Break In

Chapter 29 of Banished for Love

“I still think this is a bad idea,” I whisper apprehensively to Brittney as she picks the lock on Devin’s front door.

 

“Do you want answers or not?” she retorts, finally the lock clicks.

 

“Do I even want to know where you learned to do that?” I mumble to Brittney as she tucks her lockpick back into the pocket of her jeans.

 

“Youtube can teach you anything,” she says, slowly edging the door open. The door lets out one low creak before opening smoothly. We hold our breath, hoping either Devin isn’t home, or if he is, didn’t hear the creak. We cross the threshold in a low crouch, shutting the door silently behind us.

 

“Where to?” Brittney breathes almost silently.

 

“If Devin is home, he’s likely upstairs. So, let’s stay downstairs as much as possible,” I respond, silently moving down a hallway behind the staircase.

 

We pass a few open doors leading to a bathroom, a sun room, and a large piano room. We open one door to a large dining room and close it back up silently. We turn down another few hallways and at the end of one is a set of ornate double doors. We push them open and step into the study, closing the doors behind us.

 

“You said the secret passage was behind the bookcase?” I clarify with Brittney. She nods and creeps toward it.

 

“The secret button isn’t so easy to find now that it’s covered in books,” Brittney mutters bitterly.

 

One particular title catches my eye. What better book to hide a possible passageway to hell than Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons. I slowly tip it off the shelf. The bookcase swings open with a low creak. Brittney and I share a look before descending the winding staircase. We step off the stairs into a dark, dank basement. There is a faint glow toward the back of the room and we slowly pick our way over the uneven ground toward it. The stench of sulfur rises from the large hole in the ground.

 

“What is that?” Brittney asks, dread in her voice.

 

I nod gravely. “That’s a passage to hell.”

 

“I knew Devin was bad news but I didn’t expect him to be ‘in league with hell’ bad,” Brittney says, shaking her head.

 

“What do we do now?” I ask Brittney quietly.

 

“Sorry to cut this short, but I think it’s time for you two to be leaving.” Devin’s voice booming out of the blackness at full volume behind us causes us to nearly jump out of our skins. “Ladies, I expected more from the both of you.” Devin chastises menacingly. The room is pitch black and his voice echoes off the basement walls, making it impossible to tell where it is coming from.

 

Brittney snorts next to me. “You honestly expected to be that shady and for us to not look for answers?” she asks him incredulously, but I hear a slight nervous jitter in her underlying tone.

 

Devin chuckles darkly, without humor. “Oh Brittney, how you’ve changed. I remember you used to be so sweet.”

 

I can feel Brittney vibrating with rage beside me. “Well what did you expect?” She shouts bitterly at him. “You left me here to fall! To be alone!” Her words crack and tears thicken her voice.

 

The silence is heavy for a moment with Devin’s lack of response. Then when he does speak again, he sounds much closer. Britney and I shuffle closer together, taking up a defensive position.

 

“What is it the two of you expected to find coming in here all Starsky and Hutch?” Devin sounds slightly amused.

 

“What you are,” I respond, putting as much command as I can muster into my voice. “I know you aren’t human, so what are you?” As jittery as this encounter is making me, something in me doesn’t believe Devin would really hurt us.

 

“Well, you’re only half right. I am actually half human.” Devin confesses. “Unfortunately I can’t allow you to know the other half.”

 

The lights in the basement flash on, stunning and blinding Brittney and I. Devin swoops in front of us and places a hand on the sides of our heads, sandwiching them between his palms. Devin’s eyes bore into ours and I feel a foreign presence inside my head. I squirm, trying to block it out. Try as I might, however, I feel threads of memory being severed. My knowledge of Devin being half human snip; my suspicion of Devin’s parents snip; seeing his strange black dot on my mind map snip. Devin releases Brittney and me. We collapse to the ground with a moan. The last thing I see before unconsciousness swallows me is Devin’s mask of calm cracking into a look of what I can only describe as desperation.

 

One final memory is stripped from my mind; the memory of having come here to snoop tonight snip.