeans and a white shirt that just barely showed off the curves of his muscles with brown hair that comes halfway down his forehead leans over the counter, body facing Aria but his brown eyes fixated on me.

Meeting new people has never been my thing. If anything I hate it. It's surprising to me how I have about two or three close friends back home. I was never social and most people didn't know I existed. I liked it that way. I kept to myself to save others from my troubles.

As I walked forward the voices lowered and came to a stop all together. All eyes were on me as I limped through the massive room. The tension in the air grew thick and uncomfortable and I wish I had stayed in the other room.

"Are you wearing my clothes?" Asks Blair in a surprised and disgusted tone. I look down immediately feeling insecure about myself. The jeans I had on were a bit tight as well as the shirt since Blair was skinnier than I was.

"It's not like you wear them anyways. She needed something to wear. Her clothes were all ripped up and dirty." Aria answers for me. I flash a slight smile to her, thanking her for backing me up.

She walks over to me and hands me a warm bowl of canned soup and a spoon. Although it is currently summer, this underground place feels like winter.

"You can sit here or anywhere really if you want", suggests Aria.

I choose to sit down about four mattresses away from everyone and start eating. The soup warms up almost every inch of my body, leaving only my feet and nose cold. The weight of the mattress suddenly shifts and when I look up from my bowl, the brown haired guy with the white shirt is sitting next to me.

"Hi", the guy says with a huge smile on his face. "I'm Mason" he continues with a hand held right in front of me.

"Evan", I reply shaking his hand.

Based on what Aria told me, he should be really nice and I should really like him.

"Is that short for anything?" He curiously asks.

"Evangelina" I say with a smile.

He nods,"Are you enjoying our finest soup from Le Can?", he says still with his huge smile. It's kind of contagious.

"Yes definitely" I giggle. Ok his smile is VERY contagious. "So your the nice one around here huh?"

"Was Aria talking about me?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Yes, well she was talking about everyone...kind of giving me a heads up about the people here"

"Ah well in that case, yes, I am the nice one around here while everyone sits here and mopes around"

I smile back not finding what else to say but at the same time not feeling uncomfortable.

"Are you tired? You look like shit, no offense"

I cover my face with my hands, "Really?"

"Yea, come on, let's find you a room" he says as he gets up and offers me a hand to help me up. I gladly take it, not even realizing how tired I really was even though I took a nap a few a hours ago that I will always regret.

After a couple of turns and many doors down, we enter this one room that looks exactly the same as the others.

"Okay this is where you'll be staying. Everyone's room is in the hallway. Across the hall you have Eli, then I'm to the left, and Ashton to the right. One next door to your room on you left is Blair and to your right is Aria."

"Um is there a reason all the guys are on one side of the hallway and the girls on the other?" I ask curiously.

"It's just the way both genders like it", he replies with the huge smile still on his face. Does he ever not smile?

"Well thanks, I guess I should get some rest then," I say after a while.

He nods and heads out the room tapping the side of the door frame twice while exitting.

With a sigh I throw my self on the mattress and try to get comfortable. Flash backs from earlier start playing in my mind and I am now coming terms with reality. My family died today. No they didn't I was just eating breakfast with them a few hours ago. Was it really just a few hours ago? The pressure on my chest that I never realized I had starts getting heavier. I'm tired but my eyes don't want to close. I just stare up at the ceiling for a while. It feels like hours but could be minutes after when moisture starts to collect in my eyes. My whole body is numb and my face wet with tears. I don't know this feeling, this type of pain. My sobs are muffled by pillows since I don't want any of the others to hear. And so the rest of the night consists of staring into space, muffled cries, and denial.

(Sorry guys it's takes a while for me to finish a chapter because I really want it to be detailed and I want everyone to have their own distinguished personality and I'm sorry if the last paragraph is dull, I've never experienced a death or loss like that so I'm just guessing from all the books I've read. )