Escape The Basement (Complete)

XV.

I awake, to find a dirt room swimming before me. I start to shake my head but stop when pain shoots up the side of my head. I gingerly feel the back of my head and find a large goose egg. I grimace and pull away. Looking around again, I see Stephanie pacing back and forth in the little dirt room.

“Wha-What happened?” I manage to say.

Stephanie spins on a dime. “You tell me. You knew that girl that attacked me when we were about to escape, right?” I nod.

“Wait, did she bring me here?” I get up, too fast. I fall to the floor and hold my head.

“Yeah. She did. How well do you know her? And why were you with Haden?” I stand up slowly, towering above her. She doesn’t back down.

“We became friends in 8th grade, but didn’t have classes together so we didn’t talk much again before the start of this year we got close again. But I know she would never do this.” As I say this, I start to realize how untrue this truly is. “And, not like it is any of your business, Haden and I were out here collecting stuff for a stupid science project we had to do.”

She has a poker face and sounds eerily calm when she says, “Do you know if she had ever gone out with anyone?”

“No. I don’t think so. I have asked her once or twice, but she always denied. What does this have to do with anything?” My head throbs so I sit. She sits across from me, a foot separating us.

She glances toward the door before leaning in and whispering, “She lied. She used to go out with Haden, but he broke up with her because we started talking and he started developing feelings for me. Haden told me they mainly just texted or would Snapchat each other, because conflicting work schedules kept them apart. She apparently handled the break up pretty well, just saying okay, that she understood. That was the last thing they ever said to each other.”

I sit there, stunned. It put a few pieces in place. Why, when I called Amanda, freaking out because I hit this girl, she thought we should dump her in the woods for dead. Looking back, she was too calm.

While we were doing that, we came across Nevik trying to do something similar. We were terrified, but Nevik said he would take the body off our hands if we agreed not to go to the police. It took us a full month to gather the courage to go back to that place. Oddly enough, I continued to visit him, afterwards. He helped me deal with the guilt and pain.

“I am so sorry about everything.” I say, my words dripping with sincerity.

I see Stephanie relax. She nods, and opens her mouth. The sound of wood creaking under feet cut her off. She grabs my wrist and squeezes. “We can do this,” It says. I nod.

 The door creaks open.