Despite what she expected, time didn't seem to go slower as the two were stuck down in Eddie's cellar. Kimberly could feel the days and nights coming and going, she could feel her life zipping past her.

She didn't know what day it was anymore since she couldn't keep track of it, and Julian insisted that he didn't have any electronics either so that he couldn't be tracked down by Freddy. All Kimberly knew was that they came to Eddie's on a Friday, and she was meant to travel back to school the following Monday.

And if she didn't show up for school that Monday, she knew that the teachers would immediately contact her parents to find out where she was. Her parents would then go crazy with worry, and spend money that they didn't even have to fly over and see Julian, who wouldn't even be at his home.

Melitta would worry, Owen would worry, her friends back home would worry. Everything would blow up and go wrong if she wasn't at school when she was meant to be, and there wouldn't be any way for her to fix it from this cellar.

Kimberly could literally feel her life and her future slipping through her fingers. Her prom dress, her graduation cap, her diploma, her spot in uni. If she wasn't back to finish off her senior year then everything she had been put through for the past eighteen years of her life would be for nothing.

"Hey."

Julian came out from behind the furnace where the toilet was. He had a small towel – that he had to all but pry out of Eddie's hands – which he had wet from the tap on the wall and he used it to wipe himself clean as best he could.

That was another thing that made being in the cellar so unbearable for Kimberly: There was no shower, only a toilet and a small tap. A tap that they had to use for everything including drinking water. The smell of both Julian and herself were beginning to fill up the room with a thick funk that made breathing an undesirable task. If she breathed through her nose, then Kimberly could smell the stink, and if she breathed through her mouth she could taste it. She wasn't sure which was worse, but she knew that the little tap on the wall was definitely not enough to keep them clean.

Kimberly gave him a weak smile and then averted her eyes back down to the ground. Partly because she didn't really have anything to say to him, but also because he was wearing minimal clothing, and his naked body wasn't what she wanted on her mind right now. Eddie's cellar was very hot – thanks to aforementioned furnace – and so after a few hours of trying to tough it on the first day, they both gave up and took off as much clothing as they acceptably could.

Kimberly had suggested just getting naked since it really wasn't anything either of them hadn't seen before, but Julian was adamant in the fact that he didn't want Freddy Slim to see either of them naked. The possibility that Freddy would find them was undeniable and the more Kimberly thought about it, the more she realized that she would rather die in really musty underwear than with none on at all.

Julian sat down across from Kimberly and leaned against one of the balance beams coming from the ground. His hair was matted against his forehead from the sweat and humidity of the room. He wiped his face with the towel and then ran it down his head, brushing all of his hair back.

"It's Monday," Julian said, breaking the silence.

Kimberly looked up at  him. "How do you know?"

"I've been keeping a tally." He pointed to behind the furnace, where the toilet was. "Right by the water faucet," he said. "I've been using my watch to keep track of it."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"So it's only been three days?"

Julian shrugged, "Only?"

"Well, yeah. It feels like it's been weeks to me," Kimberly said. "It sure smells like it's been weeks."

Julian chuckled lightly, "Trust me, you haven't seen the half of it."

"Yay."

Julian took a deep breath and then sighed, but didn't say anything in response to Kimberly. He dropped his head and lowered his eyes to the ground as he tried to take his mind back to four days ago, back when things were infinitely different. When Kimberly didn't seem to be disgusted by the sight of him or sound of his voice.

He felt hopeless with her. He was trying everything he could, but there didn't seem to be a way to get through to her. This was probably the longest civil conversation they'd had in their three days down here, and even at that it was still pathetic.

"Oh my God, what?" Kimberly demanded.

Julian looked up. "Huh?"

"What is it?" She repeated. "I'm sick of hearing you sigh like that all the damn time."

Julian gave her a dubious look. "What are you talking about? I'm not even—Actually, you know what, fuck it."

"Fuck it?" Kimberly repeated, eyebrow raised.

Julian clenched his jaw as he tried his best not to let his anger show through his face, but that didn't do much since it was clear as day in his voice. "Yes, Kimberly," he said, "fuck it. I'm not going to fight with you so you can either stop being a bitch, or just shut the fuck up."

Kimberly's eyes widened momentarily, before she narrowed them and then crossed her arms over her chest with a shrug as if to say 'fine then'.

"Are you serious?" Julian asked in disbelief. "This is what it's gonna be like? You're actually not going to talk to me?"

She shrugged again. "I don't have anything to say to you, Julian."

"That's because you're fucking ignoring me!"

"I'm sorry if my life being on the line doesn't put me in the best of moods!"

"Kimberly! I'm down here with you! How many fucking times do I have to tell you that!"

"But you—"

"I already know, Kimberly! I don't 'have to' be here," he used air quotes as he spoke, mimicking her voice. "I know, okay? And right now, I really don't want to be here! But as much as I hate saying this, it's your fault we're down here! It's your fucking fault, Kimberly! I don't want to be here! I'd rather be downing some fucking drinks, or taking a freaking shower! The only goddamn reason I'm down here is because I'm in fucking love with you!"

...

"You're..." Kimberly looked at Julian, open-mouthed and wide-eyed.

To say that that had caught her out of the blue would be an understatement. She always thought that she would be the one with unreciprocated feelings, not the other way around. And not even that she didn't care about him, she had just never allowed herself to think about him in a context of love, because she never thought it was an option...but now that she could...

"What happened to no feelings involved?" She asked.

Julian ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "Who the fuck knows?" He replied, his voice quiet for fear that it would crack if he spoke loud enough.

This was not how he had imagined it would go, the first time he told Kimberly he loved her. He thought it would be in an exhilarating spur-of-the-moment joy, or after a really great fuck. Not down in goddamn Eddie's cellar with enough sweat on his body to fill a Jacuzzi. And not right after he called her a bitch either.

He wasn't surprised that she didn't say it back, but that didn't stop it from pulling at his heart. He wanted to see her say it to him, he wanted to hear her tell him that she loved him, even though he knew that she didn't yet. He knew that it was selfish of him to say it knowing somewhat how she felt, but he couldn't help himself either way.

"So...I'm guessing you don't really think I'm a bitch then, do you?"

Kimberly had a gentle smile on her face. Julian could hear her old charm back in her voice as she spoke, and hearing it made him almost as happy as hearing those three would have. He shook his head and sighed, "No, I don't," he chuckled. "I'm sorry for saying that."

"I'm sorry for being one."

He nodded slowly, "...So—"

"Do you—er, want to come over here?"

Kimberly asked the question quickly, almost as though she were afraid he would reject her the way she deflected his love confession. She was trying her best to switch the topic from it, but the mood in the room had shifted, and those feelings of disdain that had been coursing through her only minutes before were nowhere to be found. She wanted to be near him, and he wanted to be near her.

Julian looked surprised, but a smile played at his lips as he nodded, and got up from the ground, walking across to where Kimberly sat, and joining her there. He could smell her three-day-old stench as he leaned in close to her. She could smell his too, but at that moment neither of them cared.

Julian wrapped his arm around her and she leaned into his bare chest. She could feel the sweat covering his body as she laid on him but she couldn't focus on anything other than his heart beating steadily in his chest.

"You smell like shit," she commented.

He chuckled, "Thanks. So do you."

She laughed, and then looked up at him with a cheeky expression on her face. "Um...do you wanna kiss me, Julian?"

He dropped his eyes down to meet her gaze and the sight of her looking up at him with those fucking cat-eyes made his legs weak and he was thankful he was already sitting.

Yes, of course he wanted to fucking kiss her. In all honesty he wanted to do a lot more than that...

"You haven't brushed your teeth in three days," he said.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well neither have you," she replied. "Come on, what I've got couldn't be any worse than what you've got."

He laughed, "True, true."

"And hey, if we still want each other after this, then you best believe nothing's ever gonna get between us."

Julian rolled his eyes, but the smile on his mouth betrayed him. Kimberly giggled, and sat up, repositioning herself so that she was straddling his hips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he brought his own hands to her sides, holding her tighter than ever. Kimberly raised an eyebrow at him, "So are you gonna kiss me or what?"

Julian ran his tongue quickly over his top lip and chuckled, leaning forward and pressing his lips against her without any further hesitation. Kimberly had expected worse, but as she kissed him, she realized how easy it was to ignore the three-day-old taste. His tongue was doing far more important things in her mouth anyway. His hands travelled down to her ass and he squeezed it and lifted her up closer to him so that she was right above his groin.

The thin underwear that the both of them were wearing wasn't enough to leave anything to the imagination, and Kimberly could feel his cock through her panties and through his boxers. She swayed her hips back and forth so that she was grinding against his erection and exciting him even further.

Julian let out a low moan as she bit down on his lower lip, and Kimberly felt him flinch under the movement of her hips. And even though she could feel him getting hard, the both of them knew down here, they wouldn't go past kissing. Not in Eddie's cellar.

And so they continued to make out for who-knows-how-long, and everything else–where they were, why they were there, and how long they had been there–began to melt away. It was only the two of them and their fatal attraction.

And then, as if on cue from the Lord of Cockblocks, there was a loud bang upstairs, and they both pulled away, their heads snapping up to the door of the cellar.

A few more bangs, and then came the growl of a voice that Kimberly had wished she would never have to hear again.

"Where the fuck are they?"

Freddy Slim.

"I – I don't – I don't know, man!" Eddie stuttered as he tried to speak, and his voice sounded choked. "I haven't seen Mr. Carter since Friday!"

Neither Kimberly nor Julian could make out the rest of what Freddy was saying, but they heard bits and pieces...you'd better tell me....no time for...and I find them here...you understand me? DEAD.

Kimberly looked at Julian with pure fear in her eyes, and Julian looked at her with the same. This could very well be the end.

"Where's the escape door?" she asked.

They both scrambled to their feet and she followed Julian as he ran to the other end of the cellar and hunched over something. She was so scared that she couldn't even find humor in the sight of a grown man sprinting with a full on boner. Julian flipped a switch on the wall and the bricks began to move.

"Okay! Okay! They're in the cellar, man!"

Eddie's voice came loud and clear, and Julian looked at Kimberly with desperation. Quickly he flipped the switch back up and the tiles shifted into their original places.

"There's not enough time for this." He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the nook underneath the stairs just as they heard a loud gunshot and the sound of the cellar door crashing down the stairs. They both got low, face deep into the spider webs and rat holes, and Kimberly could feel the tears running down her face even though she wasn't audibly crying. Julian intertwined their fingers and looked over at her. 'Don't make a sound,' he mouthed.

She nodded, and shut her eyes tightly as she tried to imagine she was anywhere but there. Anywhere but there.

She thought about her thirteenth birthday when her old best friend Nilah had gotten them floor tickets for One Direction and they jumped up and down on her bed, screaming at the top of their lungs. She was truly happy then, and had no worries in the world other than how to make Zayn (R.I.P.) notice her from up on stage.

That memory didn't last long though, as the sound of Freddy's guttural cackle pierced through the room like lightning. She winced at the sound of it, and Julian just held her hand tighter.

Freddy took a step down, and cement from the underside of the stairs fell to the ground beside them. Kimberly was not very religious but was already five minutes deep into her prayer as Freddy took another step down, cocked his gun, and laughed,

"Come out, come out, wherever you are..."

✎_ _ _ _ _

I have no idea what the fuck happened and when this became an action book but all i want to do right now is write a bunch of sex :(

...

so i am (haha it gets WILD later on)

<3

-nabi