“It looks like it’s searching for something.” Reese whispered.
“It also seems like it’s coming in waves.” I said, suddenly aware of the timing of the pulses of light. “If we can time the pulses, maybe we have a chance of getting out of here in between them?”
“Good idea. I’ll time them with my stopwatch.” Raising his arm, Roderick started playing with the buttons on the side of his watch, but then stopped and looked at us. “It’s not working, my watch isn’t working.”
“That’s odd. I’ll try the timer app on my phone.” Reese said as she took her phone out of her pocket and pressed the screen. “That’s weird, the only function working is the torch.”
“We’ll just have to keep count the old fashioned way, I think we need to get out of here as soon as we can. It already feels like we’ve been down here far too long.” I looked around the room trying to see if there was any other way out.
“Agreed.” Roderick nodded. “After the next set of pulses, I’ll stack some boxes to help us reach the window so we can climb out. It might be a tight fit, but we should all be able to get out through there.”
We sat quietly for what seemed like an eternity, all just focusing on breathing and staying calm. I tried not to let my thoughts return to Georgie and I kept my gaze away from the staircase, choosing instead to think about hugging Mom when I saw her. I always felt safe in her arms and smiled softly at the thought of her warm embrace.
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“Okay, here it comes again.” Reese said.
“How can you tell?” I asked.
“I’ve noticed there’s a slight popping sound before we hear the high pitched one and before we see the pink light itself. I just heard the faint popping noise coming from outside the window.”
We went quiet and listened closely. Reese was right, we could hear the popping sound. Then just as that went quiet the high-pitched sound started again. I covered my ears in an attempt to muffle it and stop it from vibrating my brain.
“Remember to count!” Roderick yelled over top.
I nodded and began to count slowly in my head. Each second felt like an eternity as we slowly counted and waited.
Finally the sound and the light disappeared again. I pulled my hands away from my ears and started counting from zero to time out the duration in between. We all looked at each other as we quietly counted upwards.
I looked at my hands while I ticked off numbers in my head, they were still clenched tightly and blood had appeared from where my fingernails had pierced my skin. My heart felt sick with worry but I buried it deeper so it wouldn’t reach my thoughts and send me spiralling.
We kept counting upwards, for a brief moment I thought it was over and that the light wouldn’t return, but it seemed to read my mind and within an instant had started again. I stopped counting and covered my ears once more.
The pink light broke the darkness above us again and scanned the staircase.
We seemed to be relatively safe in our little corner and I shuffled myself further back against the cool concrete wall, trying to bury myself within the darkness that it offered.