Chapter Ten: Sanctuary in the Madness

Blood.

There was so much of it on her hands as she stared at them in shock, unable to believe what had happened just minutes ago as they were leaving the garage. She tried wiping it from her hands, but only succeeded in staining her clothes with the copious amount of liquid, tears trailing down her cheeks and onto her hands to mix with it. The rain had washed most of it away, but once they had gotten inside the house, more of it had oozed from the wound and down her arm.

Her first priority had been to get them somewhere safe, somewhere where she could look at the wound in Lotte's shoulder without having to worry with they were being followed by Mary. There was a room off the hallway that they were walking down, it looked like it had once been a guest room. She walked Lotte over and helped her down onto the bed, going back to the door to lock it and then pushed the nightstand next to the bed in front of it.

Lying on the bed, Lotte whimpered in pain as she resisted the urge to reach up and touch the wound on her arm. Blood had already begun to ooze down her arm and onto the bed, staining the silk white sheets a dark shade of red. Jennifer sat down in front of Lotte, not sure of what she should be doing as she watched the young girl writhe in pain. She felt like she should be tending to the wound, but didn't know what to do, she had no idea how to stop the bleeding.

The bullet had gone all the way through, which she was thankful for, as she didn't like the idea of having to remove a bullet from her friends shoulder. Helping to remove her jacket and shirt, Jennifer carefully examined the wound and decided that she was going to need to find something to keep it from becoming infected.

Walking into the bathroom, Jennifer quickly began to dig through the cabinet for anything that she could use to help with Lotte's wound. Opening the medicine cabinet, her eyes lit up as she pulled out the bottle of peroxide and the gauze pad. Closing her eyes, she breathed a sigh of relief as she cradled the objects in her hands. Jennifer had been so scared when she'd heard Lotte cry out, knowing that the bullet had hit her and that she would possibly be losing another friend, she didn't know if she would be able to handle any more deaths.

Not Lotte, I won't let you take her...

Going to work on her friend, she poured some of the peroxide onto a piece of clothe she had torn from the bed sheets and gingerly placed it against the bullet wound. Crying out, Lotte shoved her away and howled in pain as she punched the pillow while cursing under her breath. Jennifer didn't say a word as she stood up, knowing that the peroxide must have caused her a lot of pain and eventually was able to apply more to Lotte's wound before applying the gauze to keep pressure. Tearing up some of the sheets, she wrapped them around her mid-section and shoulder, fastening it tightly to help keep pressure on the gauze.

For a moment, she listened to her friends panted breathing, trying to think of what they were going to do now. Their plans of getting away from the Barrows' Mansion was now out of the question, Lotte was in no condition to be moved and the storm was still raging outside. They were going to have to stay here for the night, hope nothing happened to them and then try to sneak out as soon as the weather was clear enough for them too.

Standing up, Jennifer walked over to the only window in the room and stared out into the raging storm. It was completely pitch black outside, making her feel like they were in one of those horror movies that Ms. Taylor would let them watch, only this wasn't a movie, it was real life. Backing away and turning to face Lotte, she found that the girl had fallen asleep and was breathing lightly.

Deciding that it was best if Lotte got some rest, Jennifer walked into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. Looking herself over, she took note of the blood that had stained her clothes and how it was in her hair as well. It looked as if she was going to have to take a shower to get all the blood out of her hair, her shirt was ruined beyond repair, so she was probably going to have to see if there were some clothes in the closet in the bedroom that she could use. Right now, she would settle for anything other than blood soaked clothing.

Taking off her clothes, she stood nude in front of the mirror and looked over her body. There was a slight purplish bruise around the middle of her back at the bottom, likely from the fall she'd taken earlier before waking up in the prison. Other small bruises littered her entire body, from her arms, to her legs and even her torso. Her body ached, if it weren't for how badly she felt she needed to bathe, Jennifer was sure that she would have collapsed right next to Lotte on the bed.

A stream of hot water flowered from the shower head above, steam quickly filling the shower in a matter of minutes as Jennifer adjusted the temperature. She never thought that she could have ever enjoyed the feeling of hot water on her skin like she did at this moment, knowing that it could very well be her last if things went sour for her. For what felt like an hour, she just stood beneath the stream of water and then picked up the bar of soap to scrub down her body as tenderly as she possibly could. It did pain her when she moved the soap across the bruises (which was quite a lot) and tears threatened to come forward.

When she was done, Jennifer found a towel to dry herself off with and then walked back into the bedroom. She had decided to check the closet for a shirt that she could wear, hoping that the previous guest had left something behind that would fit her petite size. Throwing open the doors, Jennifer glanced over the few articles of clothing that remained and settled on a black long sleeve shirt that was at the end of the line. Quickly putting back on both her bra and panties, she pulled on her pants and then the tight long sleeve shirt.

"This will have to do for now," She whispered, figuring that it was best not to complain, it was better than wearing a sweater covered in blood after all.

Leaving the bathroom, she walked across the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed next to Lotte. Checking on the bandage, it relieved her to find that it didn't need to be changed and probably wouldn't for a while. Jennifer gently placed a finger on the sleeping girls waist, her finger trailing softly long her denim jeans in thought. She had never really paid this much attention to Lotte until now and found that she was quite remarkable, an athletic body and slight curves in just the right places. It made her a bit envious of the other girl, but all childish thoughts aside, Jennifer did have to say that she admired her.

Turning her gaze to the wall next to the bed, Jennifer noticed that there was something very odd about the way the wall looked, appearing as if someone had disturbed it. The wallpaper which covered the walls was slightly peeled away, suspiciously looking as if maybe there had once been a door there. Deciding to have a look, Jennifer walked over to where the wallpaper was peeling at and ran a hand over it, jumping back in mild shock when her fingers went right through it.

What the hell?!...

Tearing back the wallpaper, she was shocked to find that there was a hole in the wall big enough for a grown man to walk through. It looked like it was a crawlspace, like the ones that an electrician would use in order to get to any wires that were in the wall. With how old the mansion was, it wouldn't surprise Jennifer if it was some secret passage that would take her deep underground.

Looking back at Lotte, she decided that while the girl rested, she would walk the length of the crawlspace to see where it led to. Who knows, maybe it would take her to a heli-pad and they could fly out of here. Unable to help herself, Jennifer let out a soft laugh at the humorous attempt to put her mind at ease. It was worth a try at least. Maybe it would in fact take her somewhere where they could get back outside and into town.

With a sign, Jennifer squeezed herself into the tight fit hole and began to maneuver forward at a slow pace. The inside of the walls were coated in dust and dirt, and was covered with a thick layer of cobwebs. Electrical wires ran several feet in front of her and turned, disappearing around the corner and leading to what she assumed were the outlets of the other rooms. It was almost impossible for her to see anything, if not for the luminescence from the natural light filtering in through the cracks in the wall, which luckily for her made it just visible enough for her to see ahead.

As she progressed further, she began to notice something strange. With each step she took, the air began to grow colder and thinner, almost as if she were standing beneath something that was causing something weird with the air. She figured that maybe it was the old water main or something like that, it would be best if she just continued on and see where the end lead out at.

Up ahead, the crawlspace made a turn to the right, a tight fit even for someone as skinny as her. Squeezing herself as tightly to the wall as she could, Jennifer began to move forward but suddenly stopped when she felt something pulling on her shirt, followed by a sharp prick on her right arm. Her shirt had got caught on a nail and the end of it had pricked her skin, tearing away a part of the sleeve. Freeing her shirt from the nail, she continued forward until she saw the cramped confinements open up into a bigger space.

Once she was through, Jennifer looked up to see a small hatch just a few feet above her head. It reminded her of one of those old bunker hatch's she'd read about once from World War II, making her wonder why exactly this was even here unless this was suppose to be some sort of hiding place. All of this actually reminded her a lot of the Civil War and the stories about the Underground Rail Road, of how people in the south would hide slaves inside secret passages as they were smuggling them towards freedom in the north.

Placing her hands on the rung, she ascended the short ladder and pushed up on the hatch, rust drifting down onto her as it slowly opened up. Poking her head out, Jennifer looked around for a brief moment before climbing through, immediately looking around for any type of switch to flip that would turn on the lights in the room. She didn't like standing here in the dark, it made her feel vulnerable. Se fumbled along the wall for a light switch and found one, and the room blinked into view as a line of yellow bulbs came on.

Looking around the room, Jennifer found that she was indeed in some kind of shelter room. Against the walls were cabinets stacked with boxes covered in rust and dirt, and the ceiling was covered cobwebs. Several wooden pillars were built into the dirt wall, protecting the foundation of the room and preventing any sort of collapse should there be something like an earthquake.

There were no other doors in the small little shelter room, crushing any hopes that Jennifer might have of it being a passage to safety. It looked like she was going to have to turn back, perhaps she would look through some more of the furniture and see if she had overlooked anything.

Turning around to walk back towards the hatch, Jennifer stopped as something caught her attention out of the corner of her eyes. Sitting on one of the shelves was a notebook, it reminded her of the diary she had been keeping for the last two years. It was worn, the leather bound cover cracking and covered in a thick layer of dust. Picking up the notebook, Jennifer flipped through some of the pages, finding many of them to be illegible. However, there was one page at the end that she could read.

January, 1996.

Today, I visited the Barrows' again at their manor outside of town.

It was very frightening, I honestly believe that there is something going on at that manor and that it may be supernatural in origin. There's no point in trying to discuss any of this with Mary, I can only assume that she is somehow involved and I would only be endangering myself by revealing that I know what is going on.

For a month now, I've been considering going to the police about all of this. The disappearances are starting to weight on me and I can no longer stand idly by while people are being murdered, even if I do love Mary, she has to be stopped. By now, I'm sure Simon knows of her affair with me, but he has yet to say anything. At this point in the marriage, I believe he doesn't really care about infidelity, he's probably just happy to not be paying any divorce fees.

There's also the matter of what I witnessed through the window the other night as I was leaving after a check up with Mary, it frightens me just to think about it.

While I was preparing to leave, I heard this strange guttural noise coming from behind the door next to the room I had stayed overnight in. Curious of what it could be, I approached the door and began to open it. Only to be met with a fierce slam from the other side, there was definitely something in the room and panicking, I gathered up my belongings in such a haste I'd left behind one of my folders. I refuse to go back, my notes are not worth risking my life over.

The rest of the note was missing, someone had obviously torn it off, not wanting the reader to know who it was.

Tucking the notebook under one of her arms, Jennifer turned around and returned to the bedroom to find that Lotte had woken up.

"You're awake." Jennifer smiled, walking around the side of the bed and sitting down next to her friend.

"Yeah," Lotte whispered, raising a hand to touch her shoulder and immediately retched over, her wound throbbing painfully from the simplest of touch. "Damn, god it hurts."

"I did the best I could, it wasn't much, but I was able to stop the bleeding."

There was a moment of silence between the two girls, neither one sure of what to say. Both were lucky just to be alive at this point, that much could not be said for Anne and they hadn't seen or heard from Laura for two hours. Jennifer supposed though that it was best to stay optimistic, even if her hopes of ever escaping this place was dwindling with each passing moment.

For the moment, Jennifer was resigned to making sure that the bandages on Lotte's arm's were okay and not soaked through with blood. She laid back, the back of her hand placed against her forehead and stared up at the ceiling.

"So... what now?" Lotte asked. To be honest, Jennifer had no clue what to do. She was unsure, just trying to make it by, and then, whatever happened, she would have to deal with it.

"I don't know, to be honest, I have no idea what to do."

That truly was the million dollar question, wasn't it?

What were they going to do next?

Jennifer still had yet to come up with a solution for this, more concerned with making sure that Lotte was taken care of and that they were safe in their little sanctuary. There had yet to be any noise from the other side of the door, which meant that they were still safe for some time. She had no idea what they were going to do if they were ever discovered, there was no exit through the secret passage and they couldn't fight off someone who had a gun.

"I'm cold." Lotte whispered, using the single blanket left to wrap herself up with.

"I-I know," She replied, sliding closer to Lotte.

She had heard once on TV, that in a situation where there was a decline in heat, that two people could press their bodies together tightly and it would help to generate heat. It would help them survive longer, and maybe even give a bigger sense of safety. Although she couldn't explain it, Jennifer felt a lot safer when in such close proximity of Lotte, like nothing would happen to her as long as they were together.

"You're shivering, come on, get up under here." Lotte whispered, unwrapping some of the blanket from around herself and ushered for Jennifer to move closer, which she did. "There, that's much better. Right?"

Jennifer nodded.

"Yes."

Looking at Lotte, she couldn't help but feel some kind of strange feeling come over her as the other girl returned the same look. Jennifer couldn't explain it, perhaps it was just that she was glad to no longer be alone. For a while, she had thought that Lotte was going to die, so she could only conclude that this feeling of longing was an extension of dreading to be alone in this place. She found it to be something rather common in most situations like this, so it was no surprise that—

—Lotte's warm lips were suddenly pressed to hers. A flood of emotions flowed through her, not sure what to think of it all, to lost in what was taking place. After a moment, the two separated, and she looked away, not sure what to think of what had just happened.

She'd never been kissed by another girl before, so Jennifer wasn't sure exactly what to think of it. Truth be told, it left her feeling more confused than anything else. She had no idea behind the reasoning of Lotte's sudden affection, knowing only that it was unexpected and that now was not the time for something like that.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have..." Lotte trailed off, turning away, embarrassed by what she had done.

"No, it's okay." She assured her, not really knowing what to say. "It's just that, well, now's not really the appropriate time. And, I'm not even sure if I'm.. ya' know.. into girls. Besides, I think we have more important things to worry about right now."

"You're right."

Knowing that she could have possibly just hurt the feelings of the only other person left alive that she could trust right now, she just pulled her legs up to her chest and laid her head down on one of the pillows. She was just so confused, not knowing what to do with all of this. Outside, the storm was still going steady, blocking out any and all noise that might warn them of any sort of approaching danger.

Lying there in bed, Jennifer never truly realized how tired she was until now, feeling fatigued from everything that she had done. Slowly, her eyelids began to grow heavy and she could feel herself slowly slipping into a hazed sense of sleep. Shaking her head, she tried her best to fight it, not wanting to sleep right now in case something were to happen.

...

Suddenly, a loud slamming noise erupted throughout the room, forcing Jennifer to bolt straight up and hastily look around. Turning her head, she saw that there was no one in the room. The source of the noise was the window next to the bed. Somehow it had been pulled open, the shutters on the outside dancing wildly in the rapid wind, slamming against the wall several more times.

Getting up, Jennifer walked over to where the window was at and pulled it down. Making sure it was locked, she was about to return to bed, when she noticed something. Lotte was no longer lying on the bed anymore, in fact, she wasn't even in the room at all.

How had she not noticed this?

Looking at the door to the room, her eyes grew wide as she saw that the door was now hanging open. What she had used to block the door was lying on its side, haphazardly strewn around as if someone had kicked the door in. A sudden feeling of dread wound its way into her, her stomach knotting up as she cautiously looked around while moving towards the open door.

"L-Lotte?" She stuttered, fearing the worst for the other girl. "Are you there?

It didn't make any sense.

Why would she leave the room?

Had Mary found them?

As much as she would like to think that nothing had happened, it still left the big question of why Lotte had suddenly disappeared in the short time that Jennifer had fallen asleep. The girl had a bullet wound in her shoulder for christ sake! It wasn't like she could have gotten up on her own and moved all of this stuff on her own, it would be impossible to do so.

Standing at the entrance to the room, she couldn't help but feel a sense of self preservation, to forget about Lotte and get the hell out of here now that it was just her. But, she couldn't. Jennifer cared to much about her to just leave her to an unknown fate, not in a place like this. If things had been reversed, she knew or rather hoped, that Lotte would do the same for her.

Determined, she left the confines of the sanctuary to search for Lotte.