* * *
They were all having a great time sitting on the floor upstairs, eating pizza and watching TV on the huge screen Elle had made Nero put in the bedroom so she could watch all her favorite movies in bed. Well, all of them minus Maria; she had gotten a stomach bug.
Lake swallowed the huge bite of pizza in her mouth. “So, Chloe, do you like Amo?”
Chloe looked at her, her face turning red. “N-no, he’s just my friend.”
“Vincent was just my friend at first, too.”
“It’s not like that.” She looked at the ground, her face still red.
Lake took another huge bite of her pizza. “Well, what about Lucca? Do you like him?”
Chloe looked back up at her, and her eyes grew big. “No way. He s-scares me.”
Lake looked at her in pity. The poor girl didn’t know what was coming her way, but she had to at least give her a warning.
“Vincent scares me, too.”
A loud gulp escaped Chloe’s throat before she took a nervous bite of her pizza.
Pop.
Lake looked around to see if anyone had heard a noise, but no one seemed to have noticed.
“Shh…” she said quietly, going for the remote to turn down the TV a few notches.
They all went dead silent.
Pop. Pop.
The noise was a quiet gunshot followed by the front door squeaking open.
Faces of horror stared back at her, their heartbeats pounding as one.
Her instincts kicked in, knowing she had to do something other than sit there and die.
“Bathroom,” she mouthed more than whispered, giving them the motion to crawl.
A shocked Chloe wouldn’t budge so Elle crawled over to her, pulling on her shirt to move. Finally, she inched forward, and Lake crawled behind them.
As she passed the bed, she quickly reached up and grabbed Elle’s cell phone off the mattress.
Adalyn was the first to reach the bathroom. Opening the door slowly to avoid any sounds, she crawled in with Chloe going in behind her, Elle following, and finally, Lake came in last.
As she crawled in, her mind quickly ran through scenarios. All but two of them ended in too much spilled blood. She shut the door behind her, looking around to see if anything could be placed in front of the door. Nothing. Only one scenario remained.
She handed Elle her phone then whispered to them all, “Call Nero. Then get in the tub and keep your heads down.”
Elle hurriedly pressed the buttons, putting it to her ear while simultaneously trying to get a paralyzed Chloe in the bathtub.
Lake turned back toward the door, the small window of time closing.
“Where are you going?” Adalyn whispered harshly as she crawled into the end of the tub.
She put her hand on the doorknob.
“Nero, someone’s h-here. I think they have a gun,” Elle whispered into the phone, trying not to cry.
“Lake!” Adalyn tried to crawl out but Elle was halfway on top of her, trying to give Chloe the most room.
Turning the knob, she opened the door and locked it for when she closed it. She crawled out of the door, turning back to see tears run down Adalyn’s face as well as Elle’s while she tried to hold Adalyn still. It finally hit her in that moment why she could relate to Elle.
Elle had been tortured like her. Too familiar with frightening scenarios like this, her instinct was to protect Chloe and now Adalyn. She couldn’t see it before, because Elle’s happiness with Nero had soothed her scars from the past.
Closing the door an inch, Chloe was all she could see. She sat in the tub, holding her knees to her chest, nothing but a motionless, blank stare on her marred face. Lake knew the torture she and Elle had experienced could never be compared to the pain and torment Chloe had been forced to suffer. There was nothing in this world that could soothe her scars.
Making the ultimate sacrifice, she brought the door to a close, unwilling to let anyone hurt Chloe again.
* * *
Nero pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Here we fucking go. Lake already…”
Vincent watched a flash of terror cross over Nero’s eyes. Knowing something had gone terribly wrong in his gut, he ran toward the elevator, pushing everyone out of his path.
Seeing two men load onto the elevator, he pushed his legs harder to stop the doors from closing.
“Get the fuck off!” he growled at the two men, already moving to punch in the code to send them to the top.
Nero and Amo were right behind him, throwing the stunned men off the elevator and letting them fall to the ground.
The doors slid to a close as their heavy breathing filled the air.
God, don’t you fucking dare take her away from me.
* * *
Looking around the bedroom, relief flooded her that the gunman hadn’t made it up the steps to see her come out, and that it was too late for Adalyn to leave, the risk of getting Elle and Chloe hurt too great. The bathroom door could easily be broken into with one pop of the gun, but she had a chance of them being saved. If she could distract the gunman until help came, she might save their lives.