Fake Smile: A YouTuber Fanfiction

Chapter 10

"It's really dark in here, we should find the light switch so we can actually see where we're going." Stewart said as they stumbled past furniture. It wasn't too hard to find the light switch, they pushed the lever up and the room became lit.

"You're more familiar with the house, you lead the way." Stewart said. Austin nodded and started walking over to the right of the living room where the corridor was with Stewart close behind him. He walked all the way to the end of the hall, ignoring all the other doors.

"This is where I found Jared last time." Austin informed, opening the door, revealing a staircase that lead to pitch black darkness.

"Down there? Are there any lights or anything?" Stewart questioned.

"No I had to use my phone for light last time." Austin replied, taking out his cell phone, already beginning to walk down the steps. Stewart cautiously followed behind him. As they walked down the steps one by one, a wretched stench began to hit their noses, and it became more prominent as they went down. It made them think of a decaying corpse.

"I guess this place never got cleaned." Austin remarked, covering his nose.

"What even is that smell, you say you found Jared here last time?"

"Yeah, I was terrified when I saw him in the state he was in, it was horrible. I really don't want to find him like that again." Austin said. Stewart wasn't really how to respond after that besides mumbling a 'yeah'.

When they got to the bottom of the stairs, Austin shined the light from his phone around the large room and called out to Jared to see if he was there.

"Jared? Jared are you down here? It's Austin." He said as he walked around the room. But after shining the light in every corner of the room, they saw no sign of Jared.

"He doesn't appear to be down here." Stewart stated. Austin was quiet for a moment with the observation, and he seemed deflated. Then he suddenly perked up.

"There's still other rooms he could be in." He said, starting to run up the stairs.

"Hey Austin wait! Be careful or you'll trip and fall down the stairs!" Stewart called after him. Then he took out his own phone so he could actually see where he was going as Austin ran away with their original light source.

Stewart made his way to the top of the stairs with Austin, seeing that he was already looking through the other doors frantically. Then when he twisted the knob of the last door (which was the first one on the right side) and tried to push it open, it didn't move, it was locked. As he tried to force it open, Stewart walked up next to him.

"So do you think Jared's in there?" Stewart inquired.

"He has to be, the door's locked." Austin replied.

"Do you know if it's always been locked? Have you ever been in there before?" Stewart questioned. Austin stopped trying to force the door open as he thought for a moment.

"I don't think I even tried this door last time I was here. I opened the door at the end of the hall before I got to this one and I found Jared there so I didn't even bother with this door." Austin informed. Then he went back to harshly twisting the doorknob as he pushed his body against the door. "Come on Stewart, help me with this door, there's gotta be something important behind here."

"I'll try looking for a key, I don't think we'll get anywhere trying to force it open like that." Stewart said.

"Yeah, okay." Austin agreed. Then him and Stewart started looking through drawers, boxes, vases, anything that could possibly yield a key. It took a while, but they eventually found a whole box full of keys that was hidden behind some clothes in a closet that was in the master bedroom.

They then went back to the door in the hallway on the main floor and started trying out different keys.

"Why does she have so many keys anyway? She can't have that much stuff to lock." Austin said as he tried one of the thirty keys that were found in the box.

"I wouldn't know, maybe this door leads to more locked doors." Stewart mused. Just then there was a clicking noise.

"Hey it unlocked!" Austin announced.

"Great, now open it." Austin turned the knob and pushed open the door, which lead to a dark room that was faintly lighted by the light in the hall. Before entering, he felt the side of the walls by the door for a light switch, and to his slight surprise he found one. He flicked the switch up and the light bulb flickered a little before staying on, making a slight buzzing sound.

As Austin looked around the now dimly lit room his eyes widened and he backed away from the room until he hit a wall, completely caught off guard from what he saw.

"Austin what's wrong!?" Stewart asked, also caught off-guard with Austin's reaction.

"Jared....." Was all Austin said. Stewart's eyes then steeled and he turned to the door and pushed it all the way open. In the room, where he expected to see Jared lying on the ground or something, was nothing. No one was in there and there wasn't any furniture or decoration or anything, but Stewart's eyes widened as well.

All over the walls, floor, and even the ceiling, in every corner of the room, were the words 'I'M WORTHLESS' written in blood, repeated over and over in capital letters. Stewart began to slowly walk into the medium sized room, looking around in horrified awe. It gave him chills seeing it.

As he looked around, he noticed that there was another door in the room, hidden behind the bloody words. He went over to it, noticing that Austin was now following him as he did. He twisted the knob and it opened easily.

Beyond the door was another dimly lit room exactly the same as the last one. Every spot of the room was covered with the words 'I'M WORTHLESS' in blood. And in that room was yet another door, that lead to a room that was the same as the ones before it. It left Austin completely speechless, why were these rooms even here?

Austin walked up to one of the walls of the third room and put a hand to the words, feeling the now dried blood. Tears stung his eyes. He could see Jared weakly writing the words in his own blood, his hand trembling as he made sure to not miss a spot. He could practically hear his mother shouting at him, ordering him to write the words as punishment. He could imagine her locking the door, leaving him in there and not letting him out until the room was done. He could see Jared's tears and hear his quiet sobs.

These rooms were just another form of torture for Jared. Was she really trying to make him perfect? Or was she doing this for her own enjoyment? Did she truly not have any love for him at all?

"She did this to him." Austin said, anger lacing his tone, his fist clenched. "He loves her and she does things like this to him. How could she? It's inhuman. No one should ever do this to another person, especially not their own child. No one should ever have to go through this. Why did Jared have to be put through this pain, why him? He didn't deserve it, he doesn't deserve this!" He cried as he hit the wall with his closed fists. His shoulders trembled and his throat constricted as he started to cry, his legs then buckled from under him and he slid to the floor.

"It's not fair." Austin muttered. Stewart looked at Austin with a sad, pained expression. He started to walk over to Austin and kneeled next to him, enveloping him in a hug.

"I know." Stewart replied, not knowing what else he could say.

"I just want Jared back. I want him to be okay, and I want him to be the same Jared I've always known. I want him to be away from any danger and to never have to be involved with it again. And I want him to value his life, I want him to like himself because he's a great person and the bestest friend I could ever ask for. I don't care if it's a lot to ask, if there's any justice in this world at all this should happen, because that's what Jared deserves, he never did anything wrong. The only thing wrong is this cruel, backwards world." Austin said through tears.

Nothing else was said after that, the only sound was Austin's sobs. Stewart continued to console him in anyway he could until he stopped crying.

"Wherever Jared is it's not here. We should head back home, we'll continue searching for him later." Stewart said.

"Okay." Austin replied quietly. The two then stood up and started walking out of the rooms and to the exit of the house. When they got into the car and started driving away, Austin had a feeling that that would be the last time he would go into the house.