The Basement

You are renting a room in someone’s house as you transition to living in a new city. The owner tells you that basement is absolutely, 100% off limits. You don’t bat an eye at this request, until you start hearing noises from the basement at night. After several week of this, you sneak downstairs to see what’s going on. Finish the scene.

I couldn’t wait to get out of mom’s house before, but now I wish that I had never left. I was so eager to leave that I took the first room that was available. I had met a man named Norman while searching for apartments. He told me that his children had just moved out and he had an extra room to spare. I took it without hesitation: my biggest mistake.

When I first moved in, he told me that he had a workshop in his basement and that he did not like anyone to go down there. I did not bat an eye to that, thinking it was completely normal that he didn’t want me going downstairs and messing with his things. Now I think he has something more cynical down there.

It’s been a little over a month now, and weird noises have been coming from the basement. At first, I thought it was the sound of him working. I always asked what kind of projects he was working on downstairs, but he always avoided the question. It wasn’t until the noises continued while he was at the department store that I realized his workshop wasn’t the source of the noise.

My curiosity finally got the best of me, and when he stepped out, I decided to find out what was truly in that basement. I arrived to the door only to be greeted by a padded lock. Eager to find out what was down there, I searched for the key but to no avail. He must have the key on his person. I decided that I would wait until he was asleep so that I can steal the key.

I waited almost til 3 AM until he was sound asleep. Carefully, I crawled out of bed and slithered my way into his room. My heart was beating so fast that I thought the pounding from inside my chest would wake him up. As I drew closer, I saw the key sitting on top of the dresser. I quickly grabbed it and snailed out of the room.

I inched downstairs and towards the basement door, careful as to not make a sound. Once I made it downstairs, I found a solid metal door as high as the ceiling. Behind that door was something shocking. It was his children, along with his wife. They were all hogtied and bounded together. As I rushed to untie them, I heard footsteps drawing near the basement door. Suddenly, Norman stood naked on the stairs.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to follow the rules.” He shut the basement door.