Sophie walked closer to the little rectangle near the door. They'd have to open it to give her food, so she was going to try to see if she knew any of them. They couldn't not give her food, could they? She pushed the thought of being starved away. They'd given her breakfast, and she assumed her dinner would be coming soon.
She sat by the little hole, listening to Amanda and Julia talk in the other corner. They didn't question her quietness, and she was glad to have some alone time. The two ghosts seemed happy talking to each other. Which Sophie thought was a good thing since only The Silent Ghost could leave.
"She's been a bit quieter today," one of the men noted as their feet thumped against the stairs. Just what she'd been waiting for, a chance to see her captures.
"Wouldn't you think that's a good thing," the other one said, he obviously wasn't in charge. You could tell by the way he spoke, voice hardly audible compared to the first speaker.
"No, sudden changes in behavior is a bad thing," the first, more stern man said. She was growing restless as she waited for them to open the little hole for food.
Sophie tried to ignore a small part of herself getting angry. The last thing she'd wanted was for them to grow suspicious.
"Maybe she needs someone to talk to," the one not in charge said, and for a while there was no response. The thumping on the stairs stopped, and their footsteps told Sophie they were going down the hall.
"They don't need anybody." Soph got more comfortable in her little corner, expecting the men take a while before reaching her.
"Some people do, do you think I could talk to her?" Sophie's heart stopped. It wanted to talk to her. She didn't want to talk to it. It was disgusting, a monster, but maybe talking to him would give her a chance of escape.
"You're crazy. Joking, you have to be!" the man who seemed in charge said in a rush. Sophie cringed at his voice, she found herself inching toward the little hole again with curiosity. The ghosts in the corner tried to ignore her indecision.
"I'm not joking." It was a few minutes before he spoke again. "Some people need human interaction. You saw how she was the first day."
"Fine," the man in charge said. "I'm done, she's the last one. Go give her the food in person, see how she reacts to the person that took her. Have fun."
She heard more thumps against the stairs and the man outside remained quiet. She ran back to her corner, not wanting to look suspicious. She knew it was pointless, though, because they always said there were cameras in there.
The door started to open and she grabbed at her blanket, lifting it up in defense. An animal. She'd turned into an animal, and it hadn't even been that long. She lowered the blanket, wanting to be perceived as a normal person.
"Hello?" the man said, squinting in the darkness she'd grown used to. His skin was a dark caramel color, his hair was long, it fell over his face as he watched where he'd stepped.
"Is the lamp not enough light?" Sophie spat, the guy looked up and seemed to just notice Sophie was in the corner.
"They're paranoid of you guys escaping, you're lucky they allowed me to give you a lamp," the man replied. "I'm Austin, by the way."
"I don't care," Sophie snapped, but she made note of his name for later. "Why'd you take us anyway? You're all psycho creeps!" She almost threw the blanket at him, but decided that would make him leave. She needed to get information out of him. She couldn't ruin it.
"Woah, hold up. I think I should explain our side of the story."
Before he could explain, Sophie found herself unable to hold back. "What would justify your actions? Kidnapping people! That's crazy! You're ruining lives right now," Sophie felt tears start to roll down her cheeks, but she wasn't sad. She was angry. Very much so. "Fine, explain yourself."
He looked to the corner of the room, by following his gaze Sophie saw the camera they'd always talked about. "I can't," Austin said in defeat.
"Are you kidding me? You just offered to tell!" She dropped her blanket only to pick it back up again. Very indecisive. "How many others are there?"
"I can't speak for everyone else, but I have one more beside you." He came a step closer, sensing Sophie's anger.
In one moment her patience was gone. She charged at Austin, intending to unleash her fury on him. Tears rolled faster down her cheeks as her fist came hard on his chest. He didn't move at first, and when he did it wasn't to retaliate like she'd expected. He held her shoulders, bending down to look her in the eyes.
How could someone so cruel stay that calm?
"You need to stop. They're watching."
She felt a chill and looked over to see The Silent Ghost standing in the corner. Her long dark hair fell beside her arm, which was pointing to the camera. "Do you see that?" she asked Austin, she pointed to The Silent Ghost. Julia and Amanda were in the corner watching this all go down.
When he looked in the direction of The Silent Ghost, his eyes were filled with pity. She knew his answer before he'd even had to say it. "No."
More thumping on the stairs told her that Austin would be taken away. She angled herself so she could see the men through the one sided door. She couldn't open it, she already tried. "Don't try to escape right now. They're strong enough to overpower both of us combined."
"Austin! Your visit is up. It's time to leave."
Austin gave her a wave goodbye, she only scowled at him. She hated them all, and that wasn't going to change.
Sophie turned back to The Silent Ghost, awaiting the message from Charlie. The ghost, deathly quiet, only stood there looking at Sophie. A few minutes passed before she seemed to realize what Sophie was waiting for. She got dimmer and Charlie's face showed up.
"Hey Soph," he'd said. Sophie took note of his scenery, he'd been walking to school. She could see her apartments in the distance. "Does this ghost have a name? She doesn't talk much to me. Are you sure there's nothing you can say about the people who took you? I'm going to need you to figure some stuff out, I'm going to help you escape."
She could see it in his face, and hear it in the way his voice strained, that communicating through the ghost was just as awkward for him as it was for her.
"Do I just speak now?" Sophie asked, taking a deep breath as she thought of what she needed to say. She'd just figured more out about her captures and was more than willing to help herself escape. The Silent Ghost nodded. "Okay, I don't know if she has a name, she doesn't speak to me. There's more important things I have to say right now."
Sophie went on explaining Austin's appearance, almost forgetting to say his name. She was about to describe her encounter with him before The Silent Ghost put her hand in the air, stopping her from speaking any further. "Bye Charlie," she finished with, looking away from the girl. The Silent Ghost had dispersed again into thin air, and Sophie turned to Amanda and Julia.
"You'd better hope Austin and the others can't hear you," Julia said, coming towards Sophie as she spoke.
"Otherwise you just told them that something's going on and you're ratting on them." Amanda still stood in her corner.
"They think I'm crazy, and they can't see or hear you." Sophie walked to her blankets, in her head she started calling it her bed. She used the blankets to cover herself up, no doubt she was starting to stink. "Can you guys try to leave the room? Go through a wall or something? We need to know what the house looks like."
The two ghosts looked at each other. "We've tried, but we don't get far," Julia said, sitting next to Sophie on her bed. Sophie couldn't help but notice she wasn't even sitting. She was floating, a few inches off the floor, yet to her it seemed as if she were on a solid surface.
"Maybe you could try again?" Sophie asked.
The ghosts shrugged it off. They went to one of the walls and started discussing how to do it. They had no idea. Eventually, they ended up leaning against the wall, pushing hard into it, and Amanda eventually fell through. She came back, a look of shock pinned to her face.
"You did it!" Julia exclaimed, Sophie let out a soft applauded in response.
"Did you see anything?" Sophie asked.
"Only dirt. And bugs. And worms, do they count as bugs?" She scrunched her nose, and didn't look very pleased with her accomplishment. She pushed on the wall and figured out that it wasn't going to happen again any time soon.
"Maybe next time you could try going up then out?" Sophie suggested, Julia nodded along with the idea. Amanda agreed, and she started warming up to the idea of being able to do it. She just didn't want to be underground again, no, she thought it was disgusting.
A/N So things are starting to happen! Vote or comment if you liked it, this is going to be the first story I truly revise so any feedback is appreciated.