As the time passes, it becomes apparent that no one is likely to help us. I glance over to Alodia, sleeping in the corner of the room on an old mattress. I sigh heavily. Even Kara can't open the door without the key, so there's nothing she can do to help us. In the dim light created by the dusty lightbulb hanging ominously from the ceiling, I can just about see my surroundings, and occasionally I see things that aren't there.
It started in the classroom when Watari came to speak to me and A. When I saw my father, but he wasn't there. No one else could see him. A couple of hours after we'd been down here, both searching around for any means of escape, we gave up and collapsed to the floor. As I stood and pulled out the mattress for Alodia, I thought I saw a figure standing to my side, with black hair and a face identically to my own, but holding a metallic, glinting object. When I turned to see, he was gone, so I shook it off as just a trick of the light. But as time went on, more and more strange figures that Alodia didn't see once appeared and disappeared.
As I sit in silence, staring off at the far wall, I hear Alodia stir and wake up. She stands up and walks over to me, shaking me out of my stupor.
"What's wrong?" she asks innocently. Im not sure she has fully grasped the seriousness of our situation yet. I don't know what to say to her anymore.
"Nothing Lo. It's okay. Im sure the police will find us soon." I try to make myself sound confident but I don't think it worked. I stand up and give her a reassuring smile, walking over to a door in the opposite corner from the mattress. What our father failed to remember when he planned to let us die down here is that our basement has a small bathroom from which we can get water, and we can survive for a while without food.
I splash water onto my face and look at my image in the mirror. My face is sunken and my eyes rimmed with black from not sleeping. My hair is sticking up in every direction and my crimson eyes look slightly duller than usual. Then, abruptly, the light around me flickers, making me ump. Why am I so jumpy? It's not like me at all. I raise my hand out in front of me and realise that it's shaking uncontrollably. I clutch my wrist with the other hand and hold it to my chest. The lights shuddered again and I caught a glance to the mirror again. I breathe in quickly in surprise as I see a figure in the mirror. He is the same height as me with the same hair. But his clothes are smeared in blood. In one hands he holds a knife, also dripping in blood. He smiles at me widely. I turn around, but he isn't there. Instead, there is a body lying on the floor. I jump back in shock. I recognise the boy lying dead on the floor with blood seeping through his white shirt, tears on his pale face, his white hair plastered to his cheeks.
"C…Coby?" I choke. He is the kind boy with the bruised face in my class. Why would he be here? Why is he dead? As I look at the body, I see the same figure as before looming over it on the other side. He looks at me again and smiles. Then he speaks. His voice like mine but laced with hatred and evil.
"Killing is fun B. You should kill someone." I fall over backwards in fear. This seems to amuse the figure.
"W...Who are you?" I stutter. The boy walks over to me and crouches beside me.
"Im you. Im what you are going to be someday soon. I guarantee it. But don't listen to me, im not real, and your sister will worry." I look at him in confusion, but before I can say anything else, he stands upright and his face begins to become disfigured, distorted in terrifying and demonic ways. I find myself screaming and looking away, my hands pulling at my hair and my forehead resting on the ground.
It's not long before Alodia comes in and shakes me by the shoulders, trying to calm me down.
"Calm down B? What's wrong?" she asks quickly, terror infused into her voice. It brings me back to my senses.
"You… Didn't see any of that?" I reply quietly. She shakes her head.
"No. What are you on about?" I recall what just happened to her. Her brown eyes widen in surprise.
"It's okay B. You wouldn't kill anyone. It's just sleep deprivation. You'll be fine." She wraps her arms around me and I tremble as I return the gesture.
"I hope you're right…"I whisper, unconvinced that sleep deprivation can cause such vivid hallucinations after just two days. Guilt and sadness consumes me as I recall that Alodia is wrong. I killed someone four years ago. But she was only a baby, she couldn't know that. I won't allow her to know that. She would never look at me the same way again…
As three more days pass by with no hope of rescue, we come to the conclusion that the police think we are elsewhere, so they aren't looking here. Alodia is asleep again on the mattress, but I can't sleep. I sit with my knees to my chest, my eyes twitching and my nails digging into my knees. I am the very image of insanity now. All I need is a strait jacket.
Kara phases through the door, back into the room to give me an update of what's going on with my father.
"He's been arrested and convicted of the murder, but the police believe that you and your sister ran away, the only ones who don't believe that are Watari and A. They're still looking for you." She reports monotonously. I look at Alodia sadly.
"Kara, if they take much longer, I might have to kill her." I state, earning a very surprised reaction from Kara.
"What? Why would you do that?!" she asks, shocked. I grimace at her tone that's making me feel awful for even considering it.
"Because I would rather she dies quickly than go mad or starve to death before someone thinks to check down here. Look at her lifespan." I reply sadly. Kara looks over to Alodia's small curled up form.
"A week." She breathes out morosely.
"Yes, but I think that's only if we don't escape. If we find a way out, she probably won't die." Kara looks at me with slight confusion on her face.
"You seem very calm about the fact our sister may die. It's a little odd." I shrug my shoulders.
"I hate to say it, but I've been considering this for a while and I'd rather she dies than live on the maximum time she can in misery. There's nothing else I can do at this point." Kara considers this.
"I know what I can do to help. Don't do anything until I get back." Kara orders, leaving before I can say anything, and im left to my own thoughts again…