Chapter Eight
After dinner, David lets us have 15 minutes of time to ourselves before he puts us in the cellar. I go back to the game room to get the book Ben gave me and just have time to myself. I decide to go to YouTube to watch the videos the guy put on there. I quickly go to the computer on the desk and log into the guest account. I click open Chrome and go to . I type in the search bar for "BEN Drowned' and the videos I'm looking for immediately comes up. I watch them and a chill runs up my spine. Watching those videos just made me even more curious. I want to talk to Ben again, but how? Then I remember that sometimes, Ben communicated to the gamer through cleverbot. I go to quickly. I type in 'Are you here?'. Cleverbot then responds 'No, I do not own a car'. I sigh. Just the robot.
I try a few more times, to no avail. As I'm about to log off, I wonder if I could get unto Facebook and tell someone where I am. I try to go to Facebook, but the browser just keeps telling me an error message. I also try Google+, Tumblr, and Instagram, but the same thing happens.
David must have rigged it, I think. Seeing nothing else I could try to do, I log off and leave the game room with Ben's book. As I'm walking down the hallway, I meet Chloe, who was in the courtyard.
"Have you been in there yet?" Chloe asks me. I shake my head.
"You should. It's beautiful in there." I nod in agreement. We walk in silence until we meet David in the main room. He leads us to the cellar, and we are again thrown in the dark room. Marsa and Ethan join us after about half an hour. Tonight, we talk about ourselves as a person. Our likes and dislikes, our favorite color, etc.
"So," I say slowly, "Have you guys still been able to keep up with what's happening outside here?"
"Somewhat." Ethan replies.
"David only really tells us about the really important stuff, like school shootings and who's president and stuff like that. We're pretty outdated in our music taste though."
"Hey, so are we!" Chloe says. I nod.
"Yeah. Chloe listens to 'classic' rock, like Bon Jovi and AC/DC, and I'm still living in 2005." It's really true. I guess I could be current, since my favorite band is My Chemical Romance, but I try not to think of their current actions. I'm still so torn up from that. Why would they break up? I don't think I will ever fully recover.
"Well, did anything exciting happen recently?" Marsa asks.
"Only the heart wrenching news that My Chemical Romance is breaking up a few months ago." I say disgruntled.
"What?! Why?! I love My Chemical Romance!" Marsa exclaims.
"Really? That's awesome! What's your favorite band?" I ask.
"Panic! At The Disco, of course."
"I love Panic! At The Disco! They're my third favorite band!"
"What?! Who beat out my sweet Brendon Urie?"
"My Chemical Romance and Pierce The Veil."
"I love Pierce The Veil!" This goes on for a while until we get tired and go to bed. As I'm falling asleep, I make a mental list.
Good things that's happened since I got taken:
I'm not stuck with some prissy teenager who listens to pop all of the time.
And that's basically where my list ends.
A month passes, and almost nothing changes. Everyday, I wake up, go to meals, and then go off to do my own thing. I occasionally watch TV with Chloe, but other than that, I tend to ignore everyone.
Ben doesn't talk to me once during that month. I try to talk to him on cleverbot, but he never responds. I do, however, see Ben a lot. For some reason, he likes to appear to me at random times. When I'm walking in the library, when I'm outside in the courtyard, when I'm talking to someone. Sometimes, I'll see him when I wake up from a nightmare at night. He will just be sitting a few feet away from me, as if he's been staring at me for hours. But a few seconds after I've seen him, he always flickers and then disappears. I've taught myself how not to be surprised when I see him, so when I'm talking to David and I see Ben, I won't gasp and cause David to be suspicious. One day, though, I couldn't take it anymore.
After lunch, I walk to the library, as Ben seems to be in there the most. Why, I don't know. Almost immediately, I see him on the second floor, and practically run up the stairs. I know he'd probably be in the horror section, so I walk to the first horror book shelf and start searching the section for any trace of Ben.
As I turn the corner, I see him sitting on the ground in the middle of the 2 book shelves. His back is turned, and he doesn't seem to notice me, so I quietly walk up behind him to see what he's doing. I notice that instead of the usual long green shirt and tights, today he just has on a green hoodie and dark green pants.
Once I'm right behind Ben, I can see that he's playing on a 3DS XL, which is green and black, with golden buttons. It looks like he's playing Pokemon, in a similar style to X and Y. He has just gotten into a battle with another trainer. He only has one pokemon, a level 40 Ninetales, and the other trainer has two level 60 Gyradoses. He was obviously going to lose, since Ninetales is a fire type, and Gyrados is a water type, and water types are super effective against fire types. Even if Ben did manage to defeat the first Gyrados, there was no way he could live long enough to defeat the second one, especially since they were a higher level than his Ninetales.
I silently chuckle at the irony. The great BEN Drowned, beaten in a video game? Wait until the internet hears about this! I think, amused.
I thought too soon.
Ben ordered Ninetales to use Death Slash, a move I've never heard of before. The Ninetales quickly runs at the Gyrados, and stabs it in the stomach. Blood pours out of the Gyrados's stomach as it collapses, but doesn't disappear. Then a text box appears.
Gyrados was killed! Continue? Yes/No
Ben presses yes and the next Gyrados appears. But the body of the first Gyados is still on the ground, so the second Gyrados just stands beside it. Ben tells Ninetales to use Death Slash again, but this time, the Gyrados goes first. It uses Hydro Pump, which is extremely powerful, but it does Ninetales no damage. What is going on? I think. None of this should be possible. It's wrong.
And then it got worse.
Now it's Ninetales's turn, but instead of stabbing the Gyrados, this time Ninetales slits its throat. Blood oozes from the Gyrados's neck, and it collapses next to the first one. Another text box appears, with the same message as before.
Gyrados was killed! Continue? Yes/No
Ben again presses yes as I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. The other trainer has no more pokemon. What's going to fight him? But my stomach drops when I realize who will.
Instead of another pokemon coming out, the trainer does. As he stands in front of the bodies of the Gyradoses, I notice he's a fisherman. The trainer uses a move called beg, which is again, not familiar.
'Please spare me Ben!' The fisherman begs. I think I can actually see tears in his eyes.
'I'll do anything! Take my money, my clothes, anything! Just please spare me!' I feel a pang of sympathy for the fisherman, but quickly return back to watching the game.
Ninetales uses Death Slash, and this time, the trainer is decapitated. Another text box comes up.
Fisherman Andrew was killed! Received $10,000.
I stare at the fisherman. His body is still standing, and blood is pouring down his neck. But the worst part is his head. His head is on the ground, frozen in a silent scream. The actuality of what I just watched finally hit me, and I inhale sharply, causing Ben to turn around. He closes the 3DS and stands up quickly, scrutinizing me with his stare.
"How much of that did you see?" Ben asks me. I stare at him in shock. This is the second time he's ever talked to me. His voice is smooth but quiet.
"Uh, the entire battle. That's all." I say, afraid of how he will react.
"And?" Ben asks.
"And what?!" I answer.
"And what did you think?" Wow. That was definitely not what I expected him to say.
"It was….. Different." I finally reply.
"I applaud the creator for their creativity. Was this a hack, or an entirely fan made game?"
"I created the whole thing myself." Ben answers proudly.
"Then wow. The graphics were awesome! It was so realistic and cool. It felt like I was actually there at the battle. But…." Ben raises his eyebrow.
"If all pokemon games were like this, I don't think they could call it a kid's game anymore." Ben laughs darkly and shakes his head.
"They probably couldn't." We stare at each other awkwardly until Ben breaks the silence.
"I have to go now, so… Bye." Ben starts to walk down the aisle, and after a moment I run after him. Right before he turns the corner, I reach out and grab his wrist.
"Wait." I say. Ben stops but doesn't turn around. I swallow my fear and doubt and speak.
"I know who you are." I say. Ben turns his head slightly to look at me right in the eyes.
"I know." He answers. And then he slips out of my reach and slips around the corner. I just stand there thinking about what just happened. And then I walk down the stairs and out of the library. It isn't until much later I realize, that while I was holding Ben's wrist, he didn't flicker like he usually does. Not even once.
I walk into the movie room dazedly to see Chloe watching Doctor Who. I sit down next to her and she notices me.
"Hey." Chloe says, only half paying attention.
"Hi." I reply. After a few minutes of watching 'The Christmas Invasion Part Two', Chloe finally pauses the show and turns to me. She sees my dazed look and raises her eyebrow.
"Are you alright?" Chloe asks.
"I'm fine." I reply.
"Come on, it's time for dinner." Chloe sighs and nods. She turns off the TV and we head to the dining room.
No one really talks during dinner. I notice that David keeps giving me these strange looks, as if I'm an alien from outer space. After dinner is over, I head to the cellar with Chloe, but David stops me.
"Juliette, may I have a word with you privately?" David asks me. I glance at Chloe nervously before responding.
"Um….. Sure. I'll meet up with you later, Chloe." I give Chloe a reassuring smile and let David lead me up the spiral staircase.
I frown slightly. If I remember correctly, the only rooms up here are the bedrooms and the torture room at the end of the hallway. Is David going to give me my own bedroom now? No, if he was, then he would've brought Chloe up too. I swallow down the lump in my throat of the only other alternatives to why we were up here.
We finally make it to the second floor and walk all the way to the end of the hall. David takes out a ring of keys and unlocks the door on the back wall. He ushers me inside, closing and locking the door behind him. The room is pitch black, and David doesn't turn on any lights, so I just stand still, afraid of running into something.
"Juliette, Juliette, Juliette. What am I going to do with you, love?" David sings, sending shivers down my spine.
"Why do you always ignore me? You never talk to me unless absolutely necessary. You tend to always leave meals as soon as possible. In fact, you seem to be avoiding me. Why?" David turns on a light, which is very faint and can barely illuminating anything. I don't have to see much, though.
Directly below the light is a table filled with knives, hammers, needles, and a number of other indescribable torture devices. As I stare at the table, David walks in front of me, waiting for an answer.
"I-I'm just trying to get acclimated to the new environment." I stutter nervously.
"Hm." David says, unsatisfied.
"You know what I think?" He says quietly, picking up a small knife.
"I think you don't like me. I think you think that I took you from a great life. You had everything going for you, didn't you? You were going to go to college and graduate in a year or so and move on with your life. Get your dream job, make lots of money. Perhaps meet a guy, get married, have kids." David stops briefly, stepping closer to me so our bodies are touching slightly.
"But that's not how life works, is it? You have all of these great expectations for life. You think it will be easy and simple, but then you actually get there and you fall. Let me tell you right now, Love, real life sucks. It's all just a huge game of who will survive and who won't. But you don't understand that. I saved you from that life, Juliette. Why can't you see that?" David leans closer and whispers in my ear.
"I didn't take you from a good life. I gave you one."
David pushes me and I fall unto the cold hard ground. David takes my feet and drags me across the floor, while I'm kicking and screaming. David picks me up and sets me on a metal table. He straps my arms, legs, and waist down on the table so I can't get away from the pain that is bound to happen.
David lifts up my shirt just high enough to expose my stomach. He smiles at me weakly and says something I will never forget.
"I'm doing this for us, Juliette. You'll understand eventually." Then he takes the knife and presses it unto my skin lightly, progressively digging it slightly deeper every few seconds. Eventually, he gets tired of doing this and moves the knife, cutting patterns into my stomach. Finally I can't take it anymore, and I groan in agony. David smirks as he finishes carving into my skin. I finally glance down at my stomach and all I can see is blood.
David then does something unexpected. He takes what I'm assuming is antiseptic and cleans my wound. Then he wraps it up gently and takes me down stairs. He goes into the cellar and gently sets me down on a pile of hay. He leaves, but not before looking back at me one more time before closing the cellar door. I look around and see that Chloe, Marsa, and Ethan are already fast asleep.
As I'm laying in the hay, trying to fall asleep, I begin to understand David's intentions. He wants me to feel grateful that instead of letting me bleed to death, he cleans and dresses them. He wants me to forget all the pain that he caused me and just remember the relief he gave me.
But there are several problems with this plan. Number one: I live for the pain. I think I deserve to be tortured, beaten, and hurt. So David dressing my wounds instead of letting me suffer makes me annoyed, not thankful. Number two: David may have relieved the pain somewhat, but he's also the one who caused it. You can't remember who relieved you of the pain without thinking of who caused it in the first place. And number three: I'm just too clever to fall for it. I'm not some blonde that will fall for every trick in the book. David will have to come up with something better if he wants to fool me.
But that makes me wonder. If David has been stalking me since I was ten, why doesn't he know I self harm? I'll have to find out how he doesn't know tomorrow. But how?
I slowly drift off to sleep with many things swirling in my head. The episode with David, how I'm going to find out how he doesn't know I self harm, what exactly he carved into my skin. But the one thing dominating my brain is Ben. How do I feel about Ben? And right before I fall asleep, I realize.
I'm friends with BEN Drowned.
