Chapter 12: Forgiveness

(WARNING: of physical abusive relationship)

The moment Carol realized she was lost, she sat down and waited, hoping to hear Billy calling for her.

At one point she thought she had heard him, but it turned out to be a bat chasing after a beetle.

She played games on her phone until it beeped at her, warning the battery was down to twenty percent.

Glancing upward to the top of screen to the digital clock, she that it had already been twenty minutes.

"Either Billy is taking forever changing the light bulbs or I'm too far away to hear him," Carol mutter to herself as she stood up.

She slapped the dirt off her pants' legs while she glanced to the left then right, into the stream of light and the into the darkness on either side of her. She bit her lip wondering what to do. Should she continue to wait or attempt to find her way back to the house?

"I'm going to miss the train," she eventually sighed in frustration.

A bat squeaked above her, and Carol looked up at the tiny brown creature clinging to the rocks above her with its tiny hands. It stayed in the shadows but the light from the light bulbs reflected in the blackness of its eye.

"Do you know the way back to the basement?" Carol asked it.

The bat remained motionless, refusing to answer her.

"I guess if I follow the lights it would eventually lead me back to the house," she guessed. "But do I go left or right?"

The bat suddenly ran to the left, scurrying into the shadows. It reappeared as it flew off the wall into the light.

"Fine, I will follow you," Carol said hurrying down the tunnel on the left.

The bat proved to be a liar as she found herself at another dead end.

"Damn it," Carol cried as she glared at the wall in front of her.

Frustrated, she checked the time on her phone. She had been down here for over forty-five minutes.

"And now there's no way I can get to the station in time," she muttered. "Another night in this damn house."

She smacked the wall with the palm of her hand causing lose dirt to fall on top of her shoe.

Carol clinched her teeth as she tried to relax. This damn house with its damn tunnels. A shiver ran down her spine. Why did it affect her like this! Why did it make her tremble with unknown terror?

What was this place! And what was wrong with her?

Her fingers slid across the dirt as they closed into a fist.

Something was wrong with this place. Something was wrong with the town. In the Dunches' house. In the woods. In this house!

It did not want her here and she needed to escape while she still could. While her heart still beat. While her mind remained sane.

Carol pushed away from the wall. Running back down the tunnel, retracing her steps until she was back to where the path split.

This time she took the one on the right. It was dark at first, but she quickly entered a new passage with its own line of lights. But the lights kept flickering threatening to just shut off.

Even now! Something. Someone. Some presence wanted her trapped in the darkness. Lost. Alone. Or dead. Wanting her gone.

She had to escape.

Again, another split! This time it was a four different path, each leading in a different direction. They were all lit up with electrical lights except the one all the way to her left.

Carol stood in the middle, looking at each direction, unsure which to take.

All of a sudden, the lights flickered and then went out.

"No," Carol whimpered, now blinded.

The air grew cold - freezing her breath within her lungs.

"Stop it, please" she begged.

Something reached out.

Cold.

Angry.

Reaching for her.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Carol screamed.

"CAROL!"

The voice suddenly screamed out in the darkness. Footsteps came running. A light flashed in her eyes.

"Carol. Are you alright?" The voice cried in fear.

Blinded by the light, Carol was still able to recognize the voice of a friend. She grabbed a hold of them. Clinging to them for safety.

"Are you alright?"

Carol nodded just as the lights came back on as the coldness vanishing.

David gently pushed her off him. He held her back at a distance while he looked her up and down for signs of injuries.

"I'm fine," Carol told him.

Her voice was hoarse like she had been screaming. She swallowed, forcing her throat to loosen up.

"I'm sorry, I-got scared when I got lost, and couldn't find my way and it got dark," she rambled.

David looked at her unsure. "Are you sure you're alright?" he repeated slowly. "I never thought you were scared of the dark."

Carol swallowed again, knowing he was not believing her. But she could not tell him about how weird Evergreen was making her feel, like it was out to get her. And besides-it was the darkness and being lost that had made her imagination run wild. It was all in her head.

Carol drew in a deep breath trying to calm herself.

"I'm fine," she told David. "I was actually beginning to think I was going to be lost down here forever. I would have to eat bugs or those bats."

David smiled a little. "You sound like Julie," he laughed.

He held out a plastic water bottle to her, "are you thirsty?"

"Yes, thanks," Carol said gratefully taking the bottle.

She struggled to take the cap off as David pushed a button on the walkie on his belt.

"I found Carol. She is alright," he said then released the button.

There was a moment of static broken by Billy's crackly voice, "good. I'll see you back at the house."

"Wow, did you guys have a search party out looking for me?" Carol joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"No, It was just me and Billy. I couldn't find Teddy and I wasn't about to tell May you were missing."

"Yeah, I don't think she would have taken the news well," Carol agreed.

David laughed but Carol thought she saw him shiver a bit. She could not help smiling a little, thinking how much her cousin intimated her ex.

David clicked his flashlight back on and gestured with it to the tunnel he had come from.

"Come on let's go back," he said.

"So, I was heading in the right direction," Carol muttered to herself as she followed David into the darkness.

It only took another five minutes before Carol found herself back at the basement.

"Thank you for finding me," she said to David as she climbed up the ladder.

She waited by the trap door as David climbed up the ladder.

"No problem, I have gotten lost a few times too," he said.

"You should put up signs," Carol suggested. "Namely, arrows pointing the way back."

"First, we finish fixing up the house and then put-up signs."

David nudged the trap door closed with his foot. It banged shut even with a gentle push.

"Thank you again," Carol said one more time as she started to enter the kitchen.

Her stomach growled at her, reminding her she had forgotten to eat.

"Carol."

He said her name softly as if he did not want her to hear him, but Carol paused in the kitchen.

She felt the familiar nervous creeping up and she clasped her middle finger tightly in her other hand.

David was staring down at the trap door, his right foot on top of it. He had not noticed she had stopped. Maybe he thought she had left.

Carol looked back at the door of the kitchen. She could still leave before David noticed she was still there.

"Carol," David called her again and it was too late to run.

He could not meet her eye. He still stood on top of the trap door looking at the wall in front of him.

"I just want-to apologize for what I did to you," he said slowly.

Carol could see the guilt in his face, aging him. His shoulders slumped as if the burden was too great.

It was so much different from then.

Fury, rage, no room for guilt or even remorse. She had never been so scared in her life and the pain-

Her hand started to tremble as she revisited those memories. She had been in the hospital for weeks. They nearly had to remove her left eye. She was now permanently blinded in that eye. `Her body forever bearing the scars of where he had cut her.

"I know what I did to you, I can never take back or fix," David was saying luring her out of the darkening corners of her memories.

"You're right, there is nothing that will change what happened," Carol told him coldly.

David nodded, agreeing. He started to slide his foot back and forth across the wooden door. The loose lock rattled faintly whenever his foot got close to it.

"I just needed you to know how sorry I am," David pleaded for her to listen. "Even if you hate me, I just need you to know that I am sorry, and I'll never be able to forgive myself."

He hesitated for a moment before continuing in a whisper, "I can barely live with the memories."

Carol looked away. She hated hearing him plead.

"It wasn't you," she finally told him. "You didn't know it was me. You didn't know what you were doing."

"But I still did it," David said softly.

He finally met her eyes and Carol held them steady.

"I still hurt you," he said.

"You did and I don't' think I can ever forgive you for it," Carol told him. "But I won't hate you if that makes you feel better."

David nodded sadly, "it is all I can hope for."

Carol did not respond but walked away. She closed the door behind her not looking back but knowing David had not moved.