We're Not Strangers Anymore

Chapter Forty Three - The Basement

The cracked lightbulb slowly grew brighter, and as it did, Jamie began to shake with fear.
'Now do you believe me?' Charlie said with a sharp and bitter tone. 'I was telling the truth!'
Jamie burst into tears, and Charlie placed a firm hand on his shoulders. 'Keep it together Jamie. You need to be quiet. Everything's gonna be all right.'
Charlie had been telling the truth all along; in the basement there were multiple bodies, and nearly all of them were lifeless. In the far corner of the room, an old woman was tied to a radiator, and Jamie could see that her clothes were covered in dried blood.
'Jamie, you need to keep it together. I'm fucking shaking too, can you feel my arms?'
He nodded through eyefuls of tears, using the wrist of his left arm to dry his sobbing eyes. Charlie tried to keep his voice low. 'Is there a telephone in here?'
Jamie pointed towards the desk. He had since turned to face the wall next to the stairs, refusing to look at what was unfolding underneath the basement's dim light.
After lifting various folders and documents from the wooden desk's surface, he managed to find the telephone, which was covered in cobwebs. As he lifted the phone from the old and dirty housing, morbidly wondering if they would leave the basement alive, he began to panic. He blew the cobwebs away and dialled 9-9-9 as fast as he could. Above him, Charlie could hear heavy footsteps; his heart began to race. It was him versus the clock, an evil battle against time.