Flowers for you

Petunia

Patricia regains consciousness and for a moment, she forgets where she is and why she was there. The hazy memory plays in her head and her brain kick-starts and prompts her to get up quickly. She was bleeding but she didn't seem to worry about it as she takes in her surroundings. She looks back up the stairs, the doorway to the basement now half-open.

There was no noise coming from upstairs and she wondered if the boys had moved or someone had already died. She swallowed her fear, reaching for the stair railing when a distant sound catches her attention. It sounded like a chair being dragged across the floor. She stills, straining to hear and for a long moment, she could only hear her own breathing and something that seemed like water dropping from a leak.

She almost decided it was nothing when the sound came back again, making her turn around and look beyond the darkness of the basement. She reaches to the walls, navigating and hoping she would find a light switch. The hall goes on and she realizes that the basement was a lot bigger than it should be. She strains against the darkness that was now almost occupying 100% of her vision, the light from the doorway upstairs far from her now.

She continues walking when the darkness gradually lessens. There was a light at the end of the long hallway and she walks faster towards it, turning very slowly to find a big empty room. She found a bed, its blankets clean and white. The room looked liked it belong to an asylum, with it's soundproof walls and white monochrome decorations. She turned to find a screen attached to the wall in front of the bed.

She watched the different screens, showing different rooms and felt something cold run up her arms when she realized where those rooms were. One was her bedroom; she saw her bed still in disarray. The other was their kitchen. Her eyes travelled from one screen to another, seeing every room in her room. She wanted to cry, scream, anything. She felt sick and held back the want to vomit. She turned back to the room, seeing the chair at the foot of the bed. The vase filled with dead jasmines on the simple nightstand. She allows herself to look once more on the bed.

Before she could check the room for any evidence or clues as to what it was used for, the sound came again and she grabbed the nightlamp near the table and tried to turn it on. It was weak, but it was enough as she went back out of the room once again and tried to locate where the sound was coming from. Did Nathan know about this? Was he the one who placed all the cameras in my house? Thinking about it made her feel sick. She shook her head, barring the thoughts from coming through her mind. She couldn't even find herself to believe her ex-boyfriend had anything to do with it. He was there during her darkest times. When she was grieving. It was hard to believe it was all an act. She felt the tears but did not try to stop them. She felt heartbroken, afraid and betrayed.

While it was true she no longer loved Nathan, all those years together was not nothing to her. She had leaned on him and believed he was her support through her grief of losing her best friend. Before she could stop herself, she was already breaking down, sobbing against her palm to try and muffle the noise. She shook her head again and again. No, she said. Impossible.

She sucked in a breath, wiping the tears away from her cheek and stood up. She didn't believe it was Nathan. Or maybe she couldn't. Either way, she was going to get to the bottom of it all. She had to. She walked with shaky and almost wobbly legs. She wasn't ready to find out. She also wasn't ready to know if Jasmine was alive or dead. She passed by the staircase again and fear crept into her skin as she saw the basement door was closed, one single lamp hanging from the top of the stairs. Her skin prickled and she covered the night light in her hands, trying to dim out the light a little.

She walked the opposite way from the room, wanting to get to the end as fast as possible and hoping she wouldn't encounter anything along the way...or anyone. The hallway this time opened into a wider area with a window at the middle. The moonlight barely breaking through the glass. She walked over to it and glanced up, seeing that it was filled with water. It dawned on her that she was looking at the greenhouse. There was a small pond right at the center of it where Nathan and her had shared a kiss. The memory was always warm to her, but now it was tainted with doubt and fear.