Andy

“What? What’s wrong?” I stare at them in confusion, my blood running still in my veins as I see the true terror in their identical eyes.

“The water-” Nora gasps, struggling to compose herself, “it’s terrible! Our mother went to the cellar because she thought she heard someone down there, and she hasn’t come back! Ash, please, you have to help us!”

I don’t know what to say or do... Numbness spreads through my limbs, leaving a cold feeling in place of the warmth I felt moments ago.

“Have you tried the other houses on the block for help?” I ask them hoarsely, not really thinking about it before taking off in a brisk jog towards their house. We cut across the backyards of our neighbors to get there quicker.

“Yeah!” James replied, and just then, a loud crackle of thunder erupts above us. “We tried all of ‘em, but no one’s home! We saw you outside and made a beeline for ya...”

My heart sinks with dread, as more fat raindrops begin to fall, splattering our jackets with abstract shimmering patterns. “Where’s your Dad?” I cry over a loud crackle of thunder that shakes the ground.

“He’s helping som friends in the Valley,” James calls back breathlessly, “we tried calling him but he won’t fucking pick up!”

I nod, and blink away rain drops that have fallen into my eyes, trying to see through the blur of raindrops coming towards us.

The grass is thick and overgrown in the backyards, causing it to quickly knot around our ankles, making us slip and slide into each other as we rush. Tiny panicked voices hide in the back of my head, asking me what I would even do to help them when we get there. I can’t just syphon the water from their basement and send them on their way, I am virtually powerless.

Still, I pick up and keep running, even if there is nothing I can do. Because that’s what Andy would do. He wouldn’t hang back, taking his lack of body as a reason to quit.

I can see their house ahead in the downpour, and we jump an old kiddy pool in the neighbors yard, stumbling for a moment before dashing towards the open cellar door at the base of the foundation on the back of their house. I slow as I approach it, my chest heaving and burning.

My head is spinning, and I’m forced to plant my hands on my knees until I’ve caught my breath considerably.

“Ash! What are you doing? Get down there!” James cries a plead at me, tugging my arm until I’m standing directly in front of their open cellar door. Water and mud are dripping down through the enterance, and there’s water right up to the top of the steps.

“I’m not going down there.” I frown, “I don’t know what’s down there, and I can’t swim.”

“We’ll go together.” Nora promises, giving me a fierce, loyal nod. I hesitate, something goes off in the back of my mind, more like a warning... Something isn’t right... They’re far too eager to get me down there.

“No.” I reply firmly, “I’ll call the police for you, but I’m not going down there.”

I pull out my phone to dial 911, when I hear a voice from below.

“Ash? Is that you?”

“Is that your mom?” I ask them in confusion, crouching in front of the cellar, trying to see up under the beams blocking my view of the low ceiling below, growing even more nervous and suspicious when I started thinking to the few times I’d met their mother... Certainly not enough for her to recognize my voice.

“What do you mean? I didn’t hear anything.” James frowns at me, then glares at the flooded enterance way. “Please Ash... You don’t have to go far, just down in the water far enough to see if she’s okay.”

“You mean far enough so you can close the damn door?” I joke coyly, glancing up at James. I don’t miss the look of surprise that crosses his face, and how he all too quickly replies with “No. We wouldn’t do that to you. You’re our friend.”

No, I’m not, James. We’ve never spoken a full sentence to each other, we avoid each other in school, we’re not friends. We’re neighbors, and I’m not going to be guilted into entering your creepy cellar.

“I know.” I reply kindly, before pushing myself up from the ground, dusting the knees of my jeans. “You know, I think-”

Before I can even complete my sentence, James and Nora rush forward and grab ahold of my arms, and pull me with alarming force towards the flooded cellar doorway in the ground. The mud around the door is slick, and I quickly lose my footing while struggling with them.

With a simple, hard push, I go sprawling head first down the cellar steps, hitting my head on one of them before I go under the inky black water.

My thoughts become jumbled and I can’t quite process what has happened. Before I know it, I hear the muffled clatter of the cellar door shutting, cutting off all light, leaving me suspended in the gloomy dark.

I push upwards, and reach, and my fingers just barely make it to the surface. My weight under the water is impossible to fight as I strain upwards, trying to summon the ability to swim from my untrained limbs.

My lungs start to burn from holding my breath, and I can’t get to the fresh air above me. Terror consumes my senses as I realize what will happen to me if I don’t reach the surface.

I make an effort to turn around, but don’t know if I succeeded, since I can’t see a thing. My eyes are open, and burning with the muddy water invading them. My fingers are outstretched, searching for the stairs, or something to hold on to.

Bubbles are slipping from my lips against my will, and the pressure in my chest is unbearable... I am squirming under the water, desperately clawing my way in a blind direction, praying that Andy, or Ashley, or someone would realize that I was gone, and come looking for me.

But who would think to search the neighbor’s cellar? They’d find me down here and assume I died a hero, while Nora and James pulled a heroic tale out of their asses to justify it.

My chest is cold, and the chill is leeching out, consuming my body slowly. I thrash around, quickly wasting my energy on clumsy movements.

I’m terrified, and if I could, I’d be crying. I feel the cold concrete of the cellar floor settling against my back, but by now, I can’t fight anymore. My energy is gone, and my lungs are drying up in my chest.

Reluctantly, a few more bubbles slip free, and my oxygen supply quickly dwindles, until there is nothing left in my chest but the ache of emptiness.

Against my will, my mouth opens, and water fills my chest. I swallow, and choke on the rush of icy water filling my lungs. The cold aura leaches out, consuming every vein in my body until I am simply cold, suspended limply, hovering over the floor just slightly.

Of all the terrible deaths I could be taken out by... Drowning in my evil neighbor’s cellar... That’s a new one...

My skin grows cold, and my attempts at breathing slow. I stare ahead, trying to lift my arms, trying to do anything... But now my body is rebelling against me... And I am left alone, just a conscious in the dark.

To never see blue skies over my home again, or the flowers that bloom in front of my house in spring... To never hike to Apture again, and never go to church again...

Chruch...

How can there be a God who allows something like this to happen to someone they supposedly love? Love is protection... Not plaquing with fear and forcing them to find refuge elsewhere. Some wonderful God, indeed.

Well, God, come and take me. Take me to whatever forsaken afterlife you have waiting for me, and hopefully I passed the test.

What about my parents? My friends? Andy? He will go on, spending the afternoon assuming I’m just somewhere else... Until they find me here, weeks from now when they finally drain the water. And it will destroy him. What will he do? Where will he go? What would my parents do?...

Would Ashley finally care, or would he scoff and blame Andy for it?

And Elizabeth? Maybe she’d be sorry for what she put me through... Maybe everyone I know will be sorry and regretful. As they should be... They made my life a living hell, and shamelessly led their perfect ones with their promised futures, while I am HERE. Slowly dying a painful death on the floor of someone else’s basement.

The universe is cruel! God is cruel! There is no fairness in the hand I have been dealt, it’s just complete and utter bullshit!

My anger fades as I grow tired, closing my eyes. There’s no movement in my chest now... I’m barely breathing, barely doing anything except fluttering my eyelids weakly. My throat is on fire with the worst sore throat I could ever imagine.

I close my eyes for what feels like a very long time... And when I open them again, there’s a light. Not the cliche ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ kind, but a small blue light beside me, hovering over the floor, dimly illuminating my surroundings. I reach for it, and brush my fingertips over it weakly, blinking, and blacking out for an eternity before opening my eyes again, and now the light is bigger and brighter.

I notice something comforting about the glowing sphere... It’s the same vibrant color as Andy’s ghost eyes. A brilliant blue that cannot be compared to anything around it... The closest I can guess is the color of blue bell blossoms in June. So blue and beautiful, they’re hard to look away from.

I take comfort in the color as the light grows. I close my eyes again, but when I open them, I’m not in the basement anymore... I ‘m suspended in aqua-marine waters, with the moon shimmering above the waters surface like a giant silver coin. the color lays flecks of light green across Andy’s face.

His face is so close, and he isn’t moving, neither am I. We’re hugging... I think... Yet, our hands are knotted together, and his eyes are closed. I hold him close, wanting to say something, but my voice would only be lost to the waves.

The colors are so beautiful here... Pale shades of green, purple and blue, dying his pale brown hair the color of an ocean eclipse.

He opens his eyes, and I am disappointed to find that they are not blue. I am comfused and dumbfounded for a moment before I realize that their normal blue hue has been replaced with the shade of drying blood.

He stares into my eyes, unblinking.

“Is this not what you wanted?” He seems to breathe, though his lips do not move. “Sorry I have to kill you... But thank me for being kind enough to give you an afterlife with your... Beloved.” He scoffs, and I realize it’s not Andy talking. There’s no one else around but us.

“I could have created any Hell I chose for you. I am Hell. I am the devil.” The voice chuckles, “There is no God. There never was... Yet somehow the world has always hung in perfect balance without one... Shame you spent so much of your life obsessing over a false idol.”

Andy narrows his eyes a little bit, his lips curling up slightly to utter a muted growl under the water. His calm expression is replaced with blind anger.

When I blink, and I’m alone in the cellar again, with the light. I try very hard to concentrate on it, and as I do, I realize that it is not some otherworldly creation, it’s not paranormal or amazing, but it’s my phone! I must’ve dropped it when they pushed me.

The screen is lit up with the call logo from an unknown number, and I can hear the dull rumble up it vibrating against the floor.

Come on, Ash, do it... Get your ass up... I think to myself as encouragingly as I can, lifting my left hand. It’s numb, and I cannot feel my fingers, but I still reach for it.

My fingers brush across the screen, accidently tapping the ‘answer’ button. I hear a voice shouting through the speaker, but the words are lost in the water.

I roll over slightly, and pull myself towards it, amazed that I’m even still alive. I grab it, and clumsily turn on the flashlight app. Immediately, the cellar is flooded with bright light.

All at once, I am grateful that I saved my money and bought the waterproof iPhone instead of the normal one. I hold it close to my chest, a feeling of relieved gratefulness swelling in my heart. I force myself to concentrate, and begin making slow movements, pushing against the pressure of the water to find my way out of this hell.

I should be dead right now... How long have I been down here?

I shine the light to my right, and I see the lower steps that presumably lead out of the cellar. I push through the deep teal water towards it, barely able to crawl forward. My lungs feel like they will burst if I don’t hurry.

Exhaustion is weighing down my limbs, making it nearly impossible to keep going, yet, somehow, I’m still finding the strength to do so.

I grab the wood top of the bottom stair and grip it tightly, pulling myself towards it, hanging on tightly as I climb up as quickly as I can manage.

Everything feels like it’s in slow motion... My head is pounding, and my vision is blurring and growing a fuzzy black around the edges. It feels like I’ve been climbing for an eternity, but when I look down I realize it’s only been three.

Come on, just a few more.

I extend my arm high above my head with everything I have, and a wave of relief shocks through me when I feel the freezing air beyond the waters surface. With the last swell of energy I have, I push myself up the last of the steps, breaking through the surface.

Panic swells in my chest when I attempt to take a deep breath, but can’t. Instead, I break down into a fury of coughing. The feeling of the water rushing from my lungs is agony, it feels like tiny razors as it comes up, burning my throat and tearing at it.

There’s not much breathing room at the top of the stairs, maybe three inches to the ceiling, but even so, I am beyond grateful to still be drawing breath. Maybe there is a God, afterall...

Once I have successfully replaced the water in my lung with air, I force a weak smile, reaching up with trembling hands to wipe the water from my eyes and face, slicking back my hair out of my eyes. I power on my phone to check the time, realizing only two minutes had passed.

My hands are shaking so badly, I can’t do much. I look up at the cellar door, hearing muted voices of excitement outside. If I try to escape now, they may catch me, take away my phone, and throw me back in, and if that happens, there is no way I can survive.

I unlock my phone, and scroll through my contacts shakily, searching for someone - anyone who could help. I can’t contact Andy directly... But maybe he’ll pick up the home phone... Both my parents are gone, helping out around the neighborhood somewhere.

Maybe...

I lick my lips, and dial the familiar number, my heart pounding out of my ribcage as I do so. I lift it to my hear, and listen to the dull rumble of the ring. Once, twice, a third time... Then the ominous fourth time that brings with it the answering machine.

Should I even bother leaving a message?... If so, what should I even say to get Andy’s attention?

Hello, you’ve reached the Hunter residence. Please leave a message and we’ll back to you as soon as we can. I hear my Mom’s voice on the answering machine say, and it kills me to think that I may never hear it again. I grit my teeth, trying to decide what on earth I am going to do.
“Red lilac.” I say as clearly, and as calmly as I can. “red lilac, two blocks north... The cellar... Come quick. Delete this message immediately.”
I tap end call, and wait with a heavy, dreading heart.

Notes

Chapter inspired by Lust for Life by Lana Del Rey
Cold by Jorge Mendez

I kept checking back for comments over the last two days to realize I never even posted the chapter... Oops.