Reviews appreciated. And thank you for all the follows and feedback so far. Down into the dark we go….

Trigger warning: abuse (many kinds of abuse, please heed my warning if this is your trigger)

Only a few steps down and the smell hit them like a fog. It was putrid, musty, and dirty. Gail couldn't pin down exactly what might make the strong odour but she didn't really want to know either.

The stairs were old and wooden. They creaked and shifted under each step. A few of them sagged in the middle under Gail's weight and she felt relieved each time one of them held and didn't break. If any steps gave way, there was no railing, no nothing, for her to grasp.

Besides their flashlights, the only other bit of illumination came from a basement window. It was small, rectangular, and high on the wall opposite the stairs. But, there were only a few slivers of evening light making it into the basement so Gail supposed that it was either boarded up or blocked off in some other way.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they could see that the basement wasn't empty, but their little flashlights were not bright enough to give them indication as to what those objects were. It wasn't until Gail practically walked into it that she saw it; a small chain hanging up above her. She looked up and saw the caged industrial light bulb that it was connected to. When she pulled the chain, the light flickered a few times and shone a rough glow that touched every object and found its way into every corner.

Gail and Oliver now saw everything. There was a lot to take in, there was a lot to see, but somehow, there was nothing to say. No way to verbalize their thoughts. They just stood beside each other; each surveyed the basement in silence.

Gail now gathered that at least part of the smell came from the damp state of the old basement. She spotted mould, mildew, and paint bubbled and peeling from the cinder blocks that made up the walls. The floor was a dark concrete with moisture cracks and rusty looking stains that started from between cinder blocks and lead to the floor's drains.

Up above her, she noticed exposed rafters. Pipes were leaking and sweating, with drops falling into big plastic pales. Exposed wires hung all along the ceiling and weaved around each rafter. Gail wasn't sure that all the wires even went anywhere at all.

She saw a small old television in one of the corners and a few old toys, mostly broken, scattered around the room. There are six single sized mattresses on the cold floor, not one of them looked good enough to sleep on. They were old, thin, Gail saw the springs in some places, and with stains that she hoped weren't the urine and blood that they looked like.

Gail picked up the torn teddy bear that lay at her feet and tried to push a little of the stuffing back into a rip. She looked to Oliver for the first time since she'd turned on the light. His eyes met her sympathetically. He saw how unnerved she was by all this and tried to keep a strong face for her.

Oliver placed a hand on her shoulder, "I'm going to call for backup."

Gail nodded and walked around a bit while Oliver was on the radio.

There was a door at the back of the room, probably to some kind of cold cellar thought Gail. She turned the rusty doorknob and opened it; she glanced down and six pairs of little eyes stared back up at her. A minute ago, Gail wouldn't have thought it was possible, but her heart sank even further when she remembered the stack of DVDs upstairs. She knew that each name must correspond with one of these girls.

They seemed so terrified, each hung on to the other for dear life. They could only be six or seven at the most. Even Gail appeared as an enemy to them. She wanted to frown at their ragged clothes and dirty faces, but she tried her best to smile.

She bent down to get more on their level and tried to talk as softly as possible, "Hi… ummm… my name is Gail and that guy down by the stairs is Oliver," she pointed to her badge, "we are police officers and we're here to help you. We're here to keep you safe."

The girls stared at Gail and then looked to each other. She held out her hand to them. They didn't say anything, but regarded her like they were considering moving towards her, one girl began to shift a little towards Gail…

But their newfound glimmer of hope was shattered in an instant with the loud noise of heavy boots that crashed down the stairs.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing in here?"

Oliver tried to say something and get his gun out but the bigger man had already tackled him to the ground. Oliver's gun was knocked under the steps. As the man stood up, he pulled his own pistol out of the back of his pants. He had grabbed it from a drawer upstairs as soon as he realised there were cops in his house.

"Stop! Drop the weapon," yelled Gail. She had gotten within five feet of the man and had her firearm aimed at his chest.

But she was decidedly a little too late; the man already had his pistol pointed squarely at Oliver's head.

"Drop your weapon."

"No," the man was seriously on edge, completely unpredictable, "You, get up off the floor and don't even think about going for your gun," he ordered Oliver.

"Okay," Oliver slowly stood up with his hands held in a non-threatening way, "Hank right? Do you want to explain to us what's going on here because it looks pretty bad from what I see?"

"Shut up. You're in no place to be asking me questions right now," Hank didn't break eye contact when he called out, "Abby, get over here and grab that other gun for daddy."

The girl hesitated, but got up on shaky legs. The fear of her 'daddy' must have been overwhelmingly more than all guns in the room. She went by Gail with her head hung low, crawled under the stairs, and got Oliver's gun. She held onto it with both hands and walked it over to Hank, placing it in his free hand.

"Thank you. Now stand in front of daddy."

"Don't!" Gail yelled to the girl.

Abby yielded to Hank's order and stood directly in front of him. When she realized why he'd asked her to do this, it was too late. Hank now had one gun pointed at Oliver and the other pressed against the side of Abby's head.

All Gail's training had taught her to never take her eyes off the assailant, but she couldn't help glancing down at the little girl every few seconds. Abby stood still, never even trying to peer over to the other girls who were dead silent. There were tears trickling down her face and she'd urinated all over her tattered pants. Gail was more terrified for that little girl than herself or Oliver.

"Drop your weapons," said Gail, "we can talk about this."

"No. Not gonna happen. You've already seen everything. There's no talking because I can't go to prison. Once the other inmates find out that my crimes involve children I'm a dead man. I know it, I'm not stupid. The thing is that I can only handle one hostage so I'm gonna shoot your partner soon and if you try to shoot me, I will not hesitate to shoot Abby," he never took his eyes off Oliver, "Then you and I blondie, are going to walk outta here together and drive out of the city."

"You're not going to get away with any of this. Every exit to the city will be blocked off, you won't make it far," said Gail.

"Well I have nothing to lose and a lot of faith so I might as well give it a try," a sly smile crossed Hank's face.

It was that deranged look that made Gail sure Hank wouldn't think twice about killing Oliver, Abby or the rest of them. Gail was scared. This was all going really fast, too fast. Her nerves were shot. She wasn't sure whether Hank would be able to get another shot off after she shoots him, was it worth taking the chance. Her palms were sweaty and it was difficult to hold her gun steady. She'd never been a believer in any god but she prayed as hard as she could to every religion that she could think of; she needed everything to work out.

"Peck if he shoots, you shoot," instructed Oliver, "Think of yourself and the girls behind you in the cellar."

Gail wasn't sure what she'd do if Hank shot Oliver, but nodded anyways. Her head was heavy, her hands shook, and her hair was matted with sweat.

She took one last look down at Abby. The girl had stopped crying and stared right back into Gail's eyes. Gail tried to give a little smile to let the girl know that everything would be okay. They eyes remained locked for a few moments.

Noise came from outside and Gail's fixed her stare back on Hank; it was the blaring of sirens coming down the street, their backup had arrived.

Hank decided that it was now or never and Gail panicked.

The ear-splitting cry of gunshots reverberated along the basement walls. One. Two… Three.

Author's note: This is based on a few comments that I've gotten on tumblr... If I don't explicitly say 'sex abuse' then don't assume.