"How the birds can sing a tuneless song?
How can they stay in the sky?
Maybe they're just screaming
maybe it's not music and it's all a lie"
***
A small amount of sunlight comes through the skylight of the basement, I think it's close to sunset now. Soon this room will go back to the deadly darkness. I'm not even sure how many days it has been in this basement.. It's hard to keep a track of time but I'm pretty sure it has been two weeks or so. Whenever Harry is not here and I'm left alone with my thoughts, I can't help but wonder if my friends even noticed me disappearing out of the blue. I'm pretty sure they didn't since Chris is probably still in Seattle with Lou and Liam whereas Niall is most probably back by now..
I wonder if he has been suspicious or not.. I really hope they notice that there is something wrong and report it to the police..
The door of the basement opens, interrupting my thoughts. My breath starts to hitch and my body tenses as soon as I hear heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. Harry makes his way towards me and I press myself further into the wall in order get away from him.
He sighs and sits down onto the bed. He moves forward to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and I can't help but flinch. He furrows his eyebrows but doesn't say anything about me flinching.
After a moment he breaks the ice by saying, "I'm just here to let you know that I don't want to hear a single sound coming from you for the next few hours, no banging on the basement door. If you need something, then wait till I come back downstairs. Otherwise, make yourself nonexistent. And if you try to do something, trust me, there will be no saving you from me then. Are we clear?"
I just nod my head, not having it in me to say something to him. For some reason, my silence enrages him.
"I asked, Are we clear!? Use that tongue of yours which you can't seem to control at other times, love," he snaps.
"Y-YES! You know for someone who wants me to act nonexistent for a few hours, you sure do want me to say something back all the damn time."
"Just shut up," he mutters under his breath as he gets up and I scoff at his words. Without another word, he leaves.
As soon as he is out of my sight, my mind wanders back to thinking of how to get out of this hellhole. Just then, I hear the basement door shutting but I don't hear it locking.
Did he just forget to lock the door?
I sit there staring at the stairs for a few minutes.. Should I walk up the stairs and try to open it?
Or what if it's just a trap? What if he did it on purpose to check if I'll try to escape or not?
I sit there contemplating my options for about half an hour, too scared about what will happen if he finds out that I was trying to sneak out. But then I don't have anything to lose, apart from this life which I'm going to lose anyway.
I gather all of the courage and slowly start walking up the stairs. As I step at one of them, it lets out a loud creak and I stop breathing right there.
After a moment of not hearing anything from Harry, I let go of the breath I was holding and start making my way upstairs. Just as I reach the door, I can hear the sound of chatter coming from upstairs. It sounds like a conversation between two people.
Why would you even have people over when you have a person locked up in your basement. I mean, It's not the best idea.
I slowly open the door, making sure not to make a sound and peek my head out to see someone sitting on the couch down the hallway. It isn't Harry for sure. I can hear Harry's sound coming from afar and then there is a sound of two bottles opening.
I hear Harry's footstep approaching towards the couch and see him handing the other person a bottle of beer, I still can't see him but by looking at the side of the face of the person sitting on the couch, I can tell that it's Zayn.
What the hell is he doing here? Is that the reason Harry wanted me to be quiet?
If Zayn doesn't know that I'm here, maybe I can ask him for help.?
I'm assuming Harry is sitting in front of him as he asks, "So, what's up? What brings you here?"
"Nothing much. Thought that I hadn't seen you that much after the whole showdown with that bitch. So I thought why not come over," Zayn replies casually, shrugging his shoulders lightly.
"Ahan. Where is she nowadays?"
"Elizabeth? Oh I don't know, and I couldn't give less of a shit even if that bitch is found dead in a ditch somewhere," Zayn says as takes a sip of his beer and Harry chuckles.
I can't help but feel a bit hurt by his words.. Only if he knew what the truth is..
I take this conversation as a queue for me to leave before I overhear something which can cause more damage to my feelings. I'm already broken enough. And after hearing this conversation, I don't think Zayn will help me escape.
Just as I'm shutting the door slowly, it makes a tiny creak, making my eyes widen. Oh I'm so fucked...
I see Zayn's head whip in my direction from the side of the door and Harry asks him what he's looking at.
"Oh nothing, I just thought I heard creak or some shit. Your house is getting old, Styles."
I let out a sigh and make my way down the stairs as fast as I can without making any sound. I sit at the bed with my knees up to my chest as I shake horribly. After calming down a bit, I start thinking of ways to escape this place. If..
I get up and walk to the skylight. It's pretty high up and I can only reach there by standing on a chair. I put the chair and stand on it to reach the small window, but to my dismay it has iron bars on the outside. So, even if I somehow break the glass, I can't escape. But if I break the glass, maybe someone on the outside will hear me yelling for help. I look around me but there is not even a single thing that I can use to break the glass with. The only way I can break the glass is to use my elbow but it isn't that easy. I use my elbow to break the glass and after countless tries it finally shatters, my elbow is slightly bleeding but due to the loud sound of the glass shattering, Harry hears it and in a split second, he's here and pulls me back harshly. I fall and hit my head on the ground. Dead.
So this is probably not the best option. If..
I go upstairs and slowly walk down the hallway silently, but there is no way in hell that I can get to the door without Zayn knowing. I still try to give it a shot and sneak out when Harry is in the kitchen but Zayn sees me and asks Harry what I'm doing here. Harry doesn't answer him and makes his way towards me, grabbing my wrist harshly. He opens the door of the basement and pushes me down the stairs. Dead.
That isn't an option either. Think Elizabeth! Think! If..
I stay here and try not to escape like this. More like Stockholm syndrome. I convince him that I'm in love with him and that I'll stay here forever without being forced so that I can gain his trust and then escape at any given chance. When he makes his way downstairs I step forward and softly kiss him as I say, "Finally you're back. Let's go upstairs baby."
He is taken aback from the change in my behavior and asks, "What do you think you're doing?"
"What do you mean? I love you," I say and put my hands on his chest as I smile at him.
"No. No you don't."
"Harry, baby, maybe not then. But I do now," I say and he grabs my hands from his chest, pulling them down with his eyebrows furrowed. His hands place on my face.
"What have you done to my Elizabeth? This is not the Eliza I know. The one I love hates me. What have you done to her!?" His hands move from my face to my throat and he starts to apply pressure as he yells the last part.
"H-Harry," I croak. My hands try to grab his so that he lets go of my throat, but his grip on my throat only gets tighter as he keeps yelling the same words, "What have you done to her!?"
Dead.
It feels like there is no possible way out of this hellhole. If I stay here, I die. If I try to escape, I die.
My thought are interrupted by the basement door opening and I see a very angry Harry making his way downstairs as his eyes meet mine and he yells,
"Care to tell me what the fuck were you doing upstairs!?"
Shit.
He is halfway down the stairs and is about to say something but is cut off by Zayn's voice coming from afar. He turns his head to the side to listen what he's saying,
"Oh hey Niall! What are you doing in this neighborhood man?" Zayn asks in a cheery voice, sounding more kind of shocked.
Did he just say Niall!?
Harry turns his head back to look towards me with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. His eyes meet my already widened ones and he puts his finger on his lips as a sign for me to keep my mouth shut.
He turns and leaves the basement, locking the door behind him.
Niall..Niall is here. I have to tell him I'm here somehow..
After a moment of thinking, I run and grab the chair. I stand on it so that I can reach the skylight. My gaze searches for something- anything and I see Niall's car parked right in front of me.
I just have to get his attention somehow when he comes back to it. Just then, Niall comes towards his car, unlocking it and I start banging at the window. He opens his door and just as he is about to sit, his gaze starts searching the source of the sound of the light banging.
His gaze meets mine and he rushes over to the window and sits down. When he recognizes me, I hear a muffled sound of him yelling my name as he tries to pull at the iron bars, but it's of no use. He runs back to his car and grabs something.
He makes his way back to me and writes something on his hand. He shows it to me so that I can read,
"Stay calm. I'm coming inside."
-_-_-_-
A/N:
Well oh well,
this chapter was a headache to come up with
but I did have fun writing it..
even though it took me 5 hours to..
But I do hope you liked it!
If you didn't know it already,
the inspiration of the three scenarios which Liz comes up
with came from the movie HUSH.
Let me know what you think!
Do you think Niall will be able to save Elizabeth?
Love you! Stay safe!
-A.S.
-_-_-_-