Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Kara
If this line didn’t move soon, I was going to be in serious trouble.
I knew I had to pee two drinks ago. But, like a kid in a candy shop, I didn’t want to stop playing games and riding rides. I was doing okay, marginally, until that last bottle of water… Yeah, that might have been the biggest mistake to make right now.
But I was hot after going on the carousel. The amount of bodies piled into that space was stifling. So when I came off, flushed and fanning my face, Mr. Health handed it to me. I knew better than to argue with him. He had a point. Water was good for your kidneys. With the amount of soda I’d already had, it was much-needed.
The janitorial team, two smiling, older gentlemen with key rings the size of my head, came around and said some of the women’s line could move to the other door. They’d decided to open the other side of the bathrooms. I hated they’d have more to clean, but I had to pee bad enough that I didn’t care at the moment.
The other door led to another set of stalls, which made both lines a lot shorter. All in all, most of us would be in and out in a matter of minutes.
I managed to gain the last stall and just in time. The instant relief was amazing—glorious relief. I swear I peed for five minutes.
I was washing my hands when I decided to splash a little water on my overheated cheeks. I was patting them dry when I felt someone come up behind me. You know the feeling I mean. A shiver of unease had my gaze coming up, but it was too late. A hand was over my mouth and an arm was around me, lifting me from the ground before I had time to react.
“You thought you could get away from me?”
My blood ran cold at the sound of his voice.
Ian.
Ian was the one who had grabbed me.
His hot breath washed over my face, making me cringe. The foulness had my stomach turning. He appeared disheveled as I took a good look at him in the mirror. The crazy that was staring back at me made my heart thunder in my chest.
I tried kicking, screaming; my efforts were lost in the noise of the fair that surrounded us.
The door behind us opened and with little effort, I was carried out behind the buildings like a sack of potatoes.
There was no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t get away from him right now, I may not be able to.
I collected myself and remembered something I’d been taught years ago. Even being held as I was, there was something I could do. I bit the hand covering my mouth, and when he let go, I leaned forward then flung my head backwards. Not sure what I’d hit. And honestly, I didn’t care what part of him I’d hit. I just wanted the bastard to let me go. I did it again, grunting at the pain in my head. It was a hard hit that probably hurt me more than the idiot manhandling me.
“You stupid bitch!”
His grip tightened, painfully. I started to kick, my body jerking, fighting with all of my might. I made contact, his pained grunt making me kick again. Finally, he let me go. I dropped to the hard, unforgiving ground only to be snatched back up by my hair. It was painful, but with him having a hold on my ponytail, it gave me a little room to fight back. I turned slightly, this time able to see what I was kicking at, and struck out with my foot, hitting him as hard as I could, trying my best to bust his nuts.
He cursed, his hands going to cover his little acorns as he toppled over like a tree.
I gave him another kick to the side. Panicking when his arm shot out, gripping my ankle. I’d gotten cocky. If I’d been smart, I’d have run the second he was down.
My body slammed into the ground so hard I lost my breath for a moment. I tried to cough, needing my lungs to work, all while trying to scramble back from his reach.
“I’m…going…to…enjoy…hurting…you,” he panted out each word. His nails dug into the bare skin of my leg, my dress doing nothing to keep him from touching me.
His touch made my stomach churn.
“Get. Off!” I kicked out, my foot aiming for his face. He released me to keep my foot from making contact.
I scrambled to my feet and with a quick glance around, I ran for the first open door I found. There was no way to outrun him to get back around to the front of the bathrooms. If I could hide in plain sight, let him get around me, then I had a chance of getting back to where Cal and Dan waited.
“Hey! Watch it.”
I couldn’t slow down; they’d just have to deal.
Phone! I needed my phone. I had to call Cal…
My hand scrambled for my bra. Not there. I’d moved it to my pocket.
I dodged around another group of people. I was not paying attention to the next open area. I just ran, anything to get away from Ian.
I needed my phone, dammit. I searched my pockets quickly. My fingers tugged it from its hiding spot as I ran past a set of black panels hanging in the darkened opening. Getting away from Ian, finding a way to get back around to where Cal and Dan were…
My safety was so close, yet I was helpless to get to it.
I bumped into a wall, cursed.
If the dry ice fog that swirled up from my feet wasn’t bad enough, I knew without a doubt that I’d made a huge mistake. My eyes came up from my phone. I realized then that in my rush to escape one nightmare, I’d put myself into another.
There were hundreds of reflections before me; my reflection and that of a clown somewhere in this place that stared back at me made my stomach clench.
How had I come in? The wall was the only reason I’d stopped.
I turned, looking for a doorway. They were everywhere. I had no idea how to get out of here. Could I even get back out? Shit .
I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was running. Fucking great job, Kara!
I pulled myself from the panic circling through me to look down at my cell. “Call for help, don’t freak out yet,” I chided myself and hurried to call Cal.
His name was a beacon in the fog.
Literally.
The sound of his voice had the tears I’d been fighting since I was attacked falling down my cheeks.
“Cal!” My voice broke and echoed around me. I was pushed aside by a group of kids going through the fun house. Or were they coming back out? No, these dreadful things only went one way…or so I though. Dammit! I didn’t even know if I was coming or going anymore.
I tried to follow them, but the panic churned in me seeing that damn clown; its smiling face followed my every step. I pressed myself up against the closest wall.
Too many shadows and reflections moving at once.
“Kara, what’s wrong? Where are you?”
“He…he’s here…”
“Where are you, baby?”
The loud noises of rides, people laughing, machines going off filled my ears. It was becoming too much. They seemed to echo through the phone’s speaker. I turned in a circle, my hand roaming the glass around me, to the point of making myself dizzy.
I should have never come out today. If I were inside my house, surrounded by men ready to protect me, this wouldn’t have happened.
“Kara? Talk to me.”
“Where is she?” Dan. He sounded angry and worried.
I was worried too. Freaking the hell out in the middle of a mirrored hallway. Could I follow it and get out? I looked at the wall before me and whimpered as my snot-covered-face reflection filled my vision.
“I…”
“Give me that phone. Kara,” Dan’s voice filled my ear, “Where are you? Tell us now!”
“Dan…”
“Sis, come on, keep it together so we can come to you. Cal is about to lose it. He’s going to tear apart anything in his path.”
“The mirrors…” I whispered, not sure if they could hear me over the sudden rush of loud voices surrounding them. “The mirrors…” I tried again. The rush of words was too much for me to track.
“Where is she?” Cal’s voice grew closer to the phone again.
Please, God, let them find me before Ian did.
“Someone said they saw a girl being dragged out of the bathrooms,” another voice said. The tenor was full of anger.
“Kara, is that what happened? Was that you?”
“Ye—”
“Little rabbit...come out, come out, wherever you are…” His voice rolled through the empty spaces around me. My heart jackhammered, stopping with a sudden surge of terror as my breath cut off.
My body was shaking so hard it hurt.
Ian had found me.
“Do you think you can hide from me, Kara? You think I’m going to let you get away with having another man in your bed?” he asked, his voice full of menace. “You are mine. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”
My heart started to beat so fast, I got dizzy. Fear swamped me so quickly, I was drowning in it. My hand fell from my ear as I tried to move forward. My empty hand held out to keep my face from meeting another mirror.
I had to find a way out. I could do this. Get outside, find the guys, and get the hell out of here.
“I can see you, little rabbit.”
I turned into a new corridor and stopped. The walls around me were solid. Dammit! I’d only managed to find another dead end.
I tried to backtrack, following the lights. Maybe that was the trick. A sudden shift in the growing fog had me coming to a stop.
As I backtracked, my hand went up, feeling for a mirror, but it was empty space. I hurried to follow the openness. I thought I had a way out, but again the damn mirrors had fooled me. I pushed back, once again trying to find an opening that would lead me out of here.
I turned, my hand still out when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. A dark figure suddenly filled the mirrors around me.
My head came up, and I met Ian’s in their reflections.
Where was he though? Could he be right beside me? Behind me? Yes. Could he be in another corridor and it just be a reflection of a reflection? Again, yes.
My hand went out, following the reflections around me. I was reaching for him, but he wasn’t close. Or was he? This illusion shit was for the birds.
He was saying something, I couldn’t hear all of a sudden. My sole focus was on the black hole of a gun’s barrel. It was staring right at me. I wasn’t sure if I needed to run, fall to the floor, or just start praying.
I knew if he pulled that trigger, I was dead.
There was no way to know where he was.
There was nowhere to run.
There was nowhere to hide.
“Kara!”
Shit! The phone. I pulled my shaking hand up, my words coming out in a rush. “He’s…he’s got…a…gun…”
My eyes went back up, the figure Ian made was still there, his hand unmoving as that gun pointed toward me.
It felt like years passed. Neither of us made a move. Then all hell broke loose.
The sound of a gun firing had me falling to the floor. Glass shattered as a scream tore from my throat. Pain sliced across my arms as I covered my head.
This was it; I was going to die.