You curse as your for hits something.
"Are you ok?" John gasps at you nearby. Concern evident in his tone of voice. You and him were sent to investigate the mysterious noise coming from the basement, it was the sound of running water. When it first started, you all waved it off at the pumbling-however, it became evident something was wrong when the noises became unbearably loud.
"Yes. I am fine." You reach down to grasp whatever it is. Cold stone meets your fingers and you lift it up and examine it. John laughs.
"Man! This basement is falling apart!"
"Indeed." You toss the rock aside for now, in a corner where no on will trip on it as you just did. Jade and Dave had left to run errands. Now that the game was over you each had to support yourselves-all agreeing to live in John's old house.
"Drip drip drip."
Your thoughts are interrupted by the sound of water. So, there was a leak of sorts. John looks at you.
"Did you hear that?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I did." You both move toward the sound, walking over articles of John's past. A loose piece of sheet music here. A cake mixer there. You look up and sure enough there is a bent pipe. Hissing radiates from it and little drops of water drip from the area every so often. John sighs.
"Looks like we need to call a plumber." He says tiredly, rubbing the back of his neck. Money wasn't the biggest problem. Sure-they were kids and made minimum wage-but the house was paid off when they moved in. However, it was a bit irritating to see the looks people give you when they see 4 teenagers in one house.
"Hmm." You murmur in response. "Well let us go search for a decent one." You say this as you begin to make your way back upstairs. Suddenly everything goes black and you freeze, John lets out a little yelp in surprise.
"Aww geeze the water must have killed the lights down here, maybe it's leaking in other places." John complains into the air. He sounds rather frustrated-however you can barely concentrate on that with the terror slowly filling your head.
"Well, it looks like it's going to be a hard trip getting back, huh?"
You don't respond.
"...Rose?" Johns voice betrays the slightest bit off worry in his tone.
You attempt to make a calm, assuring sound to let him know you are there.
It comes out as a whimper.
"Rose!" John calls, obviously distressed now, feeling around for you. You cannot move. You are frozen. You feel John's warm hand grasp your arm and you jerk back to life, panicking. You quickly reach for him and pull him into you, clinging for dear life-like a drowning man.
"Rose? Are you ok?" He hesitantly hugs you back. You take in shaky breaths-you're hyperventilating. You can't speak, the dark threatens to choke you.
"Hey Rose, come on, what's the matter?! " Your silence is making him hysterical-he must think you've been stabbed or something of the sort. Sure enough, it seems his hands were checking your back for wounds-no. No they weren't. They were making soothing circles instead. You need to answer him.
"Dark." Was all you that you managed to choke out. So much for your reputation for having an advanced vocabulary. You sounded as grammatically advanced as a 5-year old.
"Oh. Oh man, Rose I forgot! I'm sorry here the lights probably just shorted out. Let me-" He moves to pull away and you almost shriek in terror. You grab his hand, panicking.
"...Rose...aw Man how am I gunna do this?" He sighs ,sits down and pulls you down with him. "Jade and Dave aren't gunna be here for a while...you're miss smarty-pants what should we do?" You remain mute. The water drips again and you flinch and grab his arm. You never were bothered by dark before, the game had left you all with some less than pleasant experiences. John now seemed to get nervous around tight spaces, Dave refused to do timed missions in video games and Jade felt the need to see the night sky of space at least once a day. You, however, were terrified of the dark.
Like a child.
"Ok here we go." John's voice brings you back to the present. He stands up and takes your hand and attempts to tug you along.
You're legs wont budge no matter how much you internally scream at yourself. John knew this-somehow and crouched down. "Get on" He said-almost in a light tone. He wants to give you a piggy back ride. John Egbert wants you to get on his pack and proceed to waddle out of the basement with you on his back. You think you almost heard him giggle. You would be furious and refuse to such a silly idea-If not for your slowly increasing hysteria. You wrap your hands around his neck and he stands up. It was an easy feat considering your heights-you at 5 foot and him at a solid 6 . He was an entire foot taller than you. Again, the endless darkness is there. Always staring. Always suffocating. You tighten your grip around his neck.
"Ack!" He chokes and stumbles backwards. "Rose...Rose! Yo-u're ...choking me!" He coughs out. You immediately loosen your grip and let out a breathy.
"Sorry."
"Nah-it's ok we're almost out of here." He laughs as he begins to attempt to feel his way around, this was not an easy task considering his hands were occupied with supporting you. You're embarrassed.
"Oh-hey! Look here we go!" John's foot hit the side of something that gave a hollow sound. The stairs. He began his ascend, huffing from keeping balance from the extra weight on his back. He eventually reached the top of the flight.
"Hey Rose? Can you turn the handle for me?" You shakily complied, grasping the handle and-almost desperately flinging the door open-soon light flooded were you stood. John blinked. You let out a shakey breath of relief and put your head on John's shoulder "Haha woah it's bright!" He stepped out of the basement and You slid off his back. John looked at you and frowned. "Hey...we're you crying?" You are about to tell him otherwise when you touch your face. It's wet. Oh. It appears you were. You clear your throat and casually wipe at your eyes.
"It is nothing. Thank you for doing that for me, John. I apologize for making you go through so much trouble." You calmly state as you use your sleeve to wipe the tears from you eyes. Well if he had any respect for you in a manner that you could handle yourself it was gone now.
"What? Oh no problem! Honestly it wasn't that big of a deal, remember that one time I was locked in that closet and I started flipping my shit? That was waaaayyyy worse." He laughed and you blink at him. You remember-you all were almost tempted to call the hospital when he lost the ability to breath correctly after Dave knocked down the door. John stands there and brings up a moment that was probably embarrassing with such ease. You wonder how he does it.
"Ah-well I suppose I shall go see if I can find a plumber." You turn on your heel and walk towards you room. You're almost positive you heard him giggle at your cold attitude as you left.