Until Series(163)

“Kara, you need to calm down. I know you’re upset, but if you go into labor right now, this whole situation is going to go from bad to worse.”

“How can I be calm? I just handed over my fiancé to men who want to kill him.” She cries harder.

“Kara, I know that you’re scared for Tim; but right now, you need to think about you and the baby.” I rub her arm, trying to calm her down. “Tim is working with Trevor and his brothers. He is in a better situation than us right now.” I remind her of where Tim is at this moment, hoping that it will help to calm her down enough to help me get us out of this hellhole. After a few minutes, her crying stops, and she uncovers her face. “We need to try and get out of here.” I tell her, trying to stand. My legs wobble, and I stumble sideways into the wall.

“You’re bleeding.”

“What?” I ask, leaning against the wall. The back of my head pounds with every beat of my heart. I lift my hand to the back of my head; that’s when I feel the large wound and the wetness from my blood against my fingers. When I bring my hand near my face, it’s covered with blood. “Shit,” I breathe, closing my eyes.

“I’m going to be sick.” Kara goes to the corner, throwing up and making my already-queasy stomach lurch. I swallow against the feeling. We both don’t need to be sick at the same time; one of us needs to have it together.

“They say head wounds bleed a lot more than any other wound,” I say. I’m not sure if I’m saying this for me or for her. She lifts her head, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand, looking at me. “We’re going to get out of here, Kara; I promise.”

“Okay,” she says. I can see how scared she is when she doesn’t look at me. Using the wall for balance, I make my way to the set of stairs that lead to the large double doors. Once there, I climb up on my hands and knees to the top, pushing against the doors. They don’t budge an inch not that I’m surprised. I scoot down the stairs, sitting at the bottom of the steps, trying to come up with a plan.

“What if we both try?” Kara asks. I lift my head, looking at her standing in front of me; her face is pale, her eyes red from crying.

“We can try.” I scoot over, give her room to get up the stairs with me, and once at the top, we both push against the doors, counting and pushing to no avail.

“It’s not working,” Kara says, making me laugh; the stress of the moment and her words break me down.

“We will get out of here,” I say, praying I’m right.

“They took pictures of us.”

“What?” I ask, looking over at her.

“When they finally brought me down here,” she looks over at me, “they took pictures of us.”

“Why?”

“I think they’re going to use them to get to Tim.”

“We need to find a way out of here,” I tell her, and this time my worry seeps into my tone.

“The door won’t budge.”

“If we can’t get out, then we need to find a way to protect ourselves against them when they come back.”

“There is nothing in here.”

“We can break the old shelves up and use the pieces as a weapon.”

“They have guns.”

“I know, but either we try to fight, or we wait for them to kill us, or whatever it is they want to do to us.” Kara gives me a nod and starts to rub her large belly. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, just some Braxton Hicks. I’ll be okay.” I watch her closely, praying that my nephew doesn’t decide to come into the world right now. “I’m okay; I promise.” Kara says, watching me.

“If you start to feel like you’re having real contractions, you need to tell me,” I tell her, going over to the shelf and using my weight to try and pull it apart. It doesn’t budge, so I kick it a few times, but still, nothing. “It’s not working,” I state the obvious, watching the light flicker and start to dim. “Shit.” I run over to the lamp and turn it out, hoping that we will have enough battery when we really need it. “I never even thought about turning the lamp off.

“I never thought of it either.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have started smoking and have a spare lighter, do you?” I ask Kara, making her laugh.

“No, sorry.”

“Figures.” We sit there in the dark, my brain running over hundreds of scenarios. I can’t believe that yesterday I spent the day driving back home from our honeymoon. After leaving the cabin, we drove to November and Asher’s and picked up Lolly; she was so happy to see us and we missed our girl. After we got her, we went home and unpacked, ordered a pizza, and complained about being home and having to go back to the real world. I hated watching Trevor getting ready for work this morning. I wanted so badly to cuddle into him and hide away from the world for a few more days. Now, I wish I would have spent a few more minutes looking at him, kissing him, and telling him how much I love him. When he realizes that Kara and I are missing, he is going to freak the hell out. I’m leaning against the wall when I hear what sounds like a car. I stand when I know it’s getting closer.