Hellbound ⇢ The Edge Of Winter {Bradley Baker}

Chapter 19 - It Was The Fire.

Carson watched, her expression hard as stone as the boys tried to lift up the board, the wood creaking under the pressure.

"Whoever moved it in the first place put it back pretty nicely," she muttered, grabbing the nice from the cabinet next to her and moving next to Caleb, placing the blade under the board.

"Ready? One, two, three."

The trio pushed, the board moving slightly. With one, final pull, the wood finally cam lose, shifting from its position in the floor and finally moving away, creating just enough space to fit a decently small person.

"Caleb," Bradley called, looking at his brother. "Can you fit?"

Caleb looked at the hole in the floor hesitantly, examining it.

"I– I don't know," he admitted, Carson doing her best to suppress a groan.

She was going crazy, locked in that little room. It was like being in the same house as her father all over again. She subconsciously brought her hand to the cut on her neck, feeling the tender spot gingerly. It wasn't bleeding as bad as before, but there was still a stripe of scarlet decorating her pale skin.

"Go on," Bradley told Caleb, the younger boy attempting to slip into the floor.

"Do you need a hand?" The older Baker said, concern peeking its way into his voice.

"I don't think so," Caleb responded, slowly going deeper and deeper into the wood.

Caleb shifted a bit, and Carson watched as he finally managed to get under the floor.

"Hey, can... can you see anything? Is there a way out?" Carson called after him hesitantly.

"I don't know," Caleb called back, squinting through the darkness.

Carson looked around the room frantically. Her eyes finally landed on the flashlight they'd used earlier, which laid forgotten on the floor. She maid a reach for it, clicking the switch to see if it was still charged. She breathed a sigh of relief when a ray of white shot from it. Turning it off again, she crouched down next to Bradley, passing the flashlight down to Caleb.

"Here," the girl said as the younger boy took the object from her.

"Anything?" Bradley asked when he noticed that Caleb had turned the flashlight on.

Caleb shimmied under the floor, crawling and making his way farther apart from the two.

Carson and Bradley looked at each other for a moment before moving closer to the hole, lowering themselves, trying to get a better perspective of what was underneath.

After a few moments, they heard Caleb's voice again.

"Brad! Bradley! Carson!"

"What?" Bradley asked, frantically.

When no reply came, Carson's eyes widened.

"Caleb?" She called.

The boy finally came back into view, a scared look on his face.

"H– he's not," Caleb panted.

"Shh, shh. Ok... what do you– what?" Bradley said, trying to calm his brother down while attempting to understand what the younger boy was saying.

"He's not– he's not moving," Caleb finally let out, his eyes squeezing shut, like he was trying to send the image of what he'd just seen away from his head.

"I– I don't know what happened," he continued hastily, his voice cracking. "The other guy, he's..."

Caleb looked up then, opening his eyes and locking them with his brother's.