Chapter Seven
I wake up to water being thrown on my face. I immediately jump up in alarm and see David standing over me with an empty bucket in his hands.
"Rise and shine, Love." David says roughly.
"Go and get a shower, you need one. I left some clothes for you in the bathroom down the hall." I groan.
"Is everyone else up?" I ask.
"Yes. Now hurry up." David leaves and I stand up groggily. I walk up the cellar steps and down the hallway before turning around.
"Where is everyone?" I ask.
"They're in the dining room waiting for you. Now go on."
I sigh and walk into the bathroom. I close the door behind me and lock it. I don't want anyone coming in, especially David, with what I'm about to do. I strip down and step into the hot water, relishing the slight burning sensation I get for a few seconds. Having the urge to cut myself, I look around for something sharp. You know, people who have never self-harmed don't realize how addictive it is. It's like a drug. You try it out of curiosity, or desperation, and then you get hooked and can't stop.
I couldn't see anything sharp at first. Right as I was about to just use my finger nails, I see something shining in the corner of my eye. I glance over to the corner of the shower and see a small pin. I don't know how it got I here, but it'll do. I grab the pin and put it next to my left arm. I push down on it, causing it to draw a single drop of blood. I move the pin across my arm, blood slowly coming out. I relish the sting of the scar against the hot water, before moving to make another cut.
Just as I'm about to press the pin down again, there's a knock on the door.
"Juliette, hurry up." It's David.
"Okay, I'll be out in a second." I respond. I finish with the rest of my shower, still longing for the pin against my skin. I get out of the shower and flush the pin down the toilette, so no one will find it. Then I change into the clothes David set out for me, a long sleeved Panic! At The Disco shirt and a pair of black shorts. I wasn't surprising this outfit was my style, since David has been stalking me since I was 10. That would be bad if he hadn't picked up on my style, since it's been 7 years. I quickly comb out my golden brown hair and walk out of the door. As I'm walking to the dining room, I notice Marsa nearby, and decide to talk to her.
"Hey Marsa. How are you?" I ask.
"David has requested you meet him for breakfast, miss. May I assist you to the dining room?" I look at Marsa strangely. Why is she talking to me so formally? Marsa nods her head slightly to the corner of the room, then covers it up by scratching her neck. I glance over quickly and see a security camera on the ceiling. Oh, She's worried about being recorded, I think. Of course.
"Uh, no thanks, I'm good." I answer.
"But thanks anyway." Marsa nods and walks away.
I walk to the dining room and see David and Chloe already there. David smiles at me as I sit down in the same chair as last night.
"Good morning, Love. How are you feeling?" David asks cheerfully.
"I'm feeling fine, thank you." I answer politely.
"So, Chloe, why don't you tell Juliette what I just told you?" Chloe immediately stiffens and gives me a look of sorrow. She tells me what David meant when Marsa and Ethan were giving us our breakfast.
"David was just telling me about all of his, uh, 'instruments'. He has a lot of 'instruments' that he can only use when we disobey. I'll save you all of the details, but David said he's been itching to try them out. Isn't that lovely, Juliette?" I gulp. David's threatening us to behave. Probably because of the scene on the stairs yesterday. I really don't think things through, do I?
"That's lovely." I say carefully.
"But let's hope we don't see those 'instruments' anytime soon. We wouldn't want to disturb the neighbors." David just laughs darkly and smirks.
"We'll see."
After breakfast, David tells Chloe and I to follow him. We walk down the long hallway, and I start to get nervous. Where is David taking us? Did my comment about the 'instruments' set him off? I hope Chloe doesn't get hurt because of me.
David stops at a pair of 2 large oak doors and opens them.
"Welcome to my library!"
Do you know that scene in Beauty and the Beast where the Beast shows Belle his library? David's library was about that size. And, let me tell you, Chloe and I were way happier than Belle when she saw it.
"Oh. My. Gods." Chloe says amazed.
"I don't think I could've said it better, Chloe." I say softly. In front of us, is a huge library. There are rows upon rows upon rows of books. As far as the eye can see, there are book shelves filled with all kinds of books. To the left, is a large staircase that leads to the second floor, that you can see some on the bottom floor.
I blink a few times, making sure I'm not imagining things. If you haven't noticed yet, Chloe and I love to read. That's all we seem to do in our free time. That and write. We were both writing books before David took us, and I highly doubt he'll let us keep writing them and putting them on the internet. Which is a shame, since our books were pretty popular, and I left on a cliffhanger. I mean, I didn't mean to. You see, I was typing up one chapter, where at the end of it, the main character falls off a cliff, surely to die. In the next chapter, he sprouts wings and flies away, and I was going to type that chapter right after the last one, but then I got sidetracked and didn't get to it. And, of course, that was just a couple of days before David took us. Stupid bad timing. Ugh.
"Most of them are fiction books." David says proudly.
"I know how much you love fiction books." I involuntarily shiver at his comment. David sows us the biggest library in the world, and then has to spoil it by going all stalker on me.
"It's amazing." I finally say. I walk over to the nearest book shelf and run my hands over the back of the books. I walk through half of the first floor in total harmony, and then decide to go unto the second floor. As I walk back to the staircase, I pass Chloe, who seems to be looking at The Lord Of The Rings, so I don't bother her.
I walk up the stairs to the second floor and go to the balcony overlooking the first floor. I see Chloe walking around the fantasy section, probably looking for Harry Potter, and David near the entrance staring at me. I look away from David and walk further into the forest of book shelves until I can't feel David's eyes burning a hole in my head anymore.
I look around and see I'm near the sci-fi section. As I'm looking for something interesting to read, I feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist.
"David," I say annoyed, "I'm just looking for a book. I'm not doing anything."
"I'm not David." A voice whispers in my ear, making shivers run down my spine. I immediately turn around, and come face to face with thin air. I look around and spot the top of a green hat go around the corner. I run after him, only for him to disappear around another corner. I turn the corner and see nothing. I do, however see that I'm in the horror section. Then I feel a hand go over my mouth and he whispers in my ear again.
"Boo."
I turn around and see him. He's in between the two book shelves just staring at me. It's the guy from the forest.
He looks the same, still green shirt thing and white tights. His blonde hair and pointy green hat just sum up the whole Link look. But now, I can see his eyes. His eyes are just black pits with a red dot in the middle. It looks kind of cool and scary at the same time.
For a few moments, we just stare at each other. I notice that every 30 seconds or so, his image would flicker, as if he were a glitch.
"Who are you?" I ask, breaking the silence. He just smirks and takes a book off of the shelf. He looks at it for a second, and then suddenly throws it at me. I catch the book and turn it around.
"Popular Urban Legends and Creepypastas." I read aloud. I furrow my eyes in confusion.
"But what does this have to do with anythi-" I look up and he's gone. Just then, I hear David yell.
"Juliette, we have to go now. We can come back later. Take out a book if you want to. Come along, Love." I quickly go downstairs with the book 'Link' gave me. As I'm walking towards David, he notices the book I'm carrying.
"Huh. I didn't know you read horror books." David says, raising his eyebrow.
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me." I answer. David's eyes darken.
"Indeed." We walk back to the dining room for an early lunch, and then go our separate ways. I go to the game room and start playing Super Smash Bros Brawl. I can't concentrate on the game, though. All I can think about is that Link guy. Why does he keep showing up? How did he get in here? What was up with his yes? And, why did he give me that book? I subconsciously start using Link for all of the challenges and stuff. Eventually, I just ditch the game and sit on the couch thinking.
Maybe he's just a roleplayer that got lost, and he likes scary stories. No, that doesn't make sense. How could he get in here?
I look at the book Link gave me. He had to give it to me for a reason. I open it up and look at the index. I find the video game section and start to read. The guy is dressed like a video game character, after all. It only makes sense.
I read about Lavender Town Syndrome and Creepy Black. I read about the Minecraft character Herobrine and Luna game. I read about Slender, Lost Silver, and Strangled Red. But none of them had anything to do with Legend of Zelda. Kind of annoyed at the amount of time I just wasted, I flip to the last story in the section: BEN Drowned.
I read the story, growing more and more sure it's my guy. BEN Drowned is about this guy who buys a bootleg version of Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask at a garage sale. The game is extremely different than it's supposed to be, though, and a bunch of creepy stuff keeps happening to his character. Link, played by the guy who bought the game, keeps getting stalked by this creepy statue, and the save file names keep changing. Then the guy talks to the man who he bought the game from, and he says that he got it from one of his neighbors that moved away because of some tragic accident. The guy even got footage of him playing the game and put it on youtube.
I have no doubt in my mind that that this is the guy I'm seeing. And I'm assuming his name is Ben. But it can't be. Ben Drowned is a fictional story, made only to entertain the reader. And even if it was real, it was probably just a glitch or hack. How could it come out of the game?
I close the book and stand up. I walk out of the game room, leaving the book behind, and walk to the dining room. I keep telling myself that it's not true, that I'm just imagining things. That I'm just sleep deprived and delusional and want to cling on to the hope that someone knows that I'm here. That this whole thing will blow over soon.
Or will it?
