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Ellie lurched up in her room from a sudden commotion taking place just outside her room, something akin to a yell. She pressed her ear against the door to listen and, within just a few seconds, heard a few dull thuds and then, unmistakably, her name being yelled.
"Riley!" She yelled in return and started banging against the door.
She yelped and jumped back out of surprise when the door suddenly rattled from something hitting it from the other side. After it went quiet again she nervously put her ear back against the door and listened to a couple of voices seemingly arguing at each other. One was neutral and quiet, the other louder and more aggressive. They grew quieter the longer she listened before eventually disappearing altogether.
She stepped back and stared in confusion at the door. Her daze was broken when she heard the familiar knocking sounds coming from the back of the room, though noticeably fainter than usual. She exhaled as though she had been holding her breath the entire time, sat down against the wall, and knocked back.
An hour passed by and the rise of energy within her from the turmoil just outside her door was wearing off. She took a few of the many cardboard boxes around the room and crumpled them until they were suitable as a head rest. She put it next to the wall and rested until the late hour finally caught up to her.
Her situation was similar to Riley's, the room contained some random food items and was also lacking water. Dented up cans of canned food lay strewn about one side of the room due to the numerous bashes as attempts to get them open. The only food she managed to easily obtain were raw potatoes and some random jars of jelly and pasta sauce. Most of her time was spent lying on her back with her head on her box pillow and staring at the ceiling. She had no energy, walking back and forth or even just standing up took too much effort.
Another day had seemingly passed that was filled with inactivity and intermittent knocking. The time assumable by her additional tiredness that was unrelated to the physical weariness that she now felt constantly. The knocking that kept her sane had stopped earlier, presumably, hopefully, due to the other participant having fallen asleep. So when a foreign sound filled the room it shot a sense of panic through her.
She slowly climbed to her feet and braced herself against the back wall, preparing for the unknown. The door groaned as it swiveled open and soon, in its gap, the face of her nightmares materialized. It gradually entered in through the doorway, seemingly cautiously, and stopped itself just under the solitary light bulb. A second figure appeared behind him but remained half-hidden in the shadows of the basement.
David held a clipboard in his left hand and a pen in his right, his characteristic grin missing. "Hello, Ellie."
Her breathing had hastened substantially simply from his presence. She stared at him wordlessly through the loose strands of hair that obscured her face.
"You're probably wondering why you're in here."
"Fuck you."
He shrugged the insult off with an unsettling chuckle. "Anger is such an ugly emotion, don't you think, Ellie? It's so… raw and unfiltered. You know it caused even God himself to drown the human race."
"Didn't peg you for the religious type."
"I enjoy the stories." The missing smile found its way to his face. "Speaking of which, I'd love to hear yours. I can't help but think it would be a most enlightening one."
"I'm not telling you shit." Her voice was faint yet forceful.
"I figured as much. Perhaps I should go have a… conversation with Riley? I'm sure she'll be happy to talk." He turned around and started to walk before being stopped.
"Wait! Don't…" She reached out with her hand but quickly clenched it closed and put it back at her side. "Don't. I'll talk."
"Hit a bit of a sore spot, did I? Regardless, I'm glad you've made the decision to be cooperative." He took a few steps towards her which caused her to press against the wall even harder. "Now, just a single question if you don't mind. Why are you here?"
She snarled through her teeth. "'Cause you locked me in here."
"Don't be stubborn with me, Ellie. You're smarter than that." He exhaled in frustration. "Last time. Why are you here?"
Complying with David was the last thing she wanted to do, but if there was a chance, even the most minor of ones that could help her and Riley, she'd take it.
"Fine. You want to know? We're here to find proof."
His smile disappeared and his eyes narrowed. "Proof of what?"
She looked at him as though the answer to his question was obvious. "For what? Look at where we are, what you're doing! We know what we saw in the basement that night. You killed Tino and we're here to find something that would prove it."
He looked around the room for a moment as per her command and then settled in on her eyes. "Interesting."
"…what?"
"Are you thirsty?" Ellie's face couldn't settle on an emotion from the sudden disparate question. "Looks like you are."
"Yeah. And I'd like some actual food too. Not the shit I've been eating in here."
He scribbled something onto his paper. "I wasn't offering." He turned around and walked passed James and out into the blackness, but not before whispering something into his ear.
Panic set in as James left his post at the door and started walking lazily towards her.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
He ignored her and reached over to her right and pulled out the stool from the corner, its legs grinding against the floor as he slid it toward the center. He grabbed her by the shoulders and forcibly dropped her into the stool which grinded backwards from the impact. He kept one hand on her to stop her struggling and reached behind himself with the other to produce a few segments of cord.
"Let me go!" She thrashed at him with what energy she had left.
"Stop struggling or I will hurt you."
Though simple, his words sent a shiver down her spine. Not only because of their intention, but because of their sincerity. With no choice in the matter she listened. He fastened her wrists and ankles to the arms and legs of the stool and left the room.
As the door slammed closed the hopelessness of the situation set it. Her eyes began to dart around, their focus on nothing in particular, and immediately welled up with tears. Her breathing shortened and with each wriggle of an arm or leg the compressing grip of claustrophobia grew exponentially. The more she fought to free herself, the more she panicked. And the more she panicked, the more she fought to free herself. Soon everything built to a point that proved too much. The buildup of tears broke free and streamed freely down her cheeks as she dropped her head and sobbed until her chest hurt.
Just a few feet away, on the other side of the wall, Riley had made a makeshift pillow similar to the one Ellie had fashioned out of cardboard. She pressed it against the wall and lay staring at the increasingly aggravating light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Her vision was half-blurred from her now swollen right eye due to the impact against the door. It stung, but it was a dull ache that was constantly overshadowed by the pain she felt in her stomach and more so the dryness in her throat.
Another exceedingly long day had passed and she noticed her heart beating quicker than usual, even at a rest. But given her circumstances she wasn't surprised.
By the time the door rattled again from its latched being unhinged from the outside she had no desire, nor capability, to even stand. She simply leaned herself up into a seating position and watched the door.
In her exhaustion she couldn't help but to find the scene playing out in front of her as darkly comical. James swiveled the door open and slowly entered the room first with a knife stretched outwards. When he spotted her still sitting he dropped his arm back to his side and grumbled something to the dark. He shifted to the side, allowing David to wander his way in with a clipboard in hand and a pen in his shirt pocket.
"Didn't want to come in first this time, David?"
He stared down at the bruised up girl for a second before smiling back. "Yes, I'll admit that was rather… unexpected."
"How'd it feel?" Her smile vanished and a scowl took its place. "Did your face burn? Couldn't breathe? I hope it felt like death."
He quickly wrote something on his pad. "Quite aggressive I see."
"No fucking food or water will do that to a person."
"Indeed." After clearing his throat he continued. "So, Riley, shall we try this again? Perhaps in a less violent manner?"
She silently glared with a burning expression of hatred that she had for the man looking down at her.
"I can understand why you're probably not happy to see me. But, have you never considered my side of the story?"
"No." Her voice lowered into a growl.
"I let you back into the orphanage, fed you, sheltered you. And what do you do? Immediately you're sneaking around my building. Again." He nodded towards the other man still standing in front of the open door. "James here heard you two several nights ago in the kitchen. Since then I've had him watch you, night and day."
"So you starve two girls for sneaking around? What kind of psychopath are you?"
His voice quieted, uncharacteristic of the enthusiastic man, and stared her straight in the eyes. "The experimenting kind."
A feeling of horror overtook her and left her almost breathless. She had been scared for the past several days, but this was the first she's felt actual fear.
"…why?"
His voice raised again and his appearance returned to normal, as if nothing had happened. "You yourself asked me what I have a Ph.D. in. I told you long ago that it was in education. But, since it doesn't matter now, it's in biological chemistry. I document how people react to certain chemicals."
"By injecting them and then watching them die."
"It is an unfortunate conclusion, I will confess. But it is for the benefit of everyone."
"Killing orphans is somehow benefiting everyone?"
"Exactly! Now you're getting it. The data I collect will be invaluable in our understanding of a toxin's effect on a body while accounting for various factors. In this case, dehydration."
"You're insane. You're literally insane."
He ignored her comment and continued. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a question."
The question surprised her and her tone reflected that. "Fuck you."
He smiled at the sudden insult. "Yes, quite thought-provoking words. Ellie said the same thing."
Riley's fear quickly converted into anger at the mere mention of her name. "You better not have fucking touched her."
"Ah now, Riley, I don't think you're exactly in a position to be telling me what I can and can't do. But, since I'm feeling rather generous, I will tell you that your little girlfriend is just fine… well, comparable to you at least." He exhaled sharply as he grew impatient. "So, why are you here, Riley?"
She lowered her brow in confusion as she considered his words. "That's your question? Why the hell does that matter?"
"It matters. Now please answer it."
"You know why we're here."
He exhaled through his nose as he had done before. "Both of you are so stubborn, refusing to answer even the most basic of questions. I'd like to say that I admire your… tenacity, but to be honest, I find it aggravating." He lifted his head slightly but continued staring down at her. "I'm giving you a chance to live just a little bit longer by answering a simple question, Riley. But, if you'd prefer, as it seems you do, I'd be willing to end this all right now."
He walked next to James and reached outside the door before returning to Riley with a small wooden box in his hand. He opened it and carefully lifted out a small glass syringe which he slowly lowered to her face to observe.
"Tetrodotoxin. Nasty stuff really. Just half a milligram will do." His gaze shifted from the tube back down to Riley. "So… you were saying?"
She stared intently at the clear liquid floating inside the tube, her mind unable to perceive the serious shift in perspective. She slowly nodded her head out of fear and broke her stubbornness.
"…we wanted to get rid of you."
He smiled and pulled the syringe back to his side. "There we go. And how were you going to do that?"
Her eyes were narrowed and her eyebrows lowered. "Initially to get evidence of what you're doing, but now I wouldn't mind just killing you instead."
"Excellent." He again scribbled down on his clipboard. "We'll be back shortly."
She lowered herself back to the ground again and put her head on the box as the door slammed shut. She closed her eyes and placed a hand against her head to try and calm her nerves and relieve the throbbing headache that has been steadily worsening during her incarceration.
It wasn't long before David's words rang true and the handle on the outside of the door began to grind.
With little energy left, she simply sighed at the noise and kept her head on the ground. She opened her eyes when a shadow settled over her eyelids to see one of the figures hovering over her. His head blocked out the light hanging above him which caused a blackness to be cast over his features and made him seem like a mile tall shadow.
"Answer me something." She spoke out to delay the inevitable as long as possible.
The shadow twitched its head slightly away from the light to reveal a clearly strained smile. "Why would I do that?"
"I answered your question, you can at least do the same."
He paused for a moment before straightening his posture again. "I suppose I should extend the same courtesy shouldn't I? Very well, what is it?"
"Tell me what happened to Tino and Sam."
"Tino and Sam… Tino and Sam…" He appeared lost for a second but his eyes lit up soon after. "Your friends, the two boys, right?" He chuckled. "There have been so many through here, I almost forgot them. Sorry to say, but they were nothing special. A couple of routine tests."
"…so they're dead."
"The tests were successful, yes."
"You talk about them as if they weren't people."
"I'm well aware they were, but you become… desensitized to such things after the amount of time that I've been doing this." He cleared his throat and focused in again on Riley. "Anything else?"
"Last one. Do you always talk to your experiments this much?"
"I do not. Then again most tests are done within a day, not over the span of five. Besides, I have a special interest in you and Ellie."
"Yeah?"
"Quite. Now, I'm done wasting time. James, if you wouldn't mind."
James appeared from behind David and took his place standing over her. "Get up."
"No."
The man sighed in annoyance and pulled her up by her arm, slid over the poorly hidden stool, and tried to push her onto it. Before she hit the seat she managed to shoot out her leg into his knee as hard as she could, causing him to stumble backwards and growl with pain.
Riley stood slouched over and panting as she stared down the man who was glaring back at her. He looked infuriated and ready to retaliate but was stopped before he could act by David's interjection.
"I'm surprised you have any fight left in you, Riley. Ellie gave in pretty easily in comparison."
Her heart sank once again and she could feel her face warming quickly with rage.
"Why bother resisting, Riley? You'll just die tired."
She stood staring at him as intimidatingly as she could. "Because I won't give in to you… I can't."
He remained completely silent for a few moments. "Fine. I'll just deal with you after I'm done with Ellie." Riley instantly looked at him in horror while he looked over at the other man. "Watch the door." James obeyed and stepped between Riley and the door as David slipped past and back out into the blackness.
Terror took over her entirety. "Don't you fucking go near her!" She glanced at the man blocking her and then out past him again. "David!"
Her heart began racing and her breathing became heavy as she shuffled left and right unsure of what to do, of what she could do. Without thinking she did the first thing that came to mind and charged at James and shouldered him in the chest. Though being weak and half his size, she barely managed to shake him. He took a step back to stabilize himself and shoved back with the same energy which sent her backwards onto the ground.
What would otherwise be a simple task, she struggled to get to her feet. "Move!" She screamed as loud as her throat would allow.
She scanned the room intensely as she completed each lap of her rapid pacing. After a few more circles around the room a glint off some metal hit her eye. She glanced over and spotted the padlock still sitting on the shelf to her right. She tried to hide her intention and slowly sidestepped to the right and rested a hand on the edge of the shelf. Each second that passed waiting for the right moment was complete agony.
"Get away from me!"
All of the air was pulled from Riley's lungs when she heard Ellie's voice cry out from the other room. Her body started trembling even harder but maintained focus just long enough to notice James had turned his head toward the sudden outburst.
She quickly palmed the lock in her hand and bolted at him for a second time. He quickly returned his focus back onto her when he noticed a figure closing in out of the corner of his eye, but not quickly enough.
She landed the side of the lock solidly against the side of his head, causing him to lose strength and bend at the knees. He tried to look back at her, but the surprise of the situation and the sharp pain in his head slowed his movement.
She swung again and hit him in the same spot which instantly opened a large cut near his left eye and caused him to fall the rest of the way onto his knees. She didn't hesitate upon seeing the small stream of blood and kept hitting the same spot as hard and as often as her strength and speed would allow.
After numerous hits she paused for a second and noticed that the lock, her hand, and the entire side of his face was stained a dark red color. She was breathing heavily from exhaustion as she stood over and watched him slowly squirm below her on the floor. Her adrenaline forced another swing out of her, silencing the groaning noises with finality.
She stared at the unmoving body in a daze but was suddenly torn out of it by the now continuous screaming coming from just a few feet away. Her eyes were drawn to his belt when she saw a black handle sticking up from behind it. She reached down and slid out the knife before sprinting out the door and taking an immediate hard right into the other.
As she entered she saw David with his back to the door and his heavy black shadow saturating the floor. She took no time to think before jumping onto his back and hooking her left arm around his neck to keep from being thrown off. The sudden added weight caused him to groan and fall backwards into the wall nearest the door, Riley taking the brunt of the impact. The air was knocked out of her but she managed to hold on and began to wildly plunge the knife into every part of David's chest she could make contact with.
David jerked around violently and yelled out each time the knife connected with its target over and over. Riley couldn't stop herself even when the two of them became a pile of red on the floor in the corner of the room.
Her energy eventually depleted and left her panting heavily beneath a writhing groaning body that was sputtering out noises of incoherence. She slowly wriggled out from under him and rested on her knees before staring at the aftermath of her rampage.
He was breathing slowly, though the blood pooling in his mouth and dripping down his chin made even that near impossible. He watched her out of the corner of his eyes before showing his blood stained teeth in a contrived effort to smirk. With no reluctance she lunged the knife several more times into his chest, just to the right of dead center, until his head rolled to its final position.
She pulled out the knife for the last time before slowly turning around to see Ellie watching her wide-eyed with her mouth agape. Anger and adrenaline were controlling her which left her disoriented and unable to recognize the girl staring back at her.
"Riley! …Riley, it's me. It's Ellie."
Riley kept staring until Ellie's voice slowly managed to penetrate her frenzied state just enough to pull her to back to lucidness. She immediately bent down at the restraints and cut through each of them while Ellie pulled each arm and leg free as the ropes lost their strengths.
She jumped up and wrapped her arms around Riley and pulled her in as tightly as she could, uncaring that she was covered in blood. Riley tensed up from the sudden contact but eased into it and soon let loose the pent up emotions from their ordeal. They both stood in the middle of the room in a heavy embrace as they sobbed into each other's necks. Ellie eventually loosened her grip and wiped away some of her tears.
They gazed at each other through blurred visions when finally Riley smiled and managed a word through her broken voice.
"Hey."
Ellie almost started crying again as she returned the smile. "Hey."
They laughed out of nerves and overwhelming relief before settling again into another emotional hug.
After a minute Ellie broke it off and looked into Riley's eyes intently, though her expression had shifted slightly.
Riley wiped her eyes and looked back with a nervous smile. "What?" When she didn't get a response her tone dropped and her smile disappeared. "What is it?"
Ellie steadfastly kept her gaze onto Riley as she sighed. She reached over with her left hand and slid up her right sleeve, revealing a small red dot on her arm.