The Basement
Still worried and wondering about her husband’s whereabouts, Elaine climbed down the stairs just thirty minutes after getting home. With her phone in her hands, dialed Xavier's number, bringing the phone close to her ear.
She tried to call him once, twice, and on the last try, she decided to let it be. There wasn’t a reply on his path. She was worried. What if something happened to him wherever he went? What if the emergency that made him leave her was serious after all? What would she do then?
Stepping down from the stairs, she looked around. It was quiet in the mansion and the extreme silence caused her great unease in her mind. She didn’t know why but she felt like something was wrong, her instincts were giving her signs.
She began pacing around the space, her nails in between her teeth. Lord, she needed to get her mind off things. Being worried would change nothing.
Deciding that a distraction from her mind would be a solution, she started walking, intending to take a tour around the mansion. Ever since she got married to Xavier, she’d only been to each of the rooms in the house once or twice. She never had the time to walk around the huge mansion especially now that she was pregnant and her body was twice as heavy than before.
Elaine took a stroll to the kitchen, picking up a box of cookies to continue her walk. One by one, she stepped into the room, the paint room, the storeroom, the second room, and then the large library that she’d only been in twice since she moved into the house.
It was incredibly big, and the shelves were way taller than her. She didn’t see Xavier as someone who read a lot of books. Well, seeing the self-development and finance books, she guessed he was an avid reader just like her, or perhaps they were free books from authors?
“Whatever. At least we have something in common.”
At that, she closed the door of the library and moved to the next room, examining them and moving to the next. She climbed up the stairs to the other rooms, her legs stopping when she got to a door.
Holding the handle, Elaine pushed it open, revealing the appeasing office room. She’d been in here a couple of times, maybe two to three times, all times with Xavier around. It was the first time that she was walking into his study room without him being around.
She stepped into his space, her legs taking her forward and her eyes peering around the room in curiosity. He always spent most of his time in the study room, working when he wasn’t sleeping. She walked to the mahogany table, sat on the chair, and swiveled it around.
“It’s even more comfortable than the one in my office,” she exclaimed, her eyes on the files and laptop arranged neatly on the table. He was so well organized that she felt slightly jealous.
Having enough fill of the room, she got up from the chair and began making her way toward the door but her feet froze in place once her hand held the handle.
A struggling sound, low and shaky, yet she heard it. It came from the room. Elaine turned. She silenced her other senses except her ears and listened attentively, her ears picking up the sound yet again. Her eyes widened.
“Who is it?” Elaine demanded but received no reply yet the sound continued. It sounded distant, pained, and rough and she was sure it was coming from the room. “I asked who’s in here?” She stepped deeper into the study room, standing close to the table where the sound came from. Her shoulder tensed, and her legs trembled when the sound continued but this time, it came from beneath her legs.
She looked downward, her eyes widely fixated on the rug that the table laid on top. She gasped. There must be something beneath the rugs. She became sure of it as she banged her feet on the floor only for a weird sound of the floor to fill her ears. It sounded metallic in
Her curiosity got the better of her and before she knew it, she began pulling and pushing the table aside. Despite its weight, she pushed it from the black rug and once a path of it was out of the rug, she knelt beside it, her hands beginning to pull it away from the floor.
A loud gasp from Elaine reverberated in the room and she fell hard on her butt, her eyes staring at the place that was supposed to be a mere tiled floor.
In place of a tiled floor was a metallic box gate staring back at her like a sorrowful secret. Slowly, she brought her trembling hand to the gate, her heart beating wildly in her chest that she feared might burst through her chest. It was scary.
Like always, her curiosity got the better of her and she found herself opening the metallic gate. Shivers ran down her spine as a whole different world was introduced beneath the gate. A stairway that led to a whole different place. She swallowed, looking through the stairs for any hint but all she heard was the groans and silent call.
What exactly was Xavier hiding in the basement? What was it that he had to hide so far away? If she hadn’t heard the cries of a person, there was no way on earth she would’ve found the basement.
Was Xavier perhaps keeping someone hostage? The thought alone was enough to get Elaine to throw any rationality of hers outside and carefully started climbing the stairs. Each step she took echoed in the large space and eventually she got to the last stairs, her eyes looking around the plastered walls that seemed to hold a lot of secrets.
She looked around, searching for the secret that hid beneath the walls, and stepping deeper into the basement, she finally found the secret she had been searching for.
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