The Basement
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The Basement
Written by Christian Lee of E4B Composition 1 Instructor: Mr. Kenneth M. Smith Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 2013
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Words in text (tokens): 2547 Words checked = [2479] Words in Oxford 3000™ = [91%]
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About the Author ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
Christian Lee was born in 1992 and studies languages in Wenzao Ursuline College. She majors in English and minors in Japanese. Other than that, she also knows Korean and French. Starting at a young age, she has been going back and forth the United States and Taiwan for studies. Before coming to Wenzao, she studied at I-Da International High School. An animal lover and also loves sports. Her favorite types of writing are grouped into the mystery section such as crime fiction, and detective stories. “Criminal Minds” is one of her favorite programs and it is where the idea of her first short novel, The Basement, comes from.
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Table of Contents ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
Chapter One ............................ 6 Chapter Two ............................ 10 Chapter Three .......................... 14 Chapter Four ........................... 20 Chapter Five ............................ 25 Chapter Six .............................. 29 Chapter Seven ......................... 33 Resources ................................ 37 Acknowledgment .................... 38 5
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Chapter 1 “Where is the body!” as I woke up with cold sweat. These words have hunted me in my dreams for days and nights. I stared having these dreams after I left my boyfriend all by himself in the cold, damp basement…
It was a warm summer day I remember, just about a month or two after I moved from Russia to the United States. I was born in America, but because of a fire which killed all of my family, I 6
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was adopted over and grew up in Moscow. I think I was five or six when the fire happened so I cannot remember much except that it came too fast in the middle of the night. The only thing I could remember were the beautiful reddish orange flames coming out from the windows. Then it all went silent. I used to have dreams of houses burning, but after I turned sixteen, the dreams stopped. Up until now, I have just turned twenty seven.
I moved back to the States to settle because I
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found a job at the New York Police Department. There is where I met Andrew. Tall, handsome, caring and almost everything you can think of as a perfect man are included in him. Never thought I would ever meet anyone such perfect but here he is. Andrew is my supervisor, and we work as a team solving murder cases, which from time to time could be quite disturbing. Most of the time, I forget what time it is by working from dusk to dawn but still Andrew was always by my side. �Want to go out and grab
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anything to eat? My treat,� is what he says to me the most. Then we would leave the lab for a few hours just to stroll the empty streets of New York. It was quite romantic. After knowing him for about three months, he suddenly held my hand during a night walk across Time Square.
He did not say anything other than kissed me.
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The kiss in Time Square.
Chapter 2
Things were going out really well between me and Andrew. I moved into his house shortly after we started dating.
It was a December noon, and I was waiting for Andrew to come home for lunch. He always comes home, and we’d always have lunch together no matter what. Before coming home, Andrew would always call first, but I haven’t 10
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gotten any calls from him since he left for work. I didn’t have to work because I was injured during a gun fight two weeks ago and is still recovering from surgery. Suddenly the house phone rang, and it was a colleague, Brandon, calling. “Hey Kim, have you heard from Andrew? I tried contacting him for the whole morning but got no answers.” “Didn’t he go to work this morning?” I replied. ”I remember him getting up really early, changed, than rushed out not forgetting to tell me that he was going to work.”
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“That’s
strange,”
said
Brandon
sounding
suspicious, “He never showed up in the station. I’ll check if I can get a track on him.” Suddenly, I had this really bad feeling that something bad has happened to Andrew. “I’ll try to call him also,” I said, “I’ll contact you too if I get something.” Than we both hung up.
I started to call Andrew as many times as I can, but all of the calls went to his voice message. I waited and a few minutes passed but no reply. “What could have happened to him?” I thought to
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myself. “It couldn’t be a car accident or else someone should have informed me already” What could it be?
“Wait!” I shouted out loud,” could it be of the mysterious calls during the late nights these days?”
I started to wonder who called him and what for.
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Chapter 3
I ran straight to the New York Police Department to find Brandon telling him about the mysterious calls Andrew has been answering these nights. As I was pulling out of my driveway, something red drew my eye. I called Brandon immediately. As he picked up I said in a calm voice, “I found what looks like blood on the side of my driveway, I’ll take a small sample of it, and I’m off the office.” It didn’t take me much time since I turned on my 14
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police siren and rushed in the lab to test the “red thing” I found. Shocking to know, I was right! Reports came out for positive human blood…and it was Andrew’s. “Gosh! How could this be his? Brandon said in a shocked voice. But I didn’t reply
I was devastated.
More questions popped up without any answers. Wanting to know where my boyfriend is; but up till now, evidence is either showing he is hurt or
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dead but none of that are we sure enough to say anything; the only thing we all could be sure of is that he is definitely missing. As I started to sob, Brandon hugged me in his arms. “I’ve got to find him” murmuring to myself, “I’ve got to find Andrew no matter he is dead or not.” Then I felt a stream of tears drop. “Kim, I’m sure he’s fine.” Brandon said softly.
After calming down, I told Brandon about the calls that Andrew had been picking up quite
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frequently the past few days. “Could that have anything to do Andrew’s missing?” Brandon asked suspiciously. “How would I know?” answering faster than my brain can think of a proper sentence. ”All I know is that he always avoids me when he’s talking, it just seems too weird.” “Maybe it’s just classified work he’s working on.” “Even though I know that he has been sent forth for that kind of work, what he’s doing had been just too suspicious.”
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“So should we…” not finishing the sentence, Brandon looked up at me. “Huh?” “Nothing…it’s nothing. I’ll help you look for him but are we going to report this?” Suddenly an adrenalin feeling came and a flash went through my mind and I could hear a man’s scream, “What are yo…” and it was back to normal again. “My head hurts Brandon and I saw this really strange image of a screaming man.”
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“…I think you’ve been working your head too much, I’ll give you a ride home. Get some rest and we’ll start tomorrow.”
When Brandon walked me to my front door, my heart kept on beating fast and the same image flashes kept replaying in my mind. What the hell is going on?
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“I saw a screaming man in the flashing images...”
Chapter 4
I went to the office early the next morning. The night before didn’t go so well being all by myself in the empty apartment without Andrew; I had been used to having him by me the whole time. Only one day after he had gone missing, it feels as my whole is falling apart. Than a felt of warmth touched my cheek, I was Brandon. “So early today. Couldn’t wait a bit to start looking for your boy, right?” 20
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I laughed, “You just know me too well Brandon.” I put out my arms and he gave me a nice hug which made me feel a lot better. “Okay than! Let’s start the work.”
Brandon and I worked non-stop for the whole morning analyzing the photographs taken from the driveway, and some hair we found near the blood specs. The results came back telling us that Andrew bled first and then carried away because the blood was vertical drops. The hair we found didn’t really tell us much. A short arm hair was
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found but it gave us no connections. “I walked over to pick some samples. That might be why my hair is found…” “That could be why, though, I still need to ask how you noticed that small amount of blood even if you’re in your car?” Brandon asked. “I’m not that sure,” answered, “I just saw something red went over to give it a look.” “Well, you’d better be more careful next time. If the boss finds out we’re doing this without telling and finding your hair sample near, you might be in big trouble.”
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“I will. Umm, thanks though.” I sighed.
We went to lunch and came back to the lab to do more search on the mysterious calls and whom they are from. Although we were not able to get an address but we know it was from the New York area. Just as we were thinking that thank god it’s in the district so it’ll be much easier to track down later the phone the caller’s id signaled in calling mode. “Track it! Fast!” yelling and pointing to the screen where the green spot shines sarcastically
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in front of my eyes. “Hold on, come on…the area’s closing in…just stay a few more seconds and…YES!!!!” Brandon shouted holding up his fist. “I got it down to a few blocks but…” Suddenly he stopped talking.
I took a look at the location shown on the tracker screen and STIFFED. 79th street, the block I live on. It showed a few houses nearby on that street, including mine. “I guess we should go take a look,” Brandon’s voice snapped me out of the shock. I nodded in
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agreement.
Chapter 5 My house was the last to be checked. Arriving and pulling up towards me and Andrew’s house, another blackout and flash of image with the man struck me again. This time, much clearer than the last, I could actually make out whose voice it belongs to, Andrew’s. He was saying in a murmur
which
I
can
make
out
only
“What…you…doing…me…base…let…crazy…s top…”than it ended. I saw the worried look on Brandon’s face when I got back into focus. 25
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“The flashing images again?” he asked carefully. “Yeah…but it’s really weird. It was Andrew’s voice and he seemed to be in much pain.” Telling him what I saw and heard. ”Oh! And there was a word something base or…I’m not sure.” Brandon didn’t answer but thought to himself, “Base…something doesn’t seem so right here.”
Giving Brandon the keys to my front door, I followed behind him and went inside. “The atmosphere here is…I don’t know how to explain,” said Brandon.
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I didn’t hear what he was saying because I was already on the floor. I passed out…Again.
This time, I can see Andrew clear as if he is right in front of me. Lying on is back, I see that he is bleeding from the back of his head. “Someone must have hit him in the head…” I thought to myself. As I tried to wake up from the half dream half real coma, Andrew’s yell shocked me. “You MEDERER!” and I woke up. Feeling confused so I tried to search in my memory according to what I have just experienced. His expressions
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were so real and it had been printed into my mind. “Kim, I really think this going to drive you crazy. I think we should…” “But Brandon,” I squeezed in, ‘I must find Andrew or else when the department finds out that he’s missing, it would become a bigger problem.” “I…I guess you’re right. So, what were you talking about earlier? Base…what? ” “The base…ment” I replied unsurely.
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Chapter 6
“Hold on Brandon, why are you searching my house? Are you being suspicious about me?” “Of course not, but there is just this strange feeling…” Brandon replied honestly. “Let’s just look around the house first and see if Andrew left anything behind.” Brandon agreed with a nod. We looked though the kitchen and I showed Brandon what we had for breakfast that day but 29
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nothing seemed to be strange and suspecious. Then so was the living room, and the master’s bedroom but when I walked into the garage I remembered something. I told Brandon to look a bit around more and I was going to check up on something. After locking the garage door, I climbed on a wooden chair and reached over a tall shelf. I pulled out a journal with my initials, Ks, on the back of the cover page. Opening it was frightening because I don’t remember keeping this diary. Still the book seems too familiar. I hesitated before flipping the cover over.
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The first few pages seemed normal but when I turned the page for the eleventh page, the page was covered in an exotic red color. “What could that be?” to my police instinct, I put it up close to my nose and immediately I threw the diary to the ground. That smell made me want to throw up and would keep me from eating food for a few days at least. I called out to Brandon. “Brandon, I found a piece of paper and it seems like Andrew drew something on it. I can’t make it out but it tells me to find the answers in the
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basement.” I sort of lied to him without telling him that I have found “my” journal and the mysterious “blood” page in it, he replied in a slight humor, “So is it time we explore the mysterious basement now?” “Follow me!”
“It tells me to find the answers in the basement.”
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Chapter 7
Creek-creek-crack-squash! “Watch out Brandon, the stairs are kind of broken” I said. “Yeah, maybe you can tell Andrew to fix it when after we find him. Ha-ha!” “Ha-ha
Ha-ha”
tagged
on
laughing
with
Brandon’s humor again but suddenly I went silent. At the same time, I saw a wooden stick by a dark corner with a speck of light peaking from the 33
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basement door up and picked it up hiding it behind my back. Brandon didn’t notice anything and turned his back toward me investigating a picture on the wall.
I struck with force aiming Brandon’s head and then a thump tells me that I succeeded again. Bending over to the half-conscious Brandon and leaning towards his ears, I said softly, “Tell you what, Andrew’s not coming back again and you’ll never find him, but I guess you’d meet him really soon.”
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With a smile on my face, I smashed his head again a few times with the thick wooden stick. I killed Brandon the same way I killed Andrew. Blunt hits to the head and then it was dead silent again. The diary made me remember everything. The smell of the molding blood brought my memories back. Remembering that I chased out of the house after Andrew left and hitting him in the back of the head. Carried him through the back door and down the basement to finish up what I have planned.
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That diary of mine, filled with my darkest thoughts and also the secret love between me and Brandon. No One knew that, but I guess I saw Andrew peeking is head into that dark corner of mine.
Now, no one’s ever going to know that I have the two boys living with me down in the dark dark basement.
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Resources ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ Cover- Rebel Gaming: The Basement: Used Games http://rebelgaming.com/2013/04/30/the-baseme nt-used-games/ P.9- UKToday News http://uktodaynews.com/6343/edith-shain-deadnurse-who-was-kissed-in-times-square-photo-die s-at-91/ P.19- Film” Ariel” http://www.entil2001.com/series/firefly/season 1dvd/ff1-9.html P.32- Photographer Uffe Frandsen “The basement” http://www.uffefrandsen.com/?projects=in-a-ba sement 37
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Acknowledgment I would like to thank my parents for supporting me. Though out my education, without them giving me the chances to study abroad, I would not be able to have the same experiences and language skills I have now. The encouragement they gave me is how I can keep on my studies. Also, I would like to thank a friend of mine, Sherry Chan. Other than the ideas from a TV series, she is the one who gave me the idea of this novel. Without her help, there might be a different ending or even a different story. Thank you all for supporting though out the process and making this novel happen.
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Have you ever been afraid to go down to your basement alone?
What are the mysterious calls during midnights about? Who are they from? And now, where is Andrew? Kim is an ordinary detective police who works in New York. Her boyfriend also her co-worker, Andrew, suddenly disappeared without any sign. Kim is worried and goes to Brandon for help. Can they find Andrew whether he is alive or not? Or is there something hidden behind the kindness of a person’s true identity?
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