Something About Alice Murphy: BOOK 1

P A R T - F I V E

Chapter Five: Trapped.
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December 15th.
4:30am.

Alice woke with a start, and instantly she felt the slushy coldness of wet snow around her. She was freezing and sat up as her body began to shake violently from the temperature. Confusion set in as she looked around herself, trying to find some kind of clue as to where she might be but it all seemed white. "Hello?!" She called, her arms now wrapped around her upper body as she struggled to stand up. "Hello?!" She called even louder and walked forwards, reaching out to touch what looked like a muddy wall that seemed to be frozen with ice.

"Hello," a male voice suddenly said, causing Alice to jump and glance around her quickly, "look up,"

Alice looked up and squinted her eyes, seeing someone crouched by the side of... what looked like the entrance to a hole... that she was in. "What's going on?" She asked, her teeth chattering violently as she stood there in only a t-shirt and pyjama pants.

"What do you think?" The silhouette chuckled. She couldn't see the detail of his face because of how the moonlight was reflecting off the snow, and the darkness of the sky wasn't helping with the contrast. Alice could feel herself beginning to panic, but she tried to think calmly, even though there was nothing calming about this situation.

"How did I get here?" She asked, her voice trembling  as she rubbed her arms, "I'd like to go home now,"

"Oh," the voice laughed, with other chuckled echoing as if there might be more than one of them there. "You'd like to go home? Alright, well here's the ladder," the guy laughed again and Alice seemed to recognise it. The guy threw a ladder down, but it barely reached half way. "Jump for it," he taunted darkly, causing the fear, panic and anger to rise in Alice's throat.

"Stop it!" She yelled, "I haven't done anything wrong!" She shouted, feeling her muscles beginning to tense from the cold.

"You haven't done anything wrong?" The guy replied, his voice showing his irritation suddenly. "Try stealing, there's one thing. Try sticking your nose into business that doesn't have anything to fucking do with you, there's another thing. Did your mom never tell you about how curiosity killed the cat?" He taunted then laughed again, pulling the ladder up and away from sight again. Alice could hear more voices, and in a few short seconds she realised what was about to happen. She was going to die. Her mind began to race as she stared at the silhouette. "Have fun freezing Alice Murphy," the voice finally said, before they stood up as if they were going to leave her.

"Magnus!" She yelled, causing the silhouette to stop. "M-Magnus Johnson, Trey Eno, Charlie Newman, Noah Wilson, James Wright, Juniper Welsh, Lucy Bazen, Danny and Katy McOwen! I know all your names!" She shouted and took in a shaky deep breath, as she was met with a cold silence. "Gregory Lang, Hannah Wells, Ben Rodgers, Jamie Andrews, Helen Kitt, Olivia Price, Jacob Clifford, Robert Ellis, Danielle Cole, William Taylor and his brother Sam, Tom Peters and Veronica Green!" Alice called, her eyes fixed on the silhouette who she realised was Magnus Johnson himself. "Thirteen bodies, seven locations, I know where they all are and I've written them down!"

"Where?" Magnus demanded, and she heard the sound of a gun click, causing her to flinch as her eyes blinked rapidly but she stood her ground. "WHERE?!" Magnus shouted, causing her to whimper but she stayed silent. "You fucking- Search her room, tear her house apart I don't fucking care! Find the list!" He shouted to someone else and turned back to stare down at Alice whose skin had turned ghostly pale with how cold she was. "Maybe out here in your last moments before you fucking freeze you can think about why you don't stick your nose into shit that has nothing to do with you!" He spat before dropping something into the hole. Alice looked down to see his black gun in front of her, "There's only one bullet left... I used the others to shoot your family... Merry Christmas Alice Murphy." She heard him say darkly before the sound of his crunching foot steps in the snow became quieter and quieter as he left.