The basement
659 Words
CAMBRI
Beta Andrews drags me out of the kitchen to a long hallway. The dark red walls have beautiful artwork and family photos all over them. The further we go down the hall, the more hardwood floors squeak in protest. I tried to map out where we are going, but this place is enormous. I feel like we walk forever before reaching a door that looks like a closet near the end. He opens it, and we descend two flights of rickety stairs that lead into the basement.
After reaching the bottom steps, they open into another long hallway. The walls and floor are made of concrete, and you can barely see from the dim lighting. We approach a massive steel door near the end, and I hear moans and screams of agony and pain coming from the other side. I feel my stomach drop when the smell of imminent death and rotting corpses hits my nose. I peek through the glass on the door to see prisoners on the other side in what looks to be silver cells. Most of them have lesions and lacerations, but some you can't even recognize their faces. They all look malnourished and like they are knocking on death's door.
Beta Andrews stops and looks at me with amusement, "admiring my handy work? Don't worry; you'll get your turn soon enough. I plan to have good fun with you before your expiration date." He opens the door just before prison and pushes me inside. "Welcome to your new home. Remember one mistake, and you can join them on the other side." I cough as the dust we stirred up reaches my nose and lungs. It looks like a storage room that no one has been into in years. I walk further in and see a fireplace, a small cot, and tons of files scattered everywhere. I hear him talking, and a witch has appeared outside of the door. "I want this room sealed so only a witch or I can get in. I don't want anyone to find or smell this useless filth."
Before I can run back to the door to protest, the wall turns into brown and red stone that matches the others, and there is nowhere to escape. I start a fire with some file folders and matches I found in one of the boxes and curl up on the cot with one of the cookbooks Kate gave me. I start reading about how to make breakfast food since this will be my primary job. I hear my stomach start protesting while reading and looking at all the delicious photos in the book. The food Agnes snuck to me earlier is long gone. I decided to sleep off the hunger pains.
I hadn't been asleep very long when I felt cold water drench me, and I woke up gasping for air. Beta Andrews grabs me by my hair and stands me up. "Did I tell you that you could eat anything yesterday, filth? Did I approve for you to take anything from the pack! You haven't done anything to prove you're deserving of such luxuries!" He says in a menacing tone. He shows me a blurry photo of me eating the leftovers from yesterday's dinner. "Get up; you get to start earlier today since we are down someone in the kitchen. Your friend, Agnes, just couldn't learn her lesson about giving to the filth we bring to serve the pack. He held up another photo of a body out in the woods littered with cuts and gashes, and everything from the shoulders up was missing. I look closer at the photo and it's the exact place he found me. I gape up at him with nothing but horror on my face, realization hits of what he has just shown me. He leans down and gets close to my ear before whispering, and confirming my thoughts , "and now she's dead."
- Writer
