Chapter 14:

Before Jill fell asleep that night, she had found the notes within the brick walls, tweaking curiosity. Jill rubbed her fingers on the surface of the wall. Feeling stone and brick, and the thin layer of paper. With the edges of her fingernails, she pulled out the paper notes very softly, careful not to rip it or damage it. Dust fell from the edges, and it was in her hands.

It wasn't wrapped, but extremely stiff, stiff enough to slide into the brick walls. Jill dusted it off, and to her surprise, it was legible.

June 23rd

65 hours Into

I just want to say mom dad I love

you very much and I am so grateful

for all the things you did for me help

when I was growing up I know I

haven't talk to you guys that much

and I regret that more than anything

in the world I love you all so much

I love you help I love you someone's

Coming I don't know help I love you

please be happy when I am gone

Tommy I love you and I will always

be with you help and I am sorry for all

the things that I may have to upset

You - I didn't mean it please take

care of Emily because I know I'm

not coming back

Jill held the paper tighter. This was possibly moments before she died. The girl was dead.

She's been dead for a long time. Whoever wrote this didn't write down the date but June 23rd was months ago. Over 9 months ago. Or more. Even Jill didn't know what date it was.

After a few more minutes, she began to cry. The girls family had no idea that no idea that she wrote this. The girl would never see her family again, and she mentioned someone named Tommy and Emily.

It was the most tragic thing in the world. She cried and cried. It was a farewell death note.

How many girls have been down here? But she could not read anymore, the sunlight was gone. The note was crisp and old, being yellow and brown from being stored away in time.

There was no signature of the author, and the writing suggests it was written in panic or something. She tucked the note away under her mattress.

That Night:

Jill woke wide awake.

Her eyes slowly looked around, trying to adjust to the darkness. The light bulb was on, thank goodness, but she was cold. She didn't know why she woke in the middle of the night.

There was no nightmares.

The cold didn't wake her.

She had no idea.

Regretfully, she went back into he cage and under the warm blankets. But Jill was wide awake, she didn't even break a yawn. She was awake. It was one of those nights where you wake up for no apparent reason and just can't fall back asleep. In Jill's case, it was just awful.

But her kitten was still sleeping, the soft little thing.

Jill softly put it down and sat up. Stretching, feeling her knees pop at the muscle. Then came a soft ache from her thigh. Jill just sat there.

Thinking of what to do.

"I don't know where I am…" Jill started a conversation to herself.

This was another one of those moment where you start to talk to yourself, after insanity comes knocking at your door. In Jill's case, it was slipping through her door, slowly.

Her fear and madness was taking a huge toll.

"I don't know what to do…Mom. Dad."

Jill looked down at her kitten. Thinking about what a life its had. The thought hadn't occurred to her, but it caught her attention along with the feeling of complete sympathy for the thing.

"Has he been hurting you too?"

The little thing kept sleeping. She petted its head with her finger.

"How long have you been here, baby?"

Jill knelt down towards it.

"I don't even know what day it is…"

"Oh god…please let them be ok…"

"Mom and dad… Oh, god, please be ok."

"This is all fucked up…:"

"You know…it wasn't suppose to go this way."

"I was seeing a shrink, ya know. Money well spent. Yea right…"

"If it wasn't for that stupid babysitting job… I wouldn't be here…!"

"All because I went over on my minutes…! Talking to that jerk."

"Whose fault is this anyway? I can't be punished like this."

Jill leaned up from her position, away from the cat, holding her head together in fear she would ooze blood from her hair.

"I can't!"

"I won't!"

"There's no way in hell that I am going to die by that rat bastard!"

"You know what? You know what! I might hang myself…! I'll do it!"

"Don't think I won't! Because I'll do it!"

"Where's the wire! Where's the fucking wire!"

"Wish me luck…!"

"Good luck!"

"Tell mom and dad I love them!"

Jill screamed to herself, falling to the floor like a crumpled jacket. Feeling like a pathetic piece of shit.

"What the hell are you saying! Of course I won't do it. I want to live!"

"But you said you wanted to hang yourself…!"

"I want to make it to college. I want to own my own car. I want to go out on my own!"

"And what about mom and dad! When can I see them again?"

"You'll never see them again you stupid idiot! They're dead!"

"Don't say that! You don't know anything! You don't know shit!"

Jill felt like she just swallowed barbed wire.

"I just want to go home!"

There was no one in the room but her.

"I just want to go home! Please take me home! I'll be good I promise!"

"Oh god, somebody kill me already! I just want to go home!

No one's there.

"I just want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home!"

No one's there.

"Somebody heeeelp meeee! Heeeeelp! Heeeeelp!"

No one's there.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I just want to go home! I just want to go home!"

"Pleeeeeaase! Nooooo! I want to go home!"

No one was listening to her. Jill knew that the demons of vision and nightmare would come after her with a fury. Her conversation with herself had been her first, but not the last apparently.

She hated being this alone. Something snapped in her brain. Something cracked. Something was unhinged. Jill was going crazy, and this was only the beginning.

The pain was foggy now.

Jill sobbed, then soon her tears were dry and she was asleep. Exhausted from something else.

Stranger's POV:

His stomach burned, and he'll think more of her, thinking how he wanted to slowly kill her and bury himself inside her. Perhaps tomorrow he'll torture her. Resurrect her fears. Make a grand reputation of her in his own little way.

Put her name in the newspaper.

See her picture on the side of a milk carton.

Wrap her body in a trash bag.

Have her name in News Headlines.

In other words, she was a goddess.

A goddess who mostly wore jeans and a T-shirt, but nevertheless owed it to herself to be called a beauty.

That night he had a dream.

It was a rather warm night, as the stranger had woke up in his bed-or so he thought- with candlelight lit around the foot of the bed. Everything seemed to be alright in the room, all except the moon that glowed yellow, giving off a warmth that made him feel strange.

He laid there for awhile, enjoying the warmth of the moon and candlelight, but then suddenly became aware that the source of the warmth was much closer than the moon or candles than he thought. Turning his head around on the pillow, he turned his head towards Jill.

She laid there with a smile of pure joy and happiness, a face of an angel. She was really truly smiling. The only real smile he's seen. Ever.

Her hair had grown back, rippling over the pillow and sheets. For a moment, he was surprised by her sudden invasion into his bed, but nevertheless didn't complain or show any other evidence he was bothered by her being there.

She moved slowly in moonlight, cutting off the inches between them. Her lips met his once more, giving him a long and perfect blissful moment.

Another kiss! His hands came to her face, pulling her closer for a deeper taste, and she wrapped one leg around his waist. The sheets turned hot and cold. She wrapped the other leg around him.

But when he awoke from the dream, it was 1:30 in the morning, and there was no angel in his bed. She was gone. The room was entirely black.

Fuck.

The stranger wanted to hate her, but she was too beautiful to hate; but the force of his desire was equal with his desire to kill her. It was these fucking dreams that kept stopping him. Almost trapping him.

It seemed to grow cruder and uglier day by day, his desire to kill her, but could not bring himself to do it. Just like today, when his true intention was to strangle her with the wire he had in his box. That was the plan.

But when Jill came from the oval shower with her soaked hair and clothes dripping wet, turning towards him with fear of a victim and the tantalizing beauty of Venus emerging from water.

He surrendered.

However, when out of her room, the stranger found himself wrestling with an inner beast that coiled itself into a slasher, ready to spring and take blood. The attitude of being that beast made him feel like he had talons eager to rend and tear at the body of the young girl.

Only the terror of losing her restrained him, for he knew he would never play these kind of games ever again. For years, the stranger practiced and practiced his games on unlucky victims that came and went. And for years, he always won, but was always disappointed the games would end so soon.

He loved his games.

He loved them more than seeing Jill unhappy.

She was different from the rest.

The fear of losing her, for all the extremity of his torment, but soon he must go mad, or die.

Even at that very moment he wanted to take a knife and gash her. Put his hand over her mouth as she sleeps, then let his predatory instincts take over, not hearing a word more. Feel the pull of her milky skin against the knife, knock against bone, then tearing away at either gut or flesh.

But even one glimpse of her would be his undoing.

Nestling in his bed with thoughts of candles and moonlight. But across from that was the extreme torment of a sleepless night.

He tossed and turned, throwing off his blankets because it was too hot. The wrapping himself in his blankets because it was too cold. The moonlight bothered him, so he closed his curtains. Then he missed the beauty of the moonlight and opened the windows. The air was too hot so he opened his windows. The air was too much for him, so he closed his windows.

Through the next hours of the early morning, the stranger learned the meaning of anguish and desire. His face was numb and stiff with misery. He could scarcely speak, his appetite had vanished, his tongue sat in his mouth like some bloated alien substance, and yet the black gnawing hole in his chest of desire and lust made him…