It may seem acceptable for a child to be afraid of things such as the dark or monsters. But to him….to him it was unacceptable. He would not tolerate a child who refused to sleep because of something that tormented her.
“Monsters…" He scoffed, grabbing ahold of the girl’s arm rather tight and practically dragging her through the house. "I’ll show you that the only goddamned monster you need to be afraid of..”
Lunar gave small whimpers of pain as tears welled up in her eyes, struggling to keep up with the man as she was taken upstairs and over to her room. He dragged her to her closet and opened it, throwing her inside.
“Is me.”
The door was closed and the sound of a lock clicking could be heard, silently telling her that she was stuck in the darkness of her closet until either he decided to let her out. Or until her mother had realized she was missing.
As she listened to the footsteps of the man leaving, she backed herself up into the corner of the small room, curling up and beginning to cry.
Black Bird //Because I'm writing a bunch for Silvius and you want more
yaaaay we can sob together!
Run, run away, keep moving, don’t ever, ever look back.
Lunar’s chest burned as she struggled to breathe, running as fast as her small legs could carry her through the darkened forest. Her eyes were wide with fear as she heard the loud snaps of twigs and rustle of leaves behind her.
He was still chasing her, intending to harm her. Just like he had to her mother, who tried her best to keep the child safe until even her body reached its limit. There was no one left to keep her safe from him and she couldn’t defend herself. He was too strong.
The poor girl tried to lose him in the shadows, taking as many dark paths as she could. But one had almost been a fatal mistake, as it lead to a steep hill. She couldn’t see it and couldn’t stop in time because of it. And so she fell, descending down into unknown territory.
I had no idea of what this was going to be when I started writing, and it just turned out to be this...
‘Sharon? … Sharon?’ The voice sounded scared.
Her back hurt. Her head hurt. She was cold. She was thirsty. The room smelled weird.
Slowly Sharon opened her eyes. The room was dark, but the small light bulb above the door allowed her to see enough. There was someone sitting next to her, someone who let out a relieved breath when she softly groaned.
‘Oh thank god, you’re awake…’
Sharon had to blink a few times before her eyes were able to form a good image. Her mind was still waking up as she looked at the person next to her, immediately recognizing the hazel eyes.
‘Charlotte? What are you doing here?’
‘I don’t know… You were the first person I recognized so I came to you…’ The young girl’s voice broke.
Slowly Sharon sat up, only now noticing the dirty mattress she was lying on. She carefully wrapped her arms around the girl that had always been like a little sister to her as Charlotte lost the fight against her tears. She was terrified and shaking with fear. Sharon let her eyes wander through the room, tightening her embrace as she saw the what looked like lifeless bodies. The walls were pure concrete, not even painted but just the raw grey color.
‘Where are we?’ Sharon whispered, afraid to wake what might be waiting in the dark corners.
‘I don’t know.’
Suddenly she totally understood Charlottes fear. She had been in the backstage of a festival, the Finnish one of which she couldn’t remember nor pronounce the name, and all of the sudden she was here. What had happened? Where were they? Who were the other women? Were they still alive? How long had they been here? Looking for some kind of explanation Sharon looked through the room again, a shiver crawling up her spine when she realized there were no windows and she couldn’t see the far corners of the room. Her heart skipped a beat when her eyes fell on the woman three mattresses to the left.
‘That’s Floor.’ She mumbled as she tried to get up but Charlotte grabbed her wrist, her eyes begging her not to leave her alone in the darkness.
Sharon held her hand as she dragged the girl towards the dirty mattress her friend was lying on. She waked her just as careful as Charlotte had done with her, releasing a relieved sigh when she opened her eyes. She wasn’t dead, but she knew just as much as any of the other women in the cold dirty room. Nothing at all.
None of the 20 women knew how long they’d been there when they first heard it. Footsteps, right above their heads. No one had said it out loud, but deep down everyone knew they were locked in the dirtiest basement they’d ever seen. Only a minute after the footsteps had appeared, they heard them getting closer. Everyone looked at the iron door as they heard the sound of clinging keys before the door opened. The bright light hurt Sharon’s eyes that were used to the darkness of the basement. A tall man was revealed, the gun in his hand scaring her more than his muscular body. The hood of his hoodie hid most of his face, a Bad Pete mask took care of the rest. Was this the man who had brought them here? Was he going to hurt them? Were these the last seconds of one of their lives?
Charlotte crawled closer to Sharon as the man stepped in with slow confident steps. Her heart was racing as his gaze wandered through the basement, eyeing every woman before moving to the next one. Sharon wrapped her arms around the younger girl as the man came near them, protecting her against the ice cold stare. The Dutch singer didn’t look away when the empty holes in the mask stared at her, she looked right into them as if they hold the answers to all the questions they had. In a fast motion the man turned around, grapping the arm of the woman that had woken up last and hadn’t had the chance yet to tell her name. A whimper sounded in the basement as the man roughly pulled her up and dragged her to the door, her eyes begging for help.
Everyone was paralyzed by fear, no one got up to help her. The sound of the key being turned around in the lock sounded after the woman had disappeared through it and a minute later their footsteps had faded again. The woman never returned to the basement.
Charlotte was scared to death. Only a few minutes after the man had disappeared with the woman the footsteps had returned. The man that had been standing in the door had been smaller and carrying a plate with good and bad news. The food meant they were taken care of but it also meant they would be in there for a rather long time, if the food didn’t kill them. The young girl hadn’t trusted it for a single bit. While the other women ate the soup and the bread the man had brought them, she silently watched Sharon and prayed she wouldn’t die. Only when her stomach started growling several hours later and everyone still seemed healthy, Sharon had been able to convince Charlotte to eat something.
Sharon had known Charlotte since the girl was 6 and even though there was a 13-year age difference, she had been the little sister Sharon never had. She had protected her, comforted her when a boy broke her heart and made sure to be the first one to celebrate her on her birthdays. Even though Charlotte was 18 now and Sharon had her own live that involved a successful band that toured the entire globe, their bond was stronger than ever.
When the man with the Bad Pete mask had returned and repeated his actions Sharon had pushed Charlotte back as if she would be safe if only she herself was between the man and Charlotte. It seemed to work since once again they were left alone, but once a again a woman had disappeared to never return to the basement. The young woman even ended up sleeping in Sharon’s arms, scared to leave her side in case the man would return. The basement had been quiet for a while when Charlotte looked up at the other women and her whispering voice sounded.
‘I had a crush on you.’
‘What?’ Sharon whispered back as she opened her eyes.
‘Well… I don’t know how much longer we’ll be in here, maybe we’ll never see each other again, so I want to tell you this now. I had a crush on you.’
Sharon stroke her cheek, assuring her it was okay as she looked in her eyes. She knew, she had seen the way Charlotte looked at her, but she assumed she would tell her when she was ready for it.
‘I dated Tarja.’ Sharon whispered after a few silent moments.
‘Really?’
‘Actually it was not really dating. We had some drinks when we played at the same festivals and ended up having sex a few times…’
‘I knew it.’ Sharon and Charlotte looked up when the heard the voice, meeting Floor’s smiling eye’s. ‘You should have seen her face whenever she talked about you, Sharon. It was obvious there was something between the two of you.’
The darkness hid the blush on Sharon’s cheek, just as it hid Charlotte’s jealousy. Their whispers had woken up the women around them and it didn’t take long for them to join the conversation. Whispered secrets went through the room as if they would die if they weren’t said now and Charlotte never left the safe spot in Sharon’s arms.
The next morning was only announced by the smaller man coming down to bring their breakfast. A plate with bread, milk and water was put down while another guy guarded the door. The moment the key turned and locked them up again, everyone crawled closer to the plate, claiming a piece of bread before someone else could take it. The silence in the basement was as cold as the air, until Floor’s whisper sent a shiver up Sharon’s spine.
‘I’m getting out here.’
No one reacted. Everyone was focused on eating the piece of bread as slowly as possible to enjoy it longer as Sharon looked up. When she looked back at Floor, she took a sip of the milk she’d claimed like nothing had happened at all.
But it had happened. Sharon saw how every muscle in Floor’s body was awake when the footsteps above their heads. The door opened and so did the tall woman’s eyes. She eyed every movement of the man, like a hunter looked at its victim. Bad Pete’s steps where as slow and confident as always as his gaze wandered through the basement, looking for his next toy. The woman on the other side of the room held her breath as the empty eyes of the mask looked at her, and so did Sharon when she saw a movement in the corner of her eye.
Everything happened fast. Floor got up, her footsteps echoed through the basement, the man turned around. Gasps sounded, the gun was raised, Charlottes hands grabbed Sharon. The sound of the shot echoed through the basement as every single one of the women felt it in their spines.
Even though her best friend was sitting on the other side of the sofa, the silence in Sharon’s apartment was painful. Ever since she woke up in her bunk in the driving tour bus, silence was something she just couldn’t handle anymore. Her band mates said it was probably just a hangover since they’d found her sleeping in a bar, but she herself couldn’t remember going there. She remembered the backstage of the Finnish festival and after that everything was blank. According to Ruud she’d gone for a drink with someone she had met at the festival, had texted them she was spending the night there and in the end she’d been sleeping in a bar, but Sharon didn’t believe a single word of it. Images of basements chased her, for some reason her ears hurt, her heart beat faster when she heard footsteps, and for some reason the face of the newly announced Nightwish singer looked so familiar, like she’d been staring at the woman’s face for two days straight…
