Chapter Nine – Down To The Cellar



Summer’s POV



I stood frozen beside Becca. The cellar door was staring back at us, almost tauntingly. It was open slightly, the small one inch gap allowed me to see a strip of the wall. Police tape was hung from either side of the wall next to the door at waist height.

“We have to,” Becca whispered, as much to herself as me.

Slowly, I reached my hand out and placed it on the door. My heart immediately started racing. With my now shaking hand, I pushed forward. The heavy door opened further, just enough for us to comfortably pass through.

“Are you ready?” I asked Becca.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see her shake her head gently. “I guess.”

“Neither am I.” Gripping Becca’s hand, I stepped forward first, bending down past the tape. We were only at the top of the stairs, you couldn’t even see anything properly from here but it still made me feel sick. I never thought I would have to come down here again, I didn’t want to but he had to pay. Rose and Louise couldn’t die for nothing. Becca flicked the light on.

Taking the first step down was the hardest. I’d spent eight months wanting to get out of this room and now I was going back in voluntarily. It seemed wrong. Our footsteps echoed in the empty room. It definitely wasn’t as loud before.

I held my breath and focused on one spot on the wall as we made our way to the bottom of the stairs. Becca’s hand was shaking in mine, or that could just be me.

It took me a few minutes to turn around; the first thing that came into view was the kitchen. The place where we prepared every meal and ate our food, it was also the place where Clover murdered Heather on my first day down here.

The smell was faintly the same, the amount of detectives, police and forensic officers that had passed through had tainted the original lemon fresh smell. Things were out of place too, the utensil holder was the wrong side of the cooker and the table had been moved to the left, it was no longer in line with the edge of the counter.

Becca squeezed my hand to get my attention. “Where should we go first?”

“I don’t know.” There was one place I definitely didn’t want to go, in that room. “The bedroom?” I didn’t look at Becca; my eyes were glued to all the things that were wrong with the kitchen, so I didn’t know if she nodded or shook her head.

It was strange; the need to clean and put everything back in its place was so overwhelming. We didn’t need to do that anymore though, we weren’t trapped down here and there would be no consequences for not doing it, but I still felt the same panic that I did before.

I forced myself to walk through the kitchen. We slowly made our way past the lounge area and stopped at the open bedroom door. The four beds were bare, the mattress sat on the bed frames still but the sheets, pillows and quilts had gone. Our matching outfits were hanging up in the open wardrobes. It wasn’t until I looked down that I saw my whole body was shaking now and not just my hands.

I sat down on the bed that was mine for eight long months. I would rather die than spend another night in this room. “Where are the sheets?” Becca asked, standing in the middle of the room and looking around. She looked almost lost, like she was struggling being down here too. Did she also feel the need to clean up?

Shaking my head, I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I don’t know, I guess the police took them.”

“Why would they want our sheets?”

“Our sheets?”

Becca frowned deeply and sighed. “I…I don’t know. It’s strange being here again, that’s all. Like…” She groaned in frustration, her body tense in anger. “I don’t know, I can’t explain it.”

“You want to put everything back too,” I said confidently.

“Yeah, I guess I do. I hate that I do.”

“Me too.” I still did it at home without even thinking about it. My room was spotless. Wherever I walked I would move things so they lined up or wiped over a clean surface. “It’ll take time for that to not be habit.”

Becca nodded. “Let’s just do this so we can get out of here.” She turned on her heels and practically ran out of the room. Before I followed her I sat on Louise’s bed.

“We’ll make sure he pays for you, I promise,” I whispered so quietly it was barely audible. Every time doubt slipped into my mind, and that was often, I would picture Louise and Rose. That was all I needed to find the strength to carry on with our stupid plan.

I walked back into the main room just as Becca pulled something out of her pocket. “What’s that?” She gasped and spun around. “Sorry I didn’t mean-” I stopped mid-sentence as my eyes fell upon the thing she was holding. A gun. “Becca?”

“You said we need to hide weapons down here,” she replied casually, with a shrug, as if we were discussing the weather.

Shaking my head to see if I was dreaming or not, I took one step closer to her. Of course the gun was still sitting in her hand. “Becks, I meant like baseball bats or knives.” I pointed to the pocket on the front of my hoodie that contained six penknives. Although, we had spoken about the possibility of having to kill him if it came down to him against us. “Where did you even get it?”

“My granddad goes hunting.”

“With handguns?”

She frowned. “Well no, but he holds a gun licence so has a few handguns too.” Her eyes seemed cold and empty. Was she sticking to our original plan or did she just want him dead? I didn’t want that, he needed to know what he’d done and pay for it in prison or wherever they were sending him for the rest of his life. Death seemed like the easy way out.

“That is a bad idea,” I said, pointing to the gun.

“Summer, how many women have you seen him murder?”

“Too many,” I admitted.

“Exactly. You really think he would think twice about killing us when he finds out we’ve betrayed him?” Reluctantly, I shook my head. I knew he wouldn’t. “If we’re facing him again I want the gun.”

The way she was talking was scary though; it was as if she wanted it to go wrong so she could shoot him. I hated him more than I had ever hated anything or anyone but I didn’t want to murder him unnecessarily, I didn’t want to be like him. “Becca, you’re not going to use that unless you absolutely have to, are you?”

“No, but we need to be prepared, you said that yourself.”

“Okay.” I had to believe her. “So, where are you going to hide it?”

“Kitchen drawer,” she responded immediately. She had already planned where it was going. “He’d never look in there.”

He wouldn’t look in there. In the whole eight months I was down there he didn’t open one cupboard or drawer, he just sat there waiting to be served his food. Becca ripped open the drawer and shoved the gun underneath the cutlery.

“Only if we absolutely have to?” I repeated, needing to hear her say it again.

“Yes, Summer, only if we have to.”

One thing Becca’s gun did for me was to remove the suffocating fear of being in his cellar again. Now I was more concerned with Becca’s state of mind. If she was just looking purely for revenge then we were backing out. This was about justice and making him understand that what he did wasn’t right or normal.

“Grab a few penknives and hide them in the bedroom, I’ll take the bathroom,” I instructed, pulling the pen knives out of my hoodie pocket and handing three of them to Becca.

We separated and I walked into the bathroom. Things were better in that room, more the way we left it, the way he wanted it. One penknife was shoved in the wall cabinet, hidden behind the deodorant.

Becca informed me that she’s hidden two knives in the bedroom, one under her pillow and the second behind the lamp on Louise’s bedside table. We ended up with six knives hidden around the cellar. Two in the bedroom, one in the bathroom, one in the kitchen and two in the lounge. We also had a gun.

Neither of us went into the other room. I couldn’t force myself so we would just have to make sure we didn’t go in there when he was back.

---

I turned the key in the front door slowly so it wouldn’t make a noise and pushed it open. Lewis was standing in front of me, looking panicked and reaching for the door. His hand lowered as he saw me and he visibly relaxed. Lewis’ body may have relaxed but his face certainly didn’t.

He opened his mouth and closed it again, not being able to find what he wanted to say. Before he had the chance to talk I spoke first. “Lewis, I just needed to get some fresh air.” It was without a doubt the crappest excuse I could have ever come up with.

“Fresh air,” he repeated flatly. “Do you even care anymore, Summer?” I was expecting shouting but he sounded too calm.

“What do you mean?” Lewis gently pulled my further in the house, closed the front door and locked it.

“About your life? You’re happy to go strolling out of the front door alone. He could be anywhere.” His voice rose slightly and a deep frown fell over his face. “Are you not at all worried that he could have been waiting out there for you? And what about us, huh? Does it ever cross your mind what losing you again would do to all of us?” He ran his hands over his face and sighed heavily. “What the hell are you doing, Summer?”

“I wasn’t doing anything,” I replied in a small voice, refusing to look him in the eye as I lied to him. Guilt washed over me. I used to vow never to lie to him and never to keep anything from him, now I was doing it on a daily basis.

When I was first rescued I was naïve and thought I could just snap back to Summer. As much as I hated to admit it, Clover had affected me. I felt Summer was still inside me but couldn’t get out. She was screaming at me to open my eyes, to let her back out but I couldn’t. At the minute I was still mostly Lily and obsessed with making Clover pay for what he did to her and the other girls. I felt like I was suffocating inside myself.

“I feel like you’re still gone, ever since he got away you’ve changed completely, and we were just starting to get you back.” He sounded so deflated it made my heart ache.

His words got to me because they were true, and I started crying. “I’m still here.” Somewhere. “I feel…Well I’m not sure. I just want it over now.”

“It can be, if you come away with me,” he argued. “You know it’s for the best, I don’t get why you’re refusing all the time.”

“I don’t want-”

“Don’t want to run away. Why not? Why wouldn’t you want to run away from the man that kidnapped and…” he trailed off, wincing as his face turned hard. Thank God he didn’t finish. Lewis stepped forward, his arms snaking around my back, holding me against his chest. I clung to him and closed my eyes. “I’m losing you aren’t I?” he whispered against my hair.

“No, I’m not going anywhere.”

“That’s not what I meant, Sum.” I knew what he meant.

“You’re not losing me, can’t be sunshine all the time.”

“I know that, Summer, but this is more than just lack of sunshine,” he said, with a sigh. “I don’t even feel like you want to be with me. You used to tell me everything but I have no idea what’s going on in your head anymore.”

“It’s fuzzy for me too sometimes.”

“You need to sort it out; I don’t know what to do or how to act around you anymore.” Neither did I. The only time I knew where I stood was the rare moments where we would joke around and talk about things that we’d done. Now, I had no clue. “What do you need from me?” Lewis pulled back to face me. “You need to tell me because I don’t know what to do,” he said, almost desperately. “And tell me the truth, what you really need and not what I want to hear.”

“I need some space.” Saying that practically burned. I didn’t want space, I wanted my life back and my old relationship with Lewis, but he wasn’t giving up trying to get me to leave.

His face fell and I felt like crap. “Space? You want to break up?”

“No.” I frowned, gripping onto his t-shirt. “I don’t want to break up. I just…I need you to let me breathe a little. Like you said, I need to sort my head out and I need some time alone to do that.”

“How much time?” he asked, looking hurt.

“Maybe a couple nights?”

Lewis nodded and pulled away from me completely. “I’ll go home then.”

Reaching out, I grabbed his hand and shook my head. “No, stay tonight. We’ll spend tomorrow night apart and maybe in the morning we’ll get along better.” It was naïve of me to think that twelve hours would sort all of our problems out but it would mean I could sneak out more comfortably, and hopefully if me and Lewis were given the chance to miss each other it might make us more grateful for the time we spent together.

Lewis turned and pulled me along with him. Without a word, we both undressed and got into bed. “I love you,” I whispered honestly, as I laid my head on his chest.

“I love you too.” I fell into a restless sleep, worrying about the very real possibility of losing the person I loved most in the world.

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Teaser - Someone gets shot....but who??? :O

I totally prefer Clover's POV now. Summer is annoying to write, RUN YOU CRAZY FREAK! Although if she ran there wouldn't be a story lol!

I'll upload again as soon as I have something written.

<3