“That’s it!”

Freya shouted angrily as she paused her show and got up from her warm nest on the couch. She stomped to her desk muttering to herself about squirrels.

She rummaged through her junk drawer until she found the miniature torch hiding near the back. She made sure it turned on and stomped back to the basement entrance.

Ever since moving in a few weeks ago, Freya had heard a scurrying animal in the basement. The previous owners warned her and her husband about them, but she didn’t realize they would cause such racket. Diego had advised Freya not to mess with the squirrels because it would only make them angry.

However, Freya couldn’t put up with the sounds of tiny feet knocking over boxes or hitting the walls which frightened Freya in quiet moments.

Freya turned the cool copper knob, but it didn’t budge. She tried again just in case the knob was stuck, but it would not turn. Diego had locked it, and Freya couldn’t figure out why.

The sounds in the basement had suddenly stopped, and she went to sit back on the couch. She began obsessing about the locked door and, eventually, went to find the key. After about 30 minutes of looking, she found four keys that she wasn’t sure even unlocked the basement.

The first two keys didn’t work, but the third key unlocked the door and allowed Freya inside.

She has her torch held tightly in her right hand as she pressed onto the wall with her left for stability.

The light-switch was on the wall down towards the bottom of the steps. Once she flipped the switch, she turned off the torch.

Her eyes needed to adjust to the brighter lights, and she ventured deeper into their modest basement. She noticed a cot that she did not recognize and a pair of white tennis shoes too small to be Diego’s. Freya had never seen those shoes before.

“Hello,” she called out. “Is anyone here?”

Freya heard a whimper from behind her. Under a brown metal table was a young woman- no more than 19. Freya recognized her from a missing persons flyer in town. She stood there speechless as the girl realized it was not Diego who had come to visit. She sat tied up unable to move whimpering and begging Freya to help her.

Frey knelt down to undo her homemade mouth gag which was just a sock shoved inside another sock. She was interrupted, though.

“Freya,” they both heard Diego call from upstairs. They listened to his footsteps stop outside the basement door.

Diego saw the basement door open, and panicked to come up with a plan. He had long ago gotten rid of the rats in the walls, and used the previous owner’s story to cover his tracks. He never once thought Freya would actually go in there.

He heard Freya coming back up the stairs. He knew that she now knows his horrible secret. In his state of panic, he threw the basement door shut and locked the door.

“Diego!” Freya yelled and pound her fists into the door. “What have you done?” She was crying as she screamed for him to let her out and explain himself.

Finally, Diego yanked the door open and pushed Freya down the stairs.

“Shut the hell up!” He pulled Freya up from the ground where she lay regaining her strength. He tied her up on the opposite wall from the girl and gagged her with a rag.

He was crying as he held Freya’s face.

“You weren’t supposed to find out.” He kissed her forehead and left both of them in the dark basement.

Freya was upset with herself. Her phone was still on the couch, and she had no way out.

“Hey,” she heard a raspy whisper from the other side of the room. “You loosened the socks just enough that I could get them out.”

Freya cried in relief.

“I’m Jolie. I think I know how we can get out.”