The Girl in the Window

Chapter Seven

Athena looked down into Effie's lifeless face. Her breathing became heavier, and her heartbeat began to increase. She placed her hands up and tried to sidestep Effie, but Effie mirrored her moves, blocking her. 

"What do you want?" Athena asked her. Her voice quivered with fear. 

Effie stared at her with a blank face and pointed to the hole in the ground. A sick smile spread across her face. "Get in," she sang to Athena.

Athena looked down behind her and then back at Effie. "You want me to get in the hole?" She looked back at Effie. "W-was that your grave?" When she didn't answer her, Athena tried to sidestep around her as quickly as her battered body could let her. But Effie kept stepping in front of her. At least stepping is what Athena thought she was doing. She noticed now that she never really saw Effie's feet moving. 

Effie stepped closer and reached her hand out, causing Athena to flinch. She tried to move away again when Effie's hand made contact with Athena's shoulder but failed as she roughly pushed her backward. Athena stumbled over the edge of the hole and instinctively tried to reach out and grab Effie, but she stepped back, avoiding her. Athena screamed as she fell back into the hole and landed on the ground with a loud thud.

Athena groaned from the impact and looked up at Effie who just stared at her with a blank look, her head tilted to one side, studying her. She could barely see her glowing eyes peeking out from underneath her long hair. Athena tried to get up but was unsuccessful. She tried to move her right leg when a stabbing pain ran through it. Screaming from the pain, she gave up and lay on the dirt ground. She didn't want to look at her leg, she knew it was bad. 

Tears flowed down her cheeks as she looked up at Effie. Effie still had that blank expression on her face and her glowing eyes fixated on Athena. Her head wasn't tilted anymore. Slowly, her face turned into one of satisfaction as she looked down at Athena. A wicked smile spread over her face. "Please, Effie," she begged. "Don't do this." She tried to plead with the little girl standing above her, but Effie's face never changed. Never faltered. 

Effie raised her hand out and Athena started to hear a creaking noise above her. Her eyes widened and the tears flowed heavier as she saw a wooden door closing the opening. "No, no, no!" Athena tried to get up to stop the wooden door when another sharp pain shot through her leg. She fell back down and watched as the darkness engulfed her. She was helpless. She couldn't get up to stop Effie. She won. Her heart sank as she watched Effie's glowing, satisfied eyes disappear from her sight. 

Once the door closed, she slowly sat up and felt around in the darkness. She found her phone in her back pocket. She took it out and her heart dropped yet again when she felt that the screen was completely shattered. Dropping it, she continued to feel around in the darkness until her hand rested on a small box. She shakily pushed against the box and breathed a sigh of relief when she figured out it was a matchbox. Her shaky hand opened the box and pulled out a match. She struck it, sending sparks flying and a soft light filling the hole. Athena held the match up to the door and looked for a way out. She tried pushing on the door, but something made it lock in place. She noticed a dozen of small holes in the wood letting in enough air for her to breathe. She got to the middle of the door and saw a lot of tick marks carved into the door and a child's writing.

It's supposed to be a punishment, but I will someday suffocate or starve in here. -Effie Richmond

Athena ran her hand over the writing. Her mouth turned down as she started to feel sad for Effie and what she must have had to endure here. Although, her eyes got wide when she remembered what Effie told her. 

"She really wants me to suffer as she did," she said to herself as her hand clutched at her chest. "This is how she suffered!" Athena laid back down. "I'm going to die in here. I just know it." She blew out the match and put her head in her hands. Not worrying about her dignity, she let tears flow out of her eyes and hit the ground.

"Ouch!" A piece of glass from her phone got stuck in her palm when she let her hands drop down to her side. She grabbed the piece of glass, wincing as she pulled it out of her hand.

Her phone's broken with no one to call for help. She held onto the fact that she was to die in this hole. Not knowing what else to do, she laid down and closed her eyes, waiting for whatever will kill her to come. She had given up completely. She was defeated. Effie had won. 

Athena didn't know how long she had been lying in the dark hole, but it had to be a very, very long time. Her stomach was growling, and her throat was parched. She opened her eyes to the sound of the wooden door opening. She covered them and groaned when a bright light flooded into the hole.

"Athena?" she heard her brother's worried voice call out for her.

"Derek?" Athena croaked.

Derek jumped down into the hole and lifted his sister into his arms. "It's okay, Athena, I've got you." He lifted her out of the hole and into someone else's arms. Athena watched as her brother heaved himself out of the hole and stood next to the man that held her. She looked up to see Mr. Schneider smiling sadly down at her.

"Good thing we found you when we did," he said to her. He carried her up the stairs and out of the basement. They walked down the long hallway and out of the door. He took her to the backseat of another car and placed her with careful care in there.

Athena looked past him toward her car. "What about my car?" she asked them both.

Mr. Schneider closed the car door and walked to the driver's seat. Derek got into the passenger's seat and turned around to give her a supporting smile. "We will have someone come and pick it up. Don't worry, sis, we'll get you home soon." Her brother looked bad. She was sure that she looked worse, but he didn't look any better. His eyes were red and dark bags were under his eyes. His hair which used to always be neat and tidy was now messy and unkempt. 

Athena returned his smile gratefully and looked out the window at the asylum. She looked up at the second-story window expecting to see the little girl standing there but did not. I guess laying in that hole helped her go through to the other side, she thought with hope to herself. She smiled with great effort and turned her attention to the two men sitting in the front seats. "How did you guys know I was in trouble?" She wrapped her arms around herself, her body growing cold. 

"Derek here kept trying to call you since he hadn't heard from you," Mr. Schneider explained. He looked at her through the rearview mirror. His eyes held extreme worry as he looked over her yet again. 

Derek nodded. "Yeah. I was worried." He turned around in his seat again to look at her. "You usually call me whenever you reach wherever you're going, so when you didn't, I assumed something happened to you. By nature, when I couldn't get ahold of you, I called Mr. Schneider." He turned back around, his shoulders slumping. "Athena, you were gone without any communication for four days."

Four days? Athena looked out of the window watching the trees go by. Her time in there didn't feel like four days. Her body started to shiver as they drove away from the asylum. Suddenly, she remembered Ginger. She leaned forward and asked, "How's Ginger doing? Is she okay?"

Mr. Schneider looked at her again through the rearview mirror briefly before putting his eyes back on the road. "Yes, my dear. She's perfectly fine. I started to worry as well, Athena. So, we came here straight away and when we found the hole on the floor we both knew that you had something to do with the hole. We climbed down and found you." He glanced at her again. "Believe me, we're both glad we found you when we did."

Athena smiled and leaned her head against the window. "Thank you. Both of you." She grabbed a jacket from the seat next to her to cover herself with and let her eyes close and fell asleep. Everything will be better now. Everything will be back to normal.

She hoped. 

-------edited------

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