CHAPTER TWELVE: Ultimatum

I wake up with a pounding headache and a fresh bruise in the shape of a fist on my left cheek.

I look around the dimly lit basement and feel a sense of deja vu wash all over me. I haven't been here since I was sixteen, too many traumatising events keeping me away from this room. I would rather risk the wrath of my stepmother than step into this moment, but look at me right now, lying on the same floor with no way to leave.

I get up from the floor and almost fall back down from the bout of dizziness that hits me. I lean on the wall until I'm strong enough to move towards the door.

"Please open the door!" I scream while banging on the door, almost bursting into tears when, after a few minutes, nobody responds.

I feel around my back pocket for my phone, and when I find it, I almost die from relief. When I take it out, however, my mood turns sour at the total lack of network, almost as if my dad had installed a cellphone jammer in this room.

I turn on my phone light and look around th