The Cellar

The Cellar (21)

Chapter 21

Summer’s POV

I woke up to Louise whimpering and crying in pain. Rose was already awake and was holding a flannel on Louise’s forehead. It was only quarter past five in the morning and Poppy was still sleeping. I crept over and sat on the end of the bed. “How long have you been up?” I whispered to Rose.

She smiled weakly, gently moving the flannel around her face, “About half an hour. I’ll re-dress her bandages soon, hopefully she’ll wake up properly and we can give her one of the pills if not then I’ll crush it up and put it in her water.” Louise was breathing heavily, her face scrunched up in pain and her hand clutching her chest. She really needed the painkillers but we only had four, we needed to make them last.

I nodded and turned my attention to Louise. “Are you okay?” I asked her quietly, her eyes flickered open and landed on me for a few seconds before closing again. She shook her head and whimpered. That was a really stupid thing to ask her. “You’ll be alright, we’ll look after you.” I promised her, no matter what happens I would not leave her by herself again like before with Clover. If she tries anything like that again I’ll help her and if I get killed too then that’s fine.

“It...hurts,” she whispered. It sounded like it even hurt her to talk.

“I know, I’m sorry. We can give you something; do you think you could swallow a pill?” She nodded, wincing at the same time and opened her eyes. Rose took the tiny white pill off the side, gently popped it in Louise’s mouth and put the straw between her lips. Louise drained the glass of water quickly, frowning uncomfortably. I hated that there was nothing more I could do to help her, three pills was all we had left now and who knows how long it will take her to heal.

She laid her head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling; she looked like she was trying not to cry. “W-what’s he going to do...to me?” She took a deep breath, wincing and holding her chest.

“Nothing, you’re going to be fine. It’s all sorted, he’s not going to do anything to you,” Rose said proudly as if living down here is somehow better than being dead. If it wasn’t for Lewis and the tiniest bit of hope I have of being with him again I would have got him to kill me ages ago.

Louise’s eyes flickered to me for a second; she was completely expressionless like there was nothing there, I had no idea what she was thinking and I wouldn’t be able to find out until we were alone, I had a feeling she wouldn’t want to talk in front of Rose and Poppy.

Poppy woke up and one by one we had a shower and changed into the same outfits. We cleaned Louise up and changed her bandage; her head had stopped bleeding last night but started to again when we removed the bandage. Hopefully it was getting better though and would stop completely soon.

“We need to start breakfast now,” Rose said, looking up at the clock. He would be down here in half an hour. My chest tightened at the thought of being around a table with him, I hadn’t seen him properly since that night. The palms of my hands started sweating and I felt sick. “Lily, just make sure you’re out here in twenty minutes okay. We don’t want him to come in here looking for you.”

I nodded numbly and took a deep breath. “You gonna be okay?” Louise whispered as soon as they had left the room.

“I’ll be fine,” I lied. “How are you feeling now?” I asked, changing the subject.

She shook her head and gasped in pain, “It hurts.” I nodded and got her water, holding the straw to her lips. I wanted to give her another pill but I knew I couldn’t yet, only when she really needed it. “Why is he leaving me alone now?”