Chained

Nineteen

The water floods the basement with no sign of ceasing. I wish that the rushing water would silence, and I could hear if Emily had managed to find a way out of this monstrous place.

But the water keeps coming, drowning the rest of my sanity. The only reality was basement walls and increasing water.

I pace in the water, as far as I am to move with the chains. The water is past my knees, and it occurs to me that I might end up dying in this basement before Emily comes back.

If she comes back.

If she was ever there at all.

What do you mean, of course, she was there?

"How did she get here, Jason?" I mumble, reaching my hand to ruffle my hair and wincing when the chains wouldn't allow me to get that far. "People don't just appear in a strange basement in the middle of fucking nowhere."

Like any of this is normal.

I kick the wall, and the chains rattle. With the speed of the water, there is a very good chance that I might end up drowning. Part of me wants to scream at those bastards and tell them what's happening.

But I can't do that if there's a chance that Emily might still be in the house. Or even near.

"You always put yourself last..."

Emily's voice in my memory is so loud, so persistent, I'm almost sure that she's right beside me. I whirl around, water sprinkling with the movement, but I find nothing.

But her words, more solid than my watery sanity, have their impact on me. Once again, I'm helping someone else at my own expense. And what does that get me?

Chained in a basement, waiting for death.

I slump against the wall, just watching the water fill the basement. The coldness bites into my jeans, and I get the most insidious kind of urge. Something that never happens in horror movies, even films with water themes.

I have to take a piss.

The rushing sound of water isn't helping the predicament at all. A broken laugh escapes from me as the need overwhelms me. Drowning in a basement is terrible enough, but if my piss is an added ingredient.

But it does emphasize that this watery hell is real. If this is just a hallucination, my throat wouldn't be so tight, and I wouldn't be caught in a see-saw between nausea and hunger.

That's when something stirs beneath the water. A dark shape, barely skimming the surface. I almost think I see a dark head of hair.

My heart pounds, and I try desperately to calm myself.

Of course, this isn't real, no more real than when I found myself in my bedroom.

No more real than when Emily ended up in here.

Splash.

I jerk back, almost tripping over the chains and falling into the water. But, aside from the steadily filling water, everything goes still for a moment. My stomach stays clenched, ready for anything to emerge and come at me.

Nothing.

Relief doesn't last for more than a moment when something slithers around my leg. I shout and jump, sending water spraying everywhere. I can't see anything as I back up against the wall.

But this is my limit.

"That's it, you son of a bitch!" I snap. "I know you're in here! Where are you?"

Something taps my back.

I stiffen, courage slipping away faster than the water flooding the room. Part of me wants to shut my eyes and slip into the water so I can hide from whatever is lurking behind me.

Breath tickles my neck. There is a foul stench to it, like the dead cat I had found once in our backyard. I never knew how long that poor creature had laid there, but the smell haunts me to this day.

This is worse.

Fingers touch the back of my neck, lighter than a feather before digging into my flesh. I don't turn around, even as sharp pain tears through my skin, followed by rivulets of blood.

But when its fingers start traveling down my back, it's enough. I turn around and find myself facing nothing at all.

Then a grip tightens around my leg, fiercer than the chain. Before I can move, it pulls me with superhuman strength. I barely manage a yelp before the thing drags me underneath the water.

I choke, unprepared for the water as I try to surface. But it keeps me underneath with a grip stronger than iron. I flail around, trying to get a glimpse of what is pulling me down. Dark water veils my eyes, and it smothers the last of my breath.

Not ready to die, I kick wildly. I hit something, but it doesn't make much of a difference. I still cannot get to the surface, and the hold on my leg becomes even more painful. It almost feels like teeth are digging into my skin. I struggle, trying so hard to get away from the clutches of death.

I'm not ready to die yet.

Something loosens, and I burst to the surface, hacking out water. I look around as the lightbulb blinks wildly. The water is up to my chin now, but that isn't the part that disturbs me the most.

The water is crimson.

I spit out a scarlet substance with a terrible taste. This isn't water at all, but blood. I am drowning in blood, and it seems to be coming from the very walls.

"Hey!" I shout at the stairwell. "You have to get me out of here. I don't want to die!"

Tears burn my eyes as I splash as the blood. It's so much, and the smell is worse than sickening. I choke more of the crimson water out, and then I start puking for good measure. It's too much, and I can't take it anymore.

"Let me go!" I scream. "Let me out!"

Nothing but silence and scarlet death.

Frustration burns me as much as fear. Thoughts of Emily slip away as I focus on the last seconds of my life. A life that I never truly treasured until the monsters tore me from it.

"What do you want?" I demand. "I'll give you..."

But they are a cult, deluded by drugs. Maybe none of this is real, and I'm screaming on a basement floor.

Or more likely, I am strapped down to a hospital bed, raving at the top of my lungs.

It doesn't matter. This didn't mean anything as the chains tug me, the monstrous metal digging into my arms. Something is pulling on my chains, dragging me back into the water.

"Do you want me to accept your truth?" I yell, probably to nobody. "I will accept it, I'll learn. Whatever it takes! Just please let me out of here! I—"

The chains tear my words away as I am ripped back down into the deadly water. My throat burns as life tears from me. Blood is the only thing that exists. I see it, smell it, taste it.

And then I see nothing at all.