Storm Of Pain

chapter 17

Joshua P.O.V

Jennifer made her way back to the door that lead to the room downstairs, but when she was about to go down, both her siblings shouted,

"NO!"

"What is it with you two?" She asked and crouched down to both of them,

"The monsters! They'll hurt you!"

"Monsters?" She asked with a sigh, "The monsters left with daddy, they won't hurt us," She kissed their temples and took their hands walking down with them. The rest of us followed behind her, walking down the metallic staircase we came down with earlier, only this time we weren't aiming our guns but were still on edge, not knowing what could happen at any second,

Jennifer kept on walking with her siblings and pointed to a light switch behind the staircase that Calleb flipped. As soon as he did, we all looked around the room, except for Jennifer. There was a loud machine that sounded like it was churning metal chains in the distance before the lights started flickering and showing us the room before us. Our mouths fell agape at the sight; the room was huge! It was literally like a mini bat-cave...

To my left was a massive room that had a training mat and equipment as well as a wall lined with at least sixty cars, some collectible, and the rest project sports cars. To my right was the gun room, containing almost all the gun model types, but what really caught my attention was the military-like computer system she was walking towards.

"What? I like my toys," she looked at our shocked faces before turning back to the computers, working on them a bit until she sighed,

"Some won't go on, probably just a power problem, I'll be ba-"

"Sissy! No!" Her brother shouted, running up to her legs, blocking her from continuing her walk to the door she was about to open,

"Buddy-"

"Sissy, the monsters! Please!" The little boy begged her with tears in his eyes, putting his body between her and the door. Jennifer looked over at us then back at the boy confused,

"How about I take my gun with? They won't hurt me if I have my gun with me," She tried persuading him. He looked over at his younger sister and she nodded hesitantly. It was cute how he cared for Jennifer, but their behavior made even me wonder what was behind that door that they didn't want us facing,

Jennifer send the little ones over to me and Calleb and made her way to the door she was heading to before her brother and sister stopped her. She put her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it, pushing the door open. Her sister pushed her face into my thigh, hiding from whatever was behind the door, I put my hand on her back and crouched down, Calleb doing the same with the little boy who started to tremble.

Jennifer walked in and put the lights on. We heard her gasp and saw her face visibly pale, her mouth hanging open a bit,

"Jennifer?"

"I-I..." She couldn't even form a sentence? What was in that damn room? Calleb and I picked the two kids up into our arms, letting them hide away as we walked over to Jennifer.

"What. The. Hell." I was mortified at the sight. My stomach churned in disgust when I started feeling uneasy. The room was covered in blood from top to bottom, I even saw some body parts just laying around here and there. In the corners of the room were bodies that were piled up, as well as along the walls. My gaze shifted to the person sitting in the chair in the middle of the room. He had cables tied around his wrists, ankles, and waist with bruises and cuts similar to Jen's brother. The person's feet were in a water container, his face covered with a wet cloth. Looking around further I saw car jumpers next to the chair and knives in his thighs and hands.

I pressed the little girl's head closer to my neck, preventing her from looking at the scene which she's already probably seen. I watched as Jennifer walked back from the bodies who were once people with friends and family, you could practically see the fear in the eyes of the ones who weren't able to close them.

"My-my father did this!?" She whispered asked herself while walking backwards,

"help..."

My head shot up at the room, looking around, "Did you guys hear that?"

"What?"

"please...

I passed the girl that weighed nothing more than a feather to Jennifer and walked into the room, ignoring them. My eyes scanned the piles of bodies, but no one was alive enough to say anything. I must have-

"pleaseee..." the raspy, desperate voice came again, more urgent now. I turned to the guy in the chair, grabbing the cloth off his face, gasping at what I saw,

"Sergeant Erick!?"

His head rolled to the side, passing out with what seemed like a relieved look on his face. I stared at Jennifer and hurried to untie his restraints. The General and Lieutenant came and helped me carry Jennifer's uncle up to the bedroom we had to walk through to get downstairs.

"Why did you help a monster!?" The girl exclaimed shocked,

"He's not a monster, hunny. That's your uncle,"

"Uncle is a monster!? Since when!?" The Lieutenant chuckled and opened his arms for them,

"Come on, little ones, I bet you're hungry," They nodded eagerly and ran after him to the kitchen, leaving us to care for Commanding Chief Erick...