Chapter 25

**Skyler Johnson**

A sharp pain shoots through my head as I try and get up, only to find my hands tied behind my back. I open my eyes but I'm met my darkness and it takes me a second to realize I'm blindfolded. Moving my feet doesn't help either because they too are tied but I have to move somehow because the shoulder I'm laying on is screaming in protest.

As I try and turn myself I think about how I got here but the last thing I remember is leaving the house to meet up with my mother for dinner. I had been at our house, going over the last of the wedding things before I realized I was late and ran out of the house, sending my mother a text to let her know I would be a bit late but I don't think I even got to my car. As I finally manage to sit myself up I realize it's eerily quite around me and I don't like that one bit. The only thing I can hear is my breathing and my heart pounding as the blood rushes through my ears.

I don't know how long I sit there, alone and in complete darkness before a door opens and footsteps make their way towards me. They stop somewhere in front of me and I wait for the person to make a move but they don't. Fearful seconds tick by before the blindfold is removed from my eyes and I blink at the harsh light that lights up the room. I blink a couple of times before looking up at the short haired girl above me. She has the lightest blue eyes I've ever seen and they remind me of someone I've met before but I can't seem to place the person.

"I'm only going to tell you this once so you better listen." She says, a hard look in her eyes so I quickly nod because I know she has my life in her hands and I don't want to die. I'm not stupid and I know this has something to do with the pictures I've been getting for the past three weeks and now I wish I had made Xavier listen to me when I still had the chance. I wish I had told someone else about them but I wanted him to be the first to know and look where that got me. Tied up and staring death in the face.

"I don't want to be here any more than you do but I value my life, something you don't seem to do but that isn't my place to say. Now, you're not going to make things difficult for me because we need you alive for this to work and you won't be if you don't do as I say." She says and I nod. "Okay. I'm going to cut you loose but I swear, if you try running I'll put a bullet in your head faster than you can say dead, do you understand me?" She asks and I nod. I don't know who she is and where I am but I can only pray for Xavier to find me soon.

She takes out a pocket knife and cuts my legs and wrists loose. The moment she does I move away from her and into the corner of the room before rubbing at my sore wrist that's slightly scraped from all my moving earlier. The girl glares at me before leaving the room only to come back seconds later with a tray of food and a bottle of water.

"Later princess." She laughs as he closes the door behind her and I hear it click shut. I stare at the steak, mashed potatoes and peas on the plate but I've watched enough movies to know they might have drugged my food. The water bottle seems unopened but I'm not trusting that either so I stay in my corner and don't touch the food. I have no idea what time it is because the room doesn't have any windows but I know it's either late into the night or the next morning because it had just gotten dark when I left the house.

******

I'm woken up by the door opening and the same girl from hours earlier comes in with a tray of food in her hands. She gives the untouched food on the ground one look before shrugging her shoulders and leaving the new tray behind, taking the old food with her. This time she bought me some bacon, eggs and toast so I know it must be somewhere in the morning and my stomach is screaming at me to eat but I refuse to. The girl comes back with lunch and then again dinner, always taking the old uneaten food away and leaving me with the new food. When she comes back the next morning I realize I've been here for more than twenty four hours now and I haven't seen anyone but her.

"You're going to have to eat sometime, he won't let you out of here if you don't." She says before leaving with last night's tray. I look at the bacon, eggs, toast and fruit, realizing that she's right. Not about the man letting me out but that I have to eat. I have to keep up my strength and I won't do that if I'm starving myself so I drag the food closer and eat. I eat slowly and when I don't feel funny halfway through the meal I figure it's safe to eat. They didn't give me a fork of a knife so I have to eat with my hands but that's alright for now, as long as I have something to eat.

By the time the girl brings dinner I realize I'm going to have to get out of here. I've been here two days and I don't know if Xavier has any idea where I am so I'm going to do this by myself. I have no doubt I can take the girl but she has a gun with her so I'm going to have to figure out a way to get that away from her. I spend my whole dinner planning what I'm going to do and before I know it I'm asleep and I have plan in mind. The next morning I'm awake before she arrives and the tray is pulled much closer to me than it was all the other times she came in but she doesn't think anything of it as she comes towards me.

"What the fuck!" She shouts as I tackle her, grabbing the gun from her waist and turning of the safety as I climb from her. She looks up at me, rubbing her head when she notices I have the gun in my hands. "I told you not to make things difficult." She hisses at me but I ignore her.

"Why am I here?" I ask, pointing the gun at her head even when I know I'm not going to shoot her but she doesn't know that and for now I have the upper hand.

"You got involved in things you never should have." She says and I frown at her. I'm sure this has something to do with Xavier and for a second anger bubbles in me before I shake my head to clear my mind. It's not going to do my any good being angry at Xavier when I have to get out of here.

"Who's keeping me here?" I ask and she scoffs.

"Like I'm going to tell you. You're not a threat to me." She says and I know I'm going to have to do something for her to take me seriously. I look around the room before looking back at her and even though the thought makes me want to be sick I know what I have to do and I can't miss so I fire and listen to her scream echo through the room.

"Now, tell me." I say because I know I don't have time anymore. Someone's going to hear the noise and I have to be gone before that.

"You'll have to kill me, but I'm not telling." She says and before I can blink her body is slumped on the floor, a bullet between her eyes. I don't have time to dwell on the fact that I just killed a person though because I'm out of the room faster than lightning.