Ollie stepped forward without meaning to. As if some invisible hand was guiding him, he reached out and pushed, his eyes widening as the shelves slid behind the wall, revealing a stone door with multiple deadlocks.
Ollie didn’t want to know what was behind the door, yet he couldn’t seem to stop himself from turning each lock and opening it. Staring down the stairs that led into further darkness, into the unknown…he took a step down, again and again, his bare feet scraping against the stone steps. Ollie shivered more and more in his thin pajamas, as the temperature dropped with each step he took, but his body did not stop, even when his mind screamed and demanded that it did.
He only stopped when he finally reached the bottom. Standing there frozen, he peered out into nothingness, as if the darkness was too thick for even his enhanced vision to pick up a single detail. Swallowing hard, and not knowing what else to do, he reached out with both hands and took a few steps forward. But when one of his hands finally found the wall he’d intended to use as a guide, flashes of memories that weren’t his own started flickering violently through his mind.
Bloody scenes, one after another, all ending the same way. All victims, all people just like him—witches. Witches chained to a stone chair, bloodied, beaten, tortured, and murdered, the killer’s actions and words always mocking and cruel. Ollie’s heart shattered further as he watched the villain carry out each horrible deed. The villain being the very person he loved…the person he had thought loved him…Noble.
“Stop,” Ollie begged with a sob. “Stop!”
Clawing at his head as he stumbled blindly forward, Ollie fell to his knees, and once again screamed, “STOP!” Then he was just outright screaming with the victims in his head, terrified it was all he’d ever see.
“Ollie!?”Noble shouted as the witch started screaming. Without hesitating, he broke the door lock with a sharp jerk and ran inside. He kept going, even as his stomach dropped when he spotted the cellar door open.
Flicking the light switch on as he went, Noble ran down the stairs as they illuminated, almost afraid of what he’d find as Ollie started begging below. In such a hidden, dark place, would The Unknowing give too much away, all of it unwanted? Not even the light seemed enough to drive it away. Or maybe the protections he’d built into the nightmare of a room prevented it.
Reaching the bottom step, Noble came to a stop, his heart breaking when he spotted Ollie curled up on the floor, pulling at his hair as the man repeatedly flinched, while helplessly whimpering, “Make it stop—ah… Make it stop!”
Noble took a shuddered breath as a single tear broke free, and without moving any closer, he carefully rasped, “Ollie?” When the witch clearly didn’t hear him, he repeated his name louder. “Ollie!”
The man’s head snapped up, this time with a fearful yelp, as Ollie rushed to his feet and scrambled back. The witch just barely missed the pile of rubble that had once been his torture chair, Noble wincing as the man slammed hard into the wall, before plastering himself there, his chest heaving. Clearly terrified, the witch’s face was stained with tears that didn’t seem any closer to stopping. Yet, it didn’t actually appear as if Ollie really saw him, his eyes dazed and unfocused, the man continuing to flinch even now.
As Ollie let out another distress whimper, clearly seeing all that he had never wanted him to see. Noble sidestepped to the right wall, clasping his hands behind his back as he did, even as his right shoulder protested the movement.
Once he was as far away from the stairs as the room would allow him to be, without going near Ollie, Noble gently ordered, “Ollie, you need to get out of this cellar. Please, go back up the stairs. Go past me, I won’t stop you. I won’t hurt you. And if after you get upstairs, you still want to leave, I won’t get in your way.”
When Ollie continued to stare, his eyes unfocused and unchanged, Noble did the only thing he could think of…he started to beg, “Please, Ollie, please. I don’t want you to see any more. I know you don’t want to either, please.”
Between one breath and the next, Ollie’s eyes seemed to gain some clarity as he took a step, and then another, towards the stairs, before sprinting past him.
Noble followed the man, slowly and silently, out of the cellar and pantry, and eventually outside. Ollie ran down the steps of his front porch and away from the house. His bare feet making almost no sound on the grass, Ollie hesitated as he reached the drive, glancing back. The sun was still down, and the ground was wet. It was obvious that it had started to lightly drizzle in the early hours of the morning and never stopped.
As the rain continued, the sky still dark, they stared at each other. A chill trickled through his body as the rain slowly soaked through the t-shirt and pajama pants he’d thrown on last night, Ollie getting just as wet. The man no longer flinched at memories that weren’t his, even as he began to shiver from the cold, but the shadows and fear in the witch’s eyes were enough to keep Noble quiet. When the man finally turned away and started forward again, walking this time, Noble followed once more.
He followed Ollie down his driveway, and stayed many feet back when the man stopped on reaching the road, and briefly messed with his phone.
All was still for some time, the only sounds being the rain and Ollie’s heavy breathing as he quietly sobbed in front of him.
Say something, he begged himself in his head.Anything!? Ollie is owed—no—he deserves something more from me than silence!?
But as much as he tried…nothing came out. And then a car pulled up, and he lost whatever chance he had. As Ollie got in and the vehicle drove off, Noble did the only thing he could…he stood there and watched helplessly as the witch left him behind for what likely would be forever.
Ollie stared blankly out the window, his phone clenched in one hand as tears silently trailed down his face. The raindrops on the windows felt like they were mimicking him.
Thankfully, the driver seemed perfectly happy to ignore him, not to mention turning a blind eye to the fact Ollie was definitely getting his seats wet, considering he was soaked—there was also the mud he was getting on the floor of the car due to walking in damp grass. But it was 4am, and he doubted the man had wanted to say anything more to him on confirming his identity and spotting his face. At least, he’d turned up the heater so Ollie wasn’t freezing, even though he was still wet, and his soaked clothes were uncomfortably sticking to his damp skin.
Grimacing as he was reminded, once again, of just how wet he was, he quickly added a much larger tip on the rideshare app, before looking back out the window.
Taking a shuddering breath, Ollie straightened slightly when he realized he was at most two miles from home.
Jahla…he needed Jahla! Red would be there, but…
Swallowing hard, he shakily pulled up her number and hit call.
The ringing went on for a long time, and it almost felt too loud in the silent car. Ollie was beginning to worry she wouldn’t pick up, when the call finally connected.
“Ollie?” Jahla rasped, her voice hoarse from sleep.
“I-I…I need you,” he sobbed. His attempt to hide that he was crying failed almost instantly.
