The sound of the ticking clock by the wall kept me entertained. I helplessly stared at its hands moving in circles, awaiting for a rightful time to leave the room. Finally the small hand pointed towards the roman two.

I stood up from the bed and walked towards the door, twisting the door knob and gently opening it only to leave a space for my head to pop out. I looked to either sides of the corridor and nobody was visible. I took the opportunity and closed the door behind me.

I slowly walked on my tiptoes towards the stairs that led to the ground floor. When I finally reached them I had to hold tight on the railing so I wouldn't step wrongly and fall. I made it to the ground floor in matters of long seconds.

I turned to the door which Shawn opened before to go to the basement and the long walk of stairs were illuminated again under the lights of the wall lamps. I closed the door gently and made my way downstairs.

I started to hear male voices talking and laughing. My heartbeat accelerated, it wouldn't be good at all if I was found there by Shawn or any of his men. My desire to talk to Jason exceeded my thoughts of giving up and going back so I started walking along the corridor until an opened door flashed the lights from inside partially illuminating the corridor.

I stopped by the wall and slowly peeked one eye to check what was going on inside the room. It looked like a staff room, they had a table in the centre of the room where several drinking vessels rested, and some other furnitures by the walls. The men were playing a card game from what I could tell.

It was too risky to simply keep walking since passing by the door would mean I could be seen so I decided to wait until a certain moment to continue.

-"Come on I'm going with all"- One man said smirking in the act. Some of the other men laughed while others stared quietly.

-"Me too, lets see what you got"- Another one said. They both placed the cards on the table and the first man laughed revealing he won the hand.

The others laughed at the second one and I took the opportunity to rapidly pass by the door. Thankfully it looked like none of the men saw me so I kept walking relieving myself from the stress it was producing me.

Suddenly I heard sobs coming from a turn in the corridor, it wasn't where Jason was located but my curiosity was great enough to trap me into investigating who was producing that sad melody.

I walked until I finally perceived the cell by the end of it. My footstep were as muted as possible yet the person perceived them and suddenly stopped sobbing. I stopped when I reached the cell and smirked my eyes in order to see through the dark little prison.

After a couple of seconds adjusting to the darkness my eyes met a shiny watery ones. My spine froze from my scalp down to my waist when I realised the person trapped inside the cell was no other than Jazmyn.

-"Gabriella?!"- Jazmyn spoke both confusingly yet surprisedly.

I had to place my index finger pressed against my lips so she could level down her tone. -"Jazmyn, What are you doing here?"- I asked surprised too as I kneeled and pressed myself tight against the metal bars.

She did the same until our bodies were locked on a tight hug only separated by the cold metal. I could feel her body shaking and she felt incredibly fragile.

-"The men locked me here! It's a horrible and scary place I want to go home!"- She explained. It was so blurry to my brain to link the reason why Jazmyn was here, why would she be? Everything seemed so turbid.

-"How did you find me?"- Jazmyn asked staring at me with pure adoration.

-"I would explain it but it wouldnt make any sense at all... Jazmyn I promise you I will get you out of here! Just give me some time to figure out how, ok?"- I rubbed my hand against her cheeks whipping away all the cold tears away.

-"Where is Jason?"- She asked suddenly.

My stomach twisted uncomfortably. I didn't want to worry her or get her angry at me so I played a white lie on her.

-"He is around..."- I doubted if my tone even sounded convincing but her fear made her believe my words and she nodded with hints of hope.

After reassuring her she was going to be fine and out of here in matters of seconds I decided to head back and check Jason's cell. A part of my body calmed down knowing Jazmyn was considerably safe and close to me, another part of me yet felt the pressure of the escaping plan.

The basement felt as a labyrinth but somehow my brain managed to direct me to my desired location. Jason's cell stood in the dark in front of me. I gulped saliva and held the metal bars with my shaking hands.

-"Jason?"- I dared to speak.

Suddenly a hand came out of the dark and gripped around my throat tightening in the act, hindering my respiration.

-"Jason I'm sorry"- I managed to say from my tightened throat.

The grip loosened up slowly yet his hand never left my neck.

-"I know you are extremely mad, but Jason I didn't know this was happening, watching you getting tortured doesn't make me any happy at all but this is exactly what you have done to me for the past month and a half"- I tried to be careful with my words yet speaking with complete honesty. -"Jazmyn is here... she is safe"- I informed him knowing that the information would soothe him down.

I waited for fifteen long minutes for Jason to speak but he wouldn't provoke a single sound nor direct his eyes towards me.

-"You don't know what you got yourself into, you are completely oblivious of what's going on"- Jason's husky voice said sternly.

-"I'll come back Jason, I'll think of something, I promise"- I said as I thought to myself if I was really going crazy and ignoring his confusing comment. -"Have this you seem hungry"- I added as I placed a pair of buns I hid from the atrocious dinner.

I exited the labyrinth of a basement after another solid full minutes and made my way back to the first floor, always taking care not to make any loud sounds yet appeased that Jazmyn was relatively safe and so was Jason.

I started to drown inside my thoughts as I walked along the long corridor. Maybe I could help Jazmyn escape and I could take her to live with me and my grandmother so I could regain my old life and help her get a new life, both of us with full freedom. The fact that Jazmyn was in the basement still haunted my mind, Why would she be there? How did Shawn find her? Again my head turned into a box full of questions but lacked of answers.

-"Why do we have to keep her?"- A feminine voice with hints of annoyance echoed softly through an almost closed door.

-"We are not done with everything, I need to make my dad proud"- Shawn's unmistakable voice replied to the first voice.

Driven by my curiosity I walked towards the slightly opened door as a beam of light brightened my eyes as I peaked through the little gap.
It was another room that seemed to be for meetings but more informal, bookshelves all over the walls, three comfortable looking sofas facing a glass table in the middle and a glass shelf full of expensive liquors. Shawn's figure was sitting on one of the sofas with his legs crossed and a glass of wine firmly held on his left hand.

-"We got Jason, thats all we wanted now we can all move on and leave the shitty business on a bullet"- The female voice spoke again, I heard high heels ticking against the green carpet on the floor and I noticed the blonde woman walking closer to Shawn with her arms highly crossed over her impeccable white blouse.

My eyes travelled up to describe her face and they widened in shock as I identified the woman in the room.
It was Emily. I recognised immediately, she resembled her a 100% just with an older look as she was on her twenties now and her voice sounded slightly more mature and seductive yet I could put my hand on the fire that it was her. I grabbed my phone from the pocket of my shorts and I directed the camera towards the room before tapping the record button

-"Why are you so impatient Emily? Aren't you having fun watching Jason getting tortured?"- Shawn replied gently spinning his glass of wine examining the thick red dyed liquid inside of it.

-"Don't get me wrong, I enjoy that very much but I want to be able to stop living over a false death and actually do something big"- She snorted clearly expressing her annoyance.

-"Are you still into getting into Hollywood? You wont quit that purpose, will you?"- Shawn chuckled slowly taking a sip from the wine.

The Emily woman rolled her eyes at Shawn's comment and placed her hands over her hips -"That was our deal, remember? I only had to take care of that Jason and you will get me to the acting academy"- She reproached placing her hand against her chest now.

-"Your job is not done until my dad says so, remember we pay you a lot for your service, don't bite the hand that feeds you"- Shawn warned her as he placed the glass of wine against his bottom lip and took another deep sip of the liquor.

-"You know better than anyone everything I have done for your business, If getting stuck with that trash of Jason pretending I liked him and jumping in front of that car didn't show my dedication and appreciation to your dad's business then I don't know what will"- Emily answered back sitting on the adjacent sofa.

I placed my hand over my mouth to restrain a gasp to betray my position. The puzzle was more complicated than what I imagined. So Emily wasn't dead, she jumped on our car way that night to fake her death. Why would she do that?

-"Don't make me laugh Emily, anyone would have done that knowing the amount of money we were paying you to keep Jason under control, and we had the car situation planned so nothing would happen to you"- Shawn shook his head smirking before throwing his head back to stare at the white ceiling. -"We just needed an innocent family so Jason wouldn't trace the plan to connect it to us"-

-"Is that the reason why you still have that slut here? In an intention to make it up for her suffering over the plan?"- Emily replied combing her hair as she mentioned me.

Shawn stood up and walked over the shelf of liquors before examining them carefully, Emily's eyes following every move he made. -"Jason did a lot of intense things to her thinking she killed you, he literally shattered her family over that, doesn't it make you feel slightly guilty"- He raised an eyebrow as he looked back at her deep blue eyes searching for an answer.

Emily chuckled as her eyes stared at a fixed point. -"Don't try to blame me for Jason's actions, what he did to that girl and her family is his entire fault, people suffer everywhere, only the best adapted can survive, I call that co-lateral damage... Let alone say you and your dad were the ones who chose to use an innocent family even knowing what Jason was capable of"-

I clenched my teeth tightly together. I was completely furious at the way Emily portrayed everything, she simply washed her hands off of all the dirt that happened just for her own benefit. She used Jason just for money, she faked her death causing Jason to completely shatter and to finalise it she doesn't flinch the slightest knowing destroying Jason also destroyed my family and me.

I had enough of the conversation. I slowly walked backwards on my tiptoes to avoid making any betraying sounds. I jogged my way back to my room as my body filled with anger. I closed and locked the door of my assigned room behind me and I jumped onto the bed.

-"She knew it, everything was completely planned"- I spoke to myself rubbing my forehead with my fingers slowly.

Even Shawn was involved in the whole accident. Everything I have been through for the past years its due to his dad and him. I fell like a fool for his innocence and kindness when in fact he knew everything, every single detail.

Thoughts of Jason started to arise all over my head. He was the biggest fool of the whole show, he was played by the girl he loved, she used him like a puppet. Regardless of everything he did to me I had to do something, I had the advantage that none of them were aware that I acknowledged the truth.

I gazed at every single furniture of the room thinking of possible ways of escaping this building with Jazmyn and Jason by my side.