Chapter 26

Angela pulled out her gun, pointing it at it the stranger. The man mockingly looked at her, "I don't think you can shoot anything." Without hesitation, Angela shot the guy in the leg as he dropped to the ground holding his leg.

"You will pay for this. This is bigger than you think. "

Angela looked at him and pressed her thumb into the bullet wound. "you are a joke."

"Where is the missing girl?"

"What missing girl?" Angela pushed her finger more profoundly into the wound as he screamed in pain.

"Where is the girl?"

"What bloody girl?" He snapped. Angela felt a breeze on the back of her neck. As she turned around, there was nothing, just darkness and wet ground with a small light.

Angela had looked for a rope that's when she noticed what appeared like a barn.

"What is in there?" The guy stubbornly looked away, curling up his lips. Angela hit the guy in the face with the back of the revolver.

"Two can play the game." She swiftly moved the gun up his thigh in between his legs.

The guy's eyes grew big, "okay, wait. Let's all breathe."

"I am breathing fine. It's you that's fast. Enough talking; the next bullet would make you bleed out much faster." Angela pushed the gun harder between his legs.

"In there is a," he looked down, "in there is what you are looking for."

"Who else is hiding in there, your so-called mother?" The man shook his head.

Angela grabbed him by the chest, lifting him off the ground as the man screamed in agonizing pain and limped from the bullet wound.

She held him up by the back of his coat, pushing the gun to the back of his neck, pushing him through the door to the ground as he fell down on his knees. It was pitch dark there was a putrid stench like rotting meat with rotting fruit undertones. She covered her nose, searching for the light.

Angela had found the switch. When switching it on, there was stained blood on the concrete ground and eight deep freezers. She slowly paced, expecting the worst. While walking, she noticed what appeared to be a significant price of meat on the ground. It's stacked with green flies. The smell was unbearable as she covered her nose, "what the hell is that?"

She walked on further, hoping to hear a cry for help, but it was a deafening silence. As she walked, she noticed a staircase going down. She walked up to the stranger, grabbed him by the collar dragging him onto the ground as he screamed in pain. His blood was soaking into the concrete.

The concrete was bumpy and challenging, scratching the bullet wound and making him bleed much more excessively.

"You don't know what you are getting yourself into. You are going down a dark road, lady."

Angela looked at him, "it can't be any darker than the road I have walked my whole life."

She took out her dagger and slowly pushed the blade onto his skin tearing open the flesh as he screamed and pleaded for her to stop.

"I will stop when you tell me what is down there." Angela's eyes grew dark as she had this sudden flashback of her dad leaving her alone in the darkroom on those stormy nights, locking her away like she was some animal. Her fears had turned her into th heartless bitch she is today.

The man mumbled. Angela turned the sharp blade inside his flesh, "speak up? I can't hear you."

"There's a dungeon down there." The man somehow knew he had met his fate.

He looked at her, "you are going to kill me, aren't you?

Angela stared at him blankly, "are you of any further use to me?" The man looked down. She lifted him by the collar, "you go down first, and don't try anything stupid. This bullet will go into your head."

He sighed as he struggled to climb down with the pain he felt and his leg being injured.

He tripped on the second step falling backward 8 meters down flat onto his back.

Something hit on his leg, right on his knee, and when he heard his joints tear, bones broke in half and cut through the skin, he yelled in pain. That's when he felt bleeding under the skin. His legs started to heat up, filling up with blood as the skin stretched so much it felt like someone was raking knives down on his leg.

He could no longer walk as he lay there, unable to move. Angela climbed slowly down. When reaching the bottom, she looked across and saw what seemed to be a prison cell with bars. It staunched of urine and death. She covered her face with a cloth, and as she looked at the guy lying there, she knew he had no life or fight in him as she grabbed him by the hair, lifting his head in the air.

"Where do I find Nicole?" He was trying to talk, but he almost choked on his own blood as Angela turned him to his side. "where do I find Nicole."

He looked up at her. His eyes were watery as he murmured. "You won't find her," and had stopped breathing.

"No, don't tell me that shit now that I have come this far. It was the only way to prove my brother's innocence," she stabbed the knife into his leg several times, hoping he would fain consciousness, but he continued lying there without moving.

"Dammit, why now?" She screamed as she stood up. She walked past the first cell. There were rats inside and what seemed like human bones. The rats were feasting off on whatever meat was left on that bone.

Angela looked away as she walked down the dungeon. All cells looked the same until she reached the last cell and noticed a door. She stopped; this cell was locked, unlike the others. She could hear faint screams of "help me." coming through that door.

Angela looked around for the key but never saw any. That's when she heard loud, heavy footsteps coming from the stairs.

"Dammit, I need to get to this door before anyone gets down here." she looked up in the direction she came from and remembered the dead guy. She ran as fast as she could. She had searched his pockets and found a set of keys as she dragged his body away from the staircase, opening a cell, and dragging his body into the cell. Hopefully, that way, they won't suspect anything. The footsteps were more than one person; how many exactly she never knew. She knew she had to save Nicole and get out of there.

Angela ran to the cell where the door was; there were so many keys and so little time, and sooner or later, those footsteps she heard would be coming from this side.

She hurried as the set of keys fell to the ground, making a loud noise that echoed through the dungeon, "shit, I think they heard that." she quietly picked up the keys and moved out to against the wall behind the cage, she heard heavy breathing coming closer. Angela had to hide. She looked around and saw another door. She walked over to it and opened it expecting to see the worst, but to her relief, it was only a mop and broom with stained white buckets. She fitted herself into it.

Angela heard the footsteps coming down the staircase and heavy breathing. Her heart pounded, and the dogs in the back wouldn't stop barking this whole time, raising suspicion.

She was glad she had hidden the body of that guy.

The footsteps came closer as her heart pounded faster and faster. She took her gun in her right hand and her knife in her left.

Whoever that was, had what sounded like a metal pipe, dragging it across the bars, making a loud noise. This had Angela's heart beating faster as she tried to control her breathing, in and out, she told herself. She closed her eyes, and flashbacks came from when she was a kid. The footsteps down the passage every night, the shadow underneath her door, and the door handle slowly being pushed down. The door handle made that screeching sound. Like out of a horror movie, she would curl up into a fertile position, her head to her knees, as she shut her eyes.

Sitting there brought back her fear of the dark. She thought she had overcome, but the footsteps came closer. Whoever comes up the passageway is either prominent and heavily armed or a gang leader who considers themselves untouchable. Their footsteps echo off the buildings announcing their arrival to all within a hundred-meter radius.

As it came closer and closer, Angela tightened her grip on the knife.