FicWad

Chapter Thirty-Five

I felt the same uncontrollable fears that had plagued me upon entering the house take over me again as the basement was plunged into complete darkness. My hand gripped onto the material of the couch firmly while I tried to keep my breathing as quiet as possible -Gerard had sounded so serious when he ordered for us to be quiet. But it was getting more and more difficult to manage as, once again, I had absolutely no idea where anyone else was and I could feel the panic building. 'I don't know where anyone is apart from Bob' I thought suddenly, was he not asleep or at least in too much pain to walk, to move away from where he had been?

Thinking hard to remember the layout of the room, I gingerly started walking to where I thought Bob would be. Although, instead of manoeuvring my way around the small table Ray had been sitting at, I barged straight into it causing a loud screech to sound out bouncing off the brick walls. I winced and went to take another step, this time avoiding the table, when Gee whispered angrily through the gloom.

"Shut the fuck up Mikey!" -'how did he know it was me?' I thought immaturely for a moment but stopped as soon as I heard the loud footsteps echoing from above me. I stood still, my breath hitching in my throat with fright. It wasn't just a single pair of footsteps causing the dust from the underneath of the floorboards to fall over our heads, and I could hear murmured voices. Deep murmured voices, male voices.

"What's going on?" I whispered, just letting the words slip out without thinking.

"Shut the fuck up Mikey!" Gee repeated, his tone panicked because I could have given us away or something. He was neglecting to realise the hypocrisy in being annoyed at me for my noise making as I heard him creak up the basement stairs through the darkness.

"Where are you going Gerard?" I asked hopping from one foot to the other on the spot, contemplating whether or not to attempt walking over to where Gee sounded to be.

He didn't answer, but he didn't need to as I heard a soft creak and then a small line of light from upstairs filtered in as he opened the basement door. I took the opportunity that the small light threw at me -the fraction of light allowing me to see the floor surrounding me and ahead of me- and walked as quickly and as silently as possible towards where Gee was preparing to leave the basement, taking the steps two at a time.

"Mikey, no. Stay in the basement." He whispered, this time not angrily but pleadingly, it confused me a little, surprised?

"No, if you're going, I'm going." I said as silently as possible, staring intently into his eyes, inwardly cringing at how suddenly everyday my life seems to get more and more like a bad movie.

He sighed and looked as if he was about to argue but then changed his mind and nodded defeated, not looking at all happy about it.

"Why can't we just stay in the basement anyway?" I asked as he glanced out through the small gap of the opened door.

"If it's Marley and his lot, they can't find Bob, they mustn't find Bob. I'm gonna distract them if they try and get to the basement." he answered after a moment, still looking intently out through the gap in the door.

I was going to argue that if whoever was upstairs -I did think it was Marley and co. but then, everything had become so fucked up I wouldn't have been surprised to see Brian or my mom or someone equally as random up there, knew that Gerard was in the house then they would guess that Bob, along with the rest of us, would probably be there too. But I didn't have time to as, taking a deep calming breath, Gerard pulled the door open silently, just enough so that we could both squeeze out, and exited the basement stairway out onto the small corridor that I had been lead down in the darkness earlier. The path was now illuminated by the soft glow of a room at the end of the corridor.

Gerard began walking softly closer to the source of the light and I followed. He settled against the wall hidden from view by an unusually placed corner, he was hardly breathing and I noticed that his fingers were locked tight around the gun in his lightly trembling hands. His face was a picture of calm though, I started to wish I'd stayed in the basement. Gerard often used imagery such as guns and blades -instruments of death- and in interviews he could talk animatedly and excitedly about them, but I could tell he didn't feel at all excited or enthused standing there with the cool metal contrasting the dampness of his palms, I just knew his skin would be oozing with nervous sweat, even if his face showed nothing.

I fixed my thoughts back to the unusual design of the house as I listened to the soft noises of at least two people moving about in the room that was so close to Gee and myself. The house looked incredibly old-fashioned from the outside and the basement was a mess, but standing here, taking it in, the interior was fresh and modern although empty more-or-less. I was about to mentally ask myself something pointless when their voices started.

"We should shoot him when he comes back downstairs, it would be easy." Stan whispered, although it rang out into our hidden corner perfectly. Who was he talking about?

"No, we still need him." -There was a brief pause before Sally answered. Were they talking about Frank?

"Bullshit!" the other voice that I placed to be Richard's? argued, clearly angry.

"Richard, calm down! Soon..." Sally soothed in a promising way. Seriously, who were they talking about?

"But-" Stan began to speak again although stopped abruptly as soft thumping noises played through the house, signalling that someone was walking down the stairs. I heard a door creak open and then Marley's voice.

"I had to knock her out, she wouldn't shut up, stupid bitch!" he spat, breaking the new silence that had fallen between the group in the room. "She's in one of the spare rooms, wouldn't trust her with the gear, she'd piss in it or something, or kill herself...mind you, that wouldn't be a loss."

Gerard's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he struggled to follow the conversation, as was I, and he adjusted his hand on the gun causing a slight squeak to emit due to the moisture, I was hoping I only heard it because I was on edge and my ears were picking up anything, even the slightest noises.

There were a couple of coughs that sounded awkward from the room that Marley had entered which were followed by silence until I heard a question that I was dreading the answer to. "What about Frank?" Stan asked.

Marley sighed, "Do what you want, shoot him, fuck him, tie his hair up with ribbons, I don't give a damn!" he was being really short with them all. Wait a minute, Stan, Richard and Sally were talking about shooting someone after they came down the stairs. Could they have been talking about Marley?

"Why did you get me to take him then?" Sally asked, sounding as confused as I felt.

Again, Marley sighed, "I don't actually know," he laughed, he fucking laughed, "I just thought it might scare Mikey into handing over Bob, he seems pathetic enough for it to have worked."

I seem pathetic? I agree actually. I almost smiled through the darkness but instead watched Gerard curiously as he deepened his frown even more, straining his ears for this to make sense.

"Plus, you remember when we had Ray and he stole the car when we were at the gas station getting something to eat?" Marley laughed again, "I suppose I just wanted to teach little Frankie a lesson; no one steals from me. I just wanted to make him squirm a bit."

"Oh right..." Sally said slowly, as if testing the words. This was all so odd.

I jumped as a sharp clap sounded, the noise as two hands joined together, "Right," Marley started, "I'm gonna go check on the Blackhill orders" his footsteps sounded as he started to walk away.

"But what about Frank?" Stan asked again and Marley stopped.

"Do you what you want to!" Marley snapped back, annoyed at having to repeat himself before his footsteps started again and then faded.

"Fuck I hate that man!" Stan resounded and I heard a chair scrape back before another set of footsteps started.

"Where are you going?" Sally asked, not sounding too curious.

"Well if I can't put a bullet in Marley yet, I'll have to make do with what I can get, and we've got a hostage goin' a beggin'" his shoes clicked against the floor again, getting more distant.

I moved to turn my head to look at Gee in horror but as I did so, an excruciatingly loud clang erupted from the floor and I looked down at the ground to where Gerard had dropped the heavy metal of the gun. More chairs scraped and I could almost feel the panic frothing from my lips as I glanced around frantically looking for somewhere to hide. Even with the odd layout of the corridor, they would find us for sure.

"What the..."

-Gerard slid down the wall, pale faced, as the voices got closer. Before I could grasp the reality of what I was doing, I lunged forward and grabbed the discarded gun in my hands and ran, leaving Gerard behind.

I couldn't breathe or hear anything as I finally stopped running after what seemed like a decade and collapsed into a door which fell open. I scrambled to my feet and closed it, creating a wooden barrier that hopefully they wouldn't find me behind. My eyes hurt and my legs felt weak, I just let them move me backwards, stumbling on the ground but still desperately silent.

My ankles hit something solid and I fell completely over it. Groaning only a little, I pulled myself round and rested my hands on the object. My skin felt more skin as my mind slowly pieced together that I had fallen over a body. Frank's body. And the skin was slippery, it felt wet.

It was cold.

Woo! Finally, a chapter! I'm proud of myself even though I know there's tons of mistakes because I'm too tired to proof. Also, I'm getting a bit hazy about all the details, I think maybe I've put too many twists in. Woops!

The explanation about Frank stealing Marley's car when they were getting something to eat, in case it wasn't clear enough, is referring to the time when they kidnapped Ray and then miraculously Frank appeared [it was an attempt at an explanation anyway-lol]...not sure how frank got to the gas station though, but I'll try and work it out.

Sorry it took so long and sucked....I hated writing this chapter!

And again, thank you so much to everyone that is kind and helps me, it means a hell of a lot!