Daniel POV

After listening to the tape, we all immediately started searching the room, seeing as at the moment there was no way out and into the rest of the "house" as the tape said. Well, most of us were searching. The blonde girl, who seemed to still be traumatized into a daze by seeing someone shot in the head, just sat in the corner, slightly shaking.

One of the other guys didn't search either; a thin bald man in a hoodie just stood there watching the rest of us. He was freaking me out I bit, to be honest. There was just something about him that unnerved me.

After a while of constantly coming into contact with the dead body in the room, I decided to cover his head and the giant bloody hole there. I couldn't stand seeing that anymore.

After searching the room for a while, we were all startled by a loud sound. Slowly, the door started to creak open. One of the guys went over to check the door while I went to the blonde in the corner to help her up.


As soon as we got out of the room, the arguing began. A guy with what looked like a prison tattoo on his arm (and definitely a "macho man" complex) decided he wanted to go off on his own to find an antidote for himself.

Even so, we all eventually followed in his direction, checking things here and there as we went along.

We came to another room with a door with a giant EXIT painted on it. The key that came with the tape recorder didn't work on that door either, making Mr. Man toss the key in frustration. The black guy, who seemed to be the kind of person who always strives to be a peacemaker, picked up the key and put it in his pocket.

The one with the prison tattoo decided to try to bust down the door with the baseball bat, with nails sticking out of it, he had found. I merely sat on the old rickety steps and waited, flinching with each blow.

Surprise, surprise...There was a steel wall behind the door. Wonderful. More arguing ensued and I just sat and watched, feeling the same nervous tension I used to feel when my dad was in one of his rages and I could hear him screaming at my mom from my room down the hall.

Amanda and the blonde woman came into the room, Amanda startling all of us by turning on the lights. It's funny that when you're in such a dire situation, you don't even think about such commonsense things as there being light switches in a house.

Apparently they hadn't found anything either. The man who had tried to be a peacemaker before, whose name was apparently Jonas, was trying to find some sort of connection between all of us. Three of them, it turned out, had been to jail or prison. It was just when this conclusion was made that the blonde one exclaimed that she had found a door in the wall.


We all went through, one by one, down a flight of stairs to what I guessed was a basement of sorts. There looked to be another dead body, this one in a chair, hunched over a desk. I was about to start panicking again. Just then, I found the light switch this time, and turned it on right when the head of the body was pulled up. It turned out to just be a large doll; a doll with a creepy-ass face, but a doll nonetheless. Stabbed through its clothing was an envelope with OBI written on it. Apparently that was the name of the until that moment silent bald guy who had been creeping me out this whole time. Inside the envelope was another tape.

Apparently he had helped whoever was doing this kidnap the rest of us. I knew there was something...off...about him. The girl with the long brown hair broke up another potential fight by reminding us of what the tape had said. There were two antidotes in the back of the oven in the middle of the room. I voiced my questioning thoughts about who would get the two antidotes.

Just as the guy with the prison tattoo was telling me we'd work it out after we'd gotten them out of the oven, the blonde girl collapsed to the floor. I saw Amanda go over to her to comfort her. I had to admire her for that. So far I'd seen the guy with the tattoo out for himself and Jonas, who tried to keep everyone calm and level-headed, but this was the first time I'd seen any of the others try to help each other, and it was Amanda doing it. None of the others even paid much attention to the collapsed girl in the corner. I internally smiled a little. I was starting like this Amanda girl that much more.

Obi crawled into the oven to retrieve the needles under the condition that he get one of them. As he was pulling the second of the two down, the door to the oven closed and locked and a fire started inside. My eyes grew to about the size of saucers. We tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge. I went around to the back of the oven and saw a window. The guy with the nail-bat busted the window and Obi, covered in burns, slowly began to crawl out, screaming in agony. It had been no use, though. He died before he could get all the way out, the half of his body that had gotten out of the oven falling over limply.

While we were trying to get him out, all of the girls were in different parts of the room, crying. We were all visibly upset by seeing this guy burned alive, except the guy with the tattoo; he was just pissed the needles had melted in the oven. I couldn't believe someone could be so heartless.

I heard Amanda grab something and head back up the stairs, saying along the lines of "He had a choice." I wasn't sure what she meant by that. I helped the blonde woman up and we followed Amanda up the stairs.

As soon as got into the room, the blonde collapsed in the corner. I couldn't bear to see someone like this. I went over to her and tried to get her to focus. She placed her hand on mine and started talking about how much she had left to do in life. I lifted my head and looked at her. Seeing someone so weak and yet wanting so much to live, to maybe change things she'd done, revitalized me. I decided then and there that I would do whatever it took to get myself and whoever I could out of here...alive.

TBC


I know I've only gotten one review, but I've been seeing that more and more people are reading this story and I just want to thank you guys so much. The fact that anyone is reading anything I write is amazing to me and makes my day. Really. The next update should be coming soon.