“This is so not funny, Tanner, and I think you’re being very rude right now,” she said, though they both knew it was sort of funny.
“I know it isn’t exactly funny, Kyla, but look at us. We’re slowly descending into a basement, nothing worse, and both of us are being ridiculous about it. No monsters are going to jump out and get us.”
“Maybe not all monsters are imaginary.”
“Believe me, Kyla, I know that,” he said. All of earlier humor was now gone.
They did live in a world where the real monsters weren’t green or purple, ghouls, mutants, aliens, or the dead or undead — these monsters had dark souls lived among the people unnoticed. They didn’t care about humanity and they didn’t care about hurting others. They were the monsters everyone really had to fear.
He pulled Kyla just a little bit closer. When they arrived at the basement floor, Tanner shined the light around until he found the large breaker box in a dusty corner, surrounded by gigantic cardboard boxes that had who knew what in them.
What with the cobwebs hanging off those boxes and off rusty metal furniture, and the shadows cast by their flashlights, it seemed a perfect setting for something terrifying to happen. Even the creaking of the old floorboards down here added to the spooky atmosphere. Tanner was determined to trudge ahead though. They made their way toward the circuit breakers, and it took them a while to pull the rusty door open, but when they did, what was before them wasn’t helpful at all.
A lot of the switches were broken, and nothing was labeled. Yes, there was a main breaker, but it was so rusted, Tanner was afraid that if he so much as touched it, the thing would snap off and electrocute them both.
He shined his flashlight on the breaker box for a good few minutes, and then sighed heavily. “I think this was a wasted trip. There’s absolutely nothing we’re going to be able to do with this.”
“That’s what I was thinking too,” Kyla had to say, “but I hate to leave all of these people without power. It’s so cold out, and now people won’t even be able to shower.”
“I know. This really does suck, but it looks like we’ll have to wait until the maintenance guys come in.”
“If they ever do. I don’t know who owns this building, but the corporation doesn’t have a conscience at all. Look how long it took to get the heat back on, and we only recently started getting our pipes fixed. If it isn’t one thing here, then it’s another.”
Her grousing made him feel about two inches tall.
“I’m sorry, Kyla.”
“Why are you sorry? It’s not your fault, Tanner, and you know it. You should be just as irritated as I am, even if you aren’t staying here very long. We have basic rights as humans, you know? Like a safe and warm place to sleep, especially if we’re paying rent.”
Tanner wanted to tell her again that he was sorry, wanted to tell her he would make sure everything was fixed, but he wasn’t planning to do that. No. He was planning to see that she and the rest of the remaining tenants evacuated this old building, and then rip the old place down.
And he wasn’t going to lie to himself. The new apartments would go for five times the rent that these ones did. None of the tenants here would be able to afford to live in the new complex. Did he feel a twinge of guilt for the first time? Maybe.
But wasn’t it money that made the world go round? It did to him and to a lot of people. The saying about love was so much garbage. Yes, his set of fancy condos would cost a lot more money for its new residents, but why should that bother him? He was also going to boost the economy here. Think about the construction jobs, a lot of them, and business opportunities, too — there would be a mini-mall inside the complex, dammit. That made him less of a monster, didn’t it?
When they turned to leave, they heard a loud shuffling from behind the staircase. Tanner automatically pushed Kyla behind him as he shined the light in that direction.
“What was that?” she asked, her voice trembling. “It sounds a heck of a lot bigger than a rat scurrying across the floor.”
Before he could say anything, there was a scratching sound like someone moving, and Tanner was now absolutely certain that they weren’t alone. Maybe their horror flick scenario had just come true.
Tanner refused to let Kyla come up beside him as he moved toward the sound. What he should do was try to rush up the stairs and bolt the door closed. But, hell, if they were in a horror flick, they might as well be the stupid fools who walked straight to their deaths. No use ruining a standard plot. Besides, what if someone else had come down the stairs to try to fix the problem and had fallen and was just now waking up?
Just as he and Kyla reached the edge of the stairs, their flashlights pointed at the dark area beneath, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the air.
Chapter Seventeen
Kyla was on Tanner’s back with her legs wrapped around him before she knew what she was doing. When he said something and his voice came out indistinct, she vaguely realized that her hands were around his throat, most likely cutting off his lower airway. The problem was that she couldn’t make her muscles unclench. She told herself to let go, but it just wasn’t going to happen. She was a helpless mass of terror.
“Can’t breathe, Kyla,” Tanner choked out.
“Wh…wh…what was that?” That was all she finally managed to get through her chattering teeth.
“Let go and I’ll find out. I don’t want to hurt you by prying your hands away,” he wheezed.
Somehow she managed to loosen her grip around his neck, but nothing she tried was allowing her legs to give up their hold on his waist. She wasn’t going to move from his back.
“Okay, you have to climb down, Kyla, so I can figure this out,” he said, his voice still a bit hoarse, but sounding better than it had when she was nearly throttling him.
“Nope. Not letting go,” she told him.
To her amazement, a small chuckle escaped his raw throat. “Okay.” He moved forward and spoke to whatever monster was threatening them. “Who is there? I’m not going to hurt you unless I have to,” he said.
Whoa. Tanner really sounded frightening now Kyla wouldn’t want to be on this man’s bad side.
There was more shuffling behind the stairs, and she was really shaking now. This was it. They were both going to die because they were the stupid ones who had willingly — well, okay, not quite willingly — gone down into the dark and dingy basement.