Chapter three

My heart was cement in my chest. The sound of my breathing and panting as I stuggled to keep sprinting. I was so focused on running, that I didnt remember to keep an eye out for my surroundings, to possibly catch a glimpse of a family photo of who ever this guy is, or was. I was too preoccupied.

That scream. Whose was it? Jake was taken, and Im not letting him die. Phoebe needs him, she loves him, I can't imagine losing Noah. This night sucks.

My thoughts were cut off quickly as I felt my body float through the air. Almost as if I was falling. Then I felt a hard impact on my body from below. It was the floor. I blinked, realizing that I was numbed with adrenaline and that I didnt realize I was falling through a trapdoor in the floor. I looked up and saw a glowing square at the top of the square tube I fell from. The walls of the tube were wood, the type of wood that would give you a splinter if you were to poke it. I hope I didnt break any bones, because that will hurt as soon as the adrenaline wears off. I breathed in a big batch of oxygen and quickly expelled it. I moved my legs to sit cross-legged and looked around. I was in a wooden box. No exit.

"Fuck," I muttered,

But then the lighting changed from the trapdoor above. It seemed like the sun shifted. I have no Idea where the light it coming from, since its so dark in this guys house.

I saw a shimmer, the shimmer of light bouncing off of metal. It was a little metal button, sitting in the corner. I looked around, trying to decide if I should push it or not.

"I'll probably starve, or the guy will come in and kill me, so if this will boil me alive, or drop flesh eating bugs on me, I'm too curious to not. I will die either way." I thought.

I pushed it. To my surprise, I didnt die. Instead it retracted a wooden pannel, revealing a typewriter, and a peice of paper plastered to the wall. The paper read "What is greater than God, More evil than the devil, The poor have it, The rich don't need it, And if you eat it, you'll die?"

I furrowed my brow.

"What?" I whispered.

I repeated it to myself a few times.

"Fuck, Noah, and Jake are better at riddles than me."

This is really familiar to me though. I feel like I have heard it. Jake never shuts up about riddles. I have lost track of the ones he says at this point. It means nothing to me now.

I sharply inhaled. Thats it. I remember. We were in church together. Noahs parents are Catholic. He's not, but he goes, to support them. Jake is an aetheist, he doesnt like religion. I remember him making a joke about it. He leaned over to me and said a riddle like this. It was just the "What is greater than God, More evil than the devil" part that he said though. I remember blowing him off, I could tell he was mocking the church. Im not aetheist, but I also dont really have a set religion. I like to be respectful of all and learn about all, and figure out what part of each suits me best. After I had ignored him, he laughed and said "Nothing." in a mockingly tone. I peiced it together, and it made sense for the whole riddle.

"Holy fuck, Jake, you lucky bastard." I said, astonished.

I scooted closer to the typewriter, and typed it in;

N-O-H-T

oops

N-O-T-H-I-N-G

I saw a green light turn on inside the box that the typewriter is sitting in. I looked around, and shifted my eyes side to side, waiting for something to happen. Then the sound of a latch unlocking was heard. A door swung open lightly. The door was small enough that you had to crawl through it.

I crawled through and found myself in a living room. I stood up for the first time in a while. It had a crusty-looking couch, and a small desk. I heard a light beep behind me, and spun on my heel to see a little drawer slowly extending out of the wall next to the door I crawled out of. Inside there was a key.

"This guys likes puzzles." I thought.

I snatched the key and pocketed it.

I oddly felt a hot wave of air on my shoulder. I figured it was just a hot stretch floating through the room, until I turned. I screamed so loud, I practically deafened myself. The dude was standing there. We really need to get this guy a name.

He growled almost. I whimpered. I tried to step away and wave at him, hoping he was just checking, seeing how I was doing. I was standing next to him now, and he hadnt stopped looking at where I was just standing. Suddenly, a metal blade separated me and him for a split second. Then I realized he did that. He was missing a lot, and it wasnt that hard to dodge his swings. I kept walking backwards moving ever so slightly to dodge them. I was cracking a smile, until my back met the wall. My smile quickly turned in to sheer panic, as I put my arms up waiting for them to be chopped in half by an axe. I held that position for what felt like an hour, but it was only a few seconds. I looked around. He was gone.

"Daisy!" I heard someone whisper-yell.

I looked around, and saw Jake under a large dining table.

"Jake!" I returned his excitment. "Are you hurt?"

"Nah, I'm good. He left me alone after a bit. Did you hear that scream?"

"Yeah, I ran out here because of that. I thought it was you."

"Nope, all good." He said.

"Also, I found this key. I got it after completing a riddle." I said

"Oh, That explains what this weird stuff is on the bottom of this table."

My eyes widened with excitment. I crawled under the table with Jake and looked up. It was a grid of random numbers. Above it was another riddle.

"Jesus came in through a womb and out though a _? not in but _? _ 20s 30s...? AND? Your feet, eyes, ears?"

It made no sense.

Jake looked down in thought.

"Cross, out, 10s, and...I dont know the last one." He said.

"Your Feet...eyes and ears" I said thoughtfully. "Cross out 10s and...and what? Your feet...?" I was thinking hard.

"Pairs. They're all a part of a pair." Jake said.

He started to cross them all out. Sums of 10, and pairs. The last 4 numbers, and Jake was struggling.

"These four arent pairs, or sums of ten! Its annoying me."

"Maybe its a code. 4270."

"Okay, that makes sense." He said.

A creak from a floor board was heard. A light dragging sound followed. Me and Jake froze with fear. We saw a hand appear from around the corner. It was a hand that looked stained with fear, and stained with dirt and blood. Then a second hand appeared. Someone was crawling. A face appeared. Long black hair covered the face. It was a female. She looked up at up. I clung onto Jakes arm when we saw it. She had no eyes, her face stained red. The bloody sockets where her eyes should be, glistened with fresh blood. She kept crawling, and soon enough, her legs were chopped at the knees. As she crawled, she left a trail of blood. How did she get loose? Was she a play thing for the guy? Is this her fate? Her scream replayed in my mind. Theres others here with us. Others enduring awfulness. Are we next?