Chapter 21

“She must have left to go to her boyfriends. That’s the only place she could have gone.”
“What if she is with them?” replied Blake angrily, as he scanned the room in disbelief. “What are the chances that they have kidnapped her and are hurting Louisa too!”
“Nah, Julianne wouldn’t do that to Louisa,” I laughed gently in disgust. “Louisa is her perfect little princess. No, Louisa has probably moved out to her boyfriend’s place.”
“Right, well let’s check the other two bedrooms then,” growled Blake furiously, before walking out of the room and out of sight. "The sooner I get out of here the better!"

I walked across the landing and towards a door which I knew housed my old room. Pausing briefly, my hand inches away from the door handle, I inhaled deeply pulled open the door and walked in. It was clear that no one had been in this room since the day I had left. The room was still spotless and my remaining possessions were untouched. Blinking back the tears, I turned to walk out of the room, but Blake stopped me in my tracks.

“Wait!” he whispered gently, noticing my emotions. “This is your room, isn’t it? All this stuff is your possessions! Why are you walking away?”
“Because I don’t want it,” I sniffed sadly, feeling tears prick in my eyes. “It’s tainted with the memories of this place.”
“But didn’t your parents buy you all of this when they were alive?” Blake pressed on. “Think of those memories.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I shrugged, looking back at the room behind me. “I’ll come another day and get some bits.”
“No, we will get it today,” huffed Blake, beckoning a warrior over to us who had followed us upstairs. “Pack all of Libby’s things up and put it in one of the cars. Everything in this room apart from the furniture needs to go!”
“Yes boss!” the warrior nodded, before pushing past me and entering the room.

Smiling softly, I bowed my head and made my way towards the last bedroom. Pushing the door open, I glanced inside to see that the room was also a dump, just like the rest of the house. Broken furniture lay smashed up in a pile while the floor was covered with empty alcohol bottles. Clothes, shoes, and porn magazines lay scattered across the bed, while the curtains and curtain pole hung dangerously from the wall, held on by one screw.
“Yeah, they’re not here obviously,” I shrugged, turning back towards the stairs. “Let’s just go. This was just a waste of time!”
“Boss! What is the god-awful smell coming from the kitchen?” Damien shouted loudly up the stairs. “It smells like a dead body down here!”

Frowning at Blake, we quickly descended the stairs and walked back into the kitchen, where we were greeted once more with the foul smell that we smelt earlier. Disgusted, I crinkled up my nose and looked at Damien in disgust
.
“I thought it was the fridge smelling like that,” I shrugged. “Whatever it is, it bloody stinks. Let’s just get out of here!”
“No wait! I checked the fridge,” Damian replied puzzled, pointing to a door beside the fridge. “The fridge is empty. The smell is coming from behind that door.”
“That door is only a storage cupboard,” I replied looking at the locked door Damien was pointing to. “Julianne always kept it locked as she said the floor in the cupboard was unsafe due to it being rotten.”
“Well, it’s not locked any more, is it?” Blake retorted, wrenching the door open and pulling the locks straight out of the door frame. “Come on! Let’s go and see what secrets Julianne has been hiding behind this door!”

Curiously, I peered around Blake’s shoulder as he opened the door. The cupboard was clean and empty, the floor hardly rotten, but another locked door was revealed, and the smell had become stronger.
“Jesus wept!” cried Damien loudly, covering his nose and urging loudly. “What is that smell?”
“Another door?” Blake queried slowly. “What’s behind that one?”
“I don’t know,” I stammered gently. “Like I said, I’ve never been in this cupboard. Julianne kept it locked!”
“Maybe Louisa did us all a favour and killed James and Julianne and locked their bodies behind it,” laughed Damian loudly from behind us. “We can only hope!”
“I don’t think so,” I whispered, shaking my head slowly. “Louisa loved her Mum. They were best friends!”
“Well, we aren’t going to find out what is causing the smell by standing here, are we?” replied Blake loudly. “Let’s see what is behind this door!”

Blake stepped forward and swiftly ripped open the door like had done with the first which filled the cupboard with a stronger waft of the putrid smell. Coughing loudly, he covered his nose with his arm and beckoned us to follow him. As we walked through the door, a set of wooden stairs greeted us, leading us down underneath the house. I glanced up at Blake nervously as we began our descent into the unknown and towards the smell, not knowing what would be down there to greet us.

*****

The wooden stairs creaked noisily beneath our feet as we slowly made our way down into the darkness, our noses now covered by our hands due to the putrid, rotting smell that enveloped us like a blanket. As I stepped off the last step and felt the hard ground beneath me, I peered around in the dark curiously, straining my ears for any sign of life. I was quickly met by an eery silence, which was rapidly being disturbed by the sound of my own heart beating rapidly in fear. As I turned my head, I felt a thin strip of material slide across my nose, making me recoil in horror. Realising that it was the pull string to the light switch, I gingerly raised my hand and pulled down hard, instantly filling the room with a harsh, white light that hurt our eyes for a brief moment.

As our eyes adjusted to the harsh light, we gazed in disbelief at the cold, damp basement that we found ourselves in. We eyed up the old, rusty, metal pipes that creaked and clanged above our heads that snaked all over the ceiling and disappeared into the walls. The walls were made of hard, cold, damp concrete, which was covered in a greenish, blackish gunge while the floor was covered in wet and yellowing newspapers, partially hiding a single drainage grate right in the middle of the floor. A single green hosepipe hung coiled up on one wall, still connected to an outlet pipe which made me frown in surprise. Why would there be an outlet pipe inside of a basement? And how long had this basement been down here? And why didn’t I know anything about it?
Turning around, I spied a large pile of washing and torn blankets that lay strewn underneath the wooden staircase. On closer inspection, it was soon revealed that the clothes were indeed dirty and soiled, but with no one in the room, the owner of them was unclear. But it was clear that these clothes were possibly responsible for the ghastly smell that filled our nostrils. Sighing dejectedly and eager to get away from the stench, I turned around to Blake and Damien and shook my head slowly.

“There’s no one down here,” I shrugged in frustration. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. We will have to send the hunters out to find Julianne and James. If we find them, we will find Louisa!”
“But who do these clothes belong to?” replied Blake slowly, pointing towards the soiled, damp mess of fabric. “And why are they down here, hidden under the stairs? Did Julianne put them here?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen these clothes before,” I murmured, glancing around the room once more. “But I just want to get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps.”

As we turned around and began to make our way back towards the staircase, a long, animalistic, primal sound echoed around the room, making my blood turn cold in my veins and the little hairs on my body stand tall. It sounded like it came from an injured animal, hiding somewhere in the room.

“What the fuck was that?” hissed Alistair loudly, turning around and glancing at us in disbelief. “I’m telling you! There’s something down here with us!”