Lost ✔️

Chapter 27

My arms.......

Stephanie's head was hurting all right but her arms felt restricted. She was consumed by darkness and stillness of the environment. By the amount of relaxation and lazed out she felt, she already knew she slept for too long. 

Perhaps it had been all a dream.

But somehow, her subconsciousness knew it wasn't.

"You mind opening those eyes of of yours", a deep voice spoke up.

Wow, that's amazing.

Stephanie almost fell for the voice. Only she knew who it was and her heart was set for Chris. Thinking about him made her feel guilty. He always hated lies and she ended up doing exactly that at the end. 

She opened her eyes to meet with darkness again. Her arms didn't feel restricted. They were restricted. Tied up behind her back in an extremely uncomfortable position, her elbows were all sore from the way her arms were set behind her.

Her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. There was a rotten smell lurking in the air. It was gross. Stephanie found herself sitting in the basement with her legs and arms intact, but tied up.

The only source of light they had was from a large circular hole far up the wall. Too high for either of them to reach. The basement was exactly like she had remembered it to be three years ago. The kitchen floor above them had a little gap between each wooden plank.

The room was smaller than hers. It was more like a prison cell than a basement. The floor was dusty and loose cobwebs wound at the corners. Her visionary beings finally fell on the figure in front of her.

Tall, handsome, dark, well-built and yet soft. He had a kindness in his eyes she had never witnessed before. Stephanie wasn't sure how she felt seeing him there. Part of her wanted to cry and the other part just wanted to kick him in the balls.

"What are you doing here?", Stephanie hissed.

"Could've said hello. What did you even expect? Brian? Please", he scoffed.

This human-

Stephanie was about to retort something smart when she noticed that this foolish guy was in a quite a lot of pain.

His arm was bent in an awkward position and his head was reeking of dried blood. There was a small slash cutting the front of his t-shirt. The cut didn't seem to be too serious.

"Hey, you okay?", she asked.

He managed to smirk even with the pain. 

"Nice of you to ask. I'm fine as daylight though. Auntie is hostile and brutal but she is good at treating wounds that she inflicts"

There was an awkward silence. But there was nothing to do. Except to talk. Even in the dim light Stephanie saw his face was pale.

"How did you end up here? Why are you even here? And what were you even doing creeping up on me?", she blurted out anyway.

He just guffawed.

"You never respected my privacy. So.... which one do you want to be answered?"

Stephanie clenched her teeth. He was an irritating soul to begin with. Always had been.

"All of them, Nathan"

*

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE LEFT?!", Marilene screamed.

"Just like that she did", Chris muttered.

"Calm down both of you. Let's assess the situation step by step", Steve said.

Marilene was on the verge of shitting herself.

"This is not a biology lesson for you to assess over, Doctor! My best friend is in-"

"If you're so clever then go on! I wanna see how geniuses' minds work-"

"Oh so you think you're a geni-"

"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!", Chris shouted. "Will you stop arguing over Einstein here? Stephanie could be dead by the time we come up with something!"

"Don't you kill my best friend"

"Einstein isn't the only genius, ya know"

Chris was having a hard time dealing with this emotion called patience. The entire veins in his temple were about to burst out ugly like some kind of water pipe. He took a deep breath.

"Look either of you shut up before I freakin' KILL YOU!", Chris said, screaming the last part.

There was an awful silence ringing in that room.

Chris had called the both of them to his place saying it was about Stephanie. While Marilene figured it was about her periods, Steve thought they had a fight. When both of them were informed about everything, all hell went loose.

Two light years later, Steve spoke up.

"Okay I have a plan. Listen here"

*

"So that's it?", Stephanie asked flabbergasted.

"Pretty much it", Nathan said.

She rested her head on the wall and closed her eyes.

Apparently, she had always been wrong about her dear stranger. It had never been Brian. It was him. Her former neighbor and friend. Nathan.

He only met up with Brian two years ago. Both of them were convinced in the truth of the rumors going around her past school and started investigating the matter. Half a year later, Nathan was personally stalking her every move to check for any suspicious activity.

Only he found something more horrific. Stephanie's hushed up abuse. He never informed this to Brian though.

"I didn't want him to feel guilty or bad", he had said.

How stupid.

Then he foolishly tried to talk with the very hospitable Mrs.Bats along with Stephanie only to get hit with a pan in the head and held as a prisoner for the past three days.

That's an example of plan gone wrong right there!

He was fed and watered all right but he still looked weak from all the blood loss and insufficient clean air.

When Stephanie opened her eyes she found Nathan's eyes piercing through her. He looked to be struggling with something. Like as if there was an inner conflict within his head whilst looking at her. She was suddenly glad at all those times when she changed in her bathroom. 

Nudity was something she was never keen to promote.

"So now where is he?", she asked him.

"Who?", he said clearly confused.

"Brian, duh!", she said, rolling her eyes. 

This guy is so slow.

"I'm sorry. He ain't here", he said looking down.

"What do you mean he isn't here? Then where'd he go?", she asked.

Once she got out of there, she was about to beat up that kid's ass.

"Brian's dead. He's gone", Nathan said gravely.

*****

I bet that's not what you were probably thinking of. It was supposed to Brian but I decided he was better off dead than alive. Sorry!