Chapter 4 – Chap 4

“Call me crazy, but I think I remember this room, the exit must be close!”

We had been walking through those mysterious, underground halls for a while, trying to get out of there so Cloe could experience life outside that creepy bunker. This was not the end of my investigation, however. How could I end it here? I had only began scratching the surface! Despite this, I needed to get out, not just for Cloe, I also needed a break, and a notebook to write down all my evidence.

“If you say so…But keep it down, Primal can hear us.”

We kept on going until I saw it, at the far end of the hallway, an open door, you could see a room with grey walls, instead of the usual blue, that was it, the basament, the exit!

” Yes! We did it, that´s the exit right there,come on!”

I then heard a loud, terrifying and familiar roar, wich was then followed by the usual fast, aproaching footsteps.

” I told you she would hear us!”

“I´m sorry! Run towards the door, I think we can make it!”

Once again Primal showed off its superhuman speed, as less than 5 seconds after the roar, we could already see her sprinting down the hall.

It was a close one, but we made it to the door, but of course, Primal was right behind us, so it reached us a few seconds later, luckily, that was enough time for us to close it. Primal then began banging the door, and what’s worse, it wasn´t locked. Cloe and I then pushed back against the door, but it was no use, Primal was winning. I wanted to tell Cloe to push harder, but she was already pushing with all her strength. Just when it all seemed lost, I saw a key on the floor, next to Cloe.

“Cloe, give me that, quick!”

She grabbed it and gave it to me, I locked the door. Primal had still not given up, therefore,we continued pushing back… it stopped, it had left.

“Alright, It’s finally over! Now Cloe, follow me upstairs, I have a suprise”

The clean smell of my house at last reached my nose, smelling something had never felt so good.

“Ah, home sweet home!”

Cloe meanwhile, was literally paralyzed, her only eye scrolled left and right, her mouth opened in total shock, she then began shivering with excitement, mesmerized by what layed before her: the tables and chairs in pristine condition, the shelves filled with books, the clock, the sofa, the TV… everything was brand new to her, after all, except for the fact she could talk and lived in a bunker, she was pretty much a cavemen, or cavegirl, I supose.

“This…is…your house?”

“Yes,Cloe.”

“All of this?”

“Yep, and that’s just the living room.”

“What?”

I took a look at the clock and, to my surprise, what had felt like a whole day down there had only been 4 hours, I still had more than enough time to show Cloe the house, have lunch and have a shower before my parents came home from work.

I then gave her a tour through the entire building, showing her the kitchen, the bathroom, my bedroom…I had to be careful though, I didn’t want her to have a joy overdose. After having lunch (that Cloe ate with her hands), I noticed the food all over her shirt, or what was left of it, had enhanced her stench.

“Wow, best food ever!”

“Yeah…but I think you need a shower, we both do.”

“What’s a shower?”

“The exact, disgusting reply I expected, even more of a reason for you to take one!”

So after 10 minutes explaining Cloe shampoo isn’t dangerous, we finally entered the shower plate.

It was then when I noticed some strange markings on Cloe’s back. I first thought they were just scars, but upon closer inspection, it became clear those markings were tatoos. A huge cross was tatooed on her skin, a cross that seemed to cover up a word, some letters were still visible, though:

je….a

“Jessica!”

“Isn’t that your name?”

“Yes, but I´m talking about what’s on your back!”

“My back? There’s something on my back?”

“Yes, you’ve never noticed it?”

“Nope, I’ve tried multipe times, but I can’t see my back!”

“Nobody can!”

At first sight, it looked like some kind of Anti-Jessica logo or something, but that made no sense, the most logical explanation was that the name came before the cross, wich was added to cover up and/or hide the name, for whatever reason. When I first met her, I thought she was just a random, homeless girl that had sneaked into the basement, after a while I began suspecting she may be more than just that, but now, I was SURE. But what did the tatoos mean? It’s clear Cloe wasn’t responsible for the tatoos, she wasn’t even aware she had them until I told her, so who made them and why? We got out of the shower and I took a look at Cloe’s tatoo again, wondering what it could mean,could Cloe actually be my sister? No, that was imposible! My sister was blonde, like me, Cloe had black hair, plus, Jessica was suposed to be my BIG sister and Cloe was just a little girl.

“Have you finished looking at my back,I’m cold!”

“Yeah, sorry. Let’s go to my room, I’ll give you some clean clothes.”

I opened my wardrobe in search for clothes from when I was a little girl, and found a yellow shirt with a pink flower in the middle.

“Wait…I have that!”

“What do you mean?”

Cloe then grabbed her old,dirty shirt and gave it to me. I examined it, it was hard, but if you looked close, you could make out a faded pink flower covered behind countless spots and a thick layer of dirt that covered the entire yellow shirt , they were the exact same shirt!

“WHO ARE YOU?”

I shouted out of frustation, seriously, who was she? There were signs that pointed towards my sister, but there were other things that contradicted that. She claimed to have been born at the bunker,but was that really true? Maybe she’d just assumed that after being trapped down there, wich caused her to completely forget about the outside world. Let’s not forget the fact her name wasn’t really Cloe, I had given her that name! And then there were her suposed family, and Primal, how did they fit into all of this?

“I guess I’m me…I don’t know what to say…”

“Oh, I-I’m sorry, I was just thinking out loud, you weren’t meant to answer that.”

“Look,Jessica! A thing inside that square just moved!”

“It’s called a window,Cloe! Nothing’s inside of it, what you saw moving was outside!”

“Oh,can we go outside?”

“I guess we could…wait, do you hear that?”

“Yeah…never heard that sound in my life.

“It’s a car…my parents, they’re here! Cloe, you have to hide, now!”