Gem

Chapter 6

"Come on Sapphire" Ashley pulled on her cousin's arm causing her to drop the bag of trash she was carrying. She heard the sound of ceramic breaking as it landed on the floor. 

"Ugh. stop it, I'm not talking to you." Sapphire grabbed the bag off the floor and headed towards the front door. She opened it but did not bother closing it as she made her way to the large green dumpster that was temporarily taking residence by the rusted gate. She tried to throw the bag up and over into the dumpster but it landed on the concrete instead. 

"you just did though" Ashley teased as she grabbed the bag effortlessly throwing it into the dumpster like it weighted nothing. 

"I'm mad at you for what you did today" 

"I said I was sorry" 

"actually, no, no you didn't" 

"well, I'm sorry... Happy?" 

"no." Sapphire stated after a while. She began walking back into the house "you keep getting us kicked out of class and out of school and into trouble, and, why would you invite that kid over to our house?" 

"Who? Tyler, he's cool" 

"We don't even know him" 

"He's been in our classes since we were in kindergarten. You've gotta start talking to people besides me and mom, also you need to get over that teacher. She's bad news and she treats people like shit" 

"Okay, she's a little mean, but I can't help the way I feel about her" Sapphire shrugged as she returned to the kitchen. She had cleaned out all of the cabinets and removed all of the old stuff. Now, the kitchen was bare and ready to move into. She just needed to sanitize everything with bleach. 

The two girls looked up at the ceiling as the lights flickered on and off before going out completely. 

"Dang, The lights are outs" Sapphire flipped the switch on and off just to make sure but it wouldn't work. She walked into the living room and tried a lamp in there but it wouldn't work either. 

"Let's go to the mall or something until Mom gets off work. She can pick us up from there" 

"No, it's getting pretty late, plus we're grounded" Sapphire reminded. She walked towards the back of the house. 

"Um. Where are you going?" The teen followed close behind her cousin. The house was lit dimly, as the sun was going down. 

"To the basement" 

"No, Mom said not to go down there" 

""I have to. I need to find the power box thingy" 

"What are you talking about?" 

The floor creaked as the two walked down the hall and neared the basement door. There was a large window at the end that displayed a beautiful sunset. 

Sapphire tried the handle but it wouldn't budge. She could hear Ashley take a deep breath behind her. 

"It's locked" 

"Why do you sound so relieved? We need to get the power power back on" 

"Because Mom said not to go down there and I...don't want to get into any trouble" 

"Since when do you listen to your mom and since when do you care about getting into trouble?" 

As the two argued the door opened slowly. 

"Oh look, it's opened" Sapphire was about to walk down the stairs before Ashley held her back. "What?" 

"You can't go down there. Don't you think that it's a bit weird that the door was just locked a second ago, but now it's wide opened" 

"It probably was just stuck or something" Sapphire shrugged her off. "Besides, who cares?" 

"Ugh. I swear sometimes you're an idiot" 

"You love me" Sapphire shrugged and kissed her cousin's cheek as she began to descend the stair once more. She held on to the wooden rain as she went down, the stairs were wobbly and unstable. She scrunched up her nose at a strong musky odor. 

Right at the bottom of the stairs was the dark grey metal box that Sapphire was looking for. She released a sigh of relief. She couldn't see much further into the basement because it was dark and the light from upstairs didn't travel as far. She opened the box and began to push the switches off and on again. She began to wonder if her attempts were working but then she heard Ashley call out to her from upstairs. 

"It's back working again, come back up!" 

"I'll be right there, almost done" 

The last switch that Sapphire hit caused her to be surrounded by a red light. She looked up and could see a single light swinging back and forth hanging front the ceiling in the middle of the basement.  She felt something run across her foot and let out a loud scream. 

"Sapphire! Are you okay? Sapphire!"