Darkness pushes in on Sarah’s eyeballs as she shuffles forward with her arms outstretched. Groping for a wall, a door, anything. Her shin collides sharply with a solid piece of furniture and she bites her lower lip to keep from crying out.
Bending forward she feels the textured edge of a familiar bar stool. Fragments of memory wash through her mind, filling in details of a room she knows well. Her breathing slows. From there finding the door to the banister is easy. She marvels at how they’ve been able to blot out every bit of light and sound from the bustling city outside. A tinge of fear grips her and she’s forced to stop until she can push it aside again. Only a second but in her mind there’s no way to tell how much time that cost her.
She breathes in then descends swiftly into cold musty air of the basement, counting the steps and feeling for the familiar slap of shoe on concrete. It lands unexpectedly soon and her stomach says run but every piece of basement junk seems to leap in her path. How has she managed to gather so much and not have the slightest idea what it all is?
A cough halts her in place. Someone else is down here, maybe watching her. She imagines a hand inches from her neck and she leaps forward to the cupboard, ripping it open and snatching the tiny leather box from its perch. Her shaky fingers trace the filigree along its polished edge and the latch pops open releasing a blinding light. She turns and her stomach kicks the air from her lungs.
At the foot of the stairs stands Mason. His piercing blue eyes drilling into hers. She can’t look away. His expressionless face curls into a wicked smile. She readies her first but a combustion of cheer breaks the spell and she blinks. Thank God. Jake and Bill, Kim, Sofia, some guy she’d never met, Dori.
“Dori!” she shouts as her heart begins to beat again.
Dori embraces her, “Congratulations love.”
She can breathe again. Mason looks away and she puts her first down for later. After a few more hugs it’s back up the stairs, past Mason’s smug face, this time with Sarah in the lead.