What was that? I'm sure I heard a sound. Should I check it out? I can't afford not to check it out. I shuffle for my spear, slowly rising to my feet, careful not to make a noise. The light in the walk-in closet was yellow and dim. I can hear someone moving around in the bathroom, the bathroom with the only exit. Shit, shit, shit... I need to get to my group, they are still in the basement. Do they know we got company? How many of them are there? I can't hear any voices. This can't happen again! the last time we lost Reggie, we need to leave, immediately.

My heart is pounding fast, as I slowly move to the door, half crouched. I need to know how many of them there are in the bathroom before I can take any chances of storming out. With my heart in my throat, I lean to look out the door. I squint as I get used to the much brighter light. A figure moves I front of the bathroom mirror and I stiffen. My eyes slowly focus, and I can see it's a woman with her back to me. She is a bit taller than me, but I know that I can take her. I look around to see if there are any others, but there is no one, the only door out is closed. This might be my only chance I think as I slowly creep up behind her, holding on tight to my spear, feeling my whole body tensing. Her back is still turned to me, but as I creep closer I start feeling weird, there is something about her that reminds me of something. She has messy brown hair, and as I look closer I can see it probably should have been red, but because of all the filth she is covered in you have to look closely. She's wearing something that was supposed to be a white cardigan, but it's so dirty that I'm not sure. Her jeans are ripped and covered in blood, so is her cardigan. I'm still crouched, a few meters behind her, she still hasn't noticed me.

Something is definitely wrong, my whole stomach is turning, it's weird, it's not because I haven't killed before, but something is off. I got my shit together, slowly rising to my feet behind her, waiting for her to see me in the mirror, where she then will turn surprised, and in one swift movement I will slice her throat. But nothing. My whole body froze while my whole mind went into a panic attack. I looked into the eyes of the woman, through the mirror. Those eyes, those eyes I know, or knew. I've been looking everywhere for those eyes for so long. These last couple of weeks I've been scared that I might had forgotten what they looked like, but there they were, the beautiful icy blue eyes that were currently starring right back at me. Chloe. It was Chloe.. I felt a wave of relief wash over me. She's was okay, she was right here, a few meters away from me, I felt like crying. While all of these thoughts flew through me, my body was immobile, I couldn't move, something was wrong. We still had eye contact, she looked straight at me, but there was nothing. No emotion, no happiness or relief of seeing me, her eyes were empty and unbearable. She looked at me, then she looked down bending over the sink washing her dirty face with the running water. I didn't understand, she saw me, I was sure of it, but why.. Why wasn't she happy to see me? She was so impassive. She straightened, and started drying her face with a cloth that lay by her side.

"Ch..Chloe.." I managed to say, I didn't know what else to do. She sighed heavily, looking up and straight at me through the mirror, she still hasn't turned to me. She looked distressed, almost angry.

"What do you want" She bites. I'm shocked

"What do you mean, what do I want." I say hurt, I've been looking for her, ever since the breakout, I couldn't understand the angry vibe coming from her.

"You do this every time.. Every goddamn time.." She says silently, she closed her eyes, gripping the sink hard.

"I can't do this anymore, I just can't, why do you keep doing this,"

I took a step towards her, I didn't understand anything. "Chloe, I don't know what you mean"

"Please stop, " She whimpers as tears start running down her face. I lift my hand and put it on her shoulder, trying to get her to turn to me.

Everything happened so fast I couldn't follow up. As soon as I put my hand on her shoulder, she looked up, her eyes filled with fear and she abruptly lunched away from me in clear panic. She trips and falls on her back, still crawling horrified away from me, but her back was met by the wall. Time stood still, she was looking at me, for the first time, she was really looking at me, still scared, but it was better than the numb look she was giving me before, this was something, this was recognition. Her mouth was opening and closing as she startled looked at me. She didn't say a word, I didn't know what to do. So I just sat down a few meters away from her and waited. I, for the moment, had forgotten all about my group in the basement or the fact that there might be intruders, all I could do at the moment was to look at Chloe. Covered in dirt from top to toe, tiredness written all over her face, but she was still looking as herself. Beautiful as always. I just sat there smiling, for no matter how shocked she was to see me, I still couldn't stop being relieved to finally find her.

"Hi, " I said after a couple of minutes in silence, I could see thoughts racing through her head. Even though I was happy to see her, it still hurt seeing her like this, like a scared animal forced in a corner, but I didn't move and neither did she. After five minutes of intense starring, with her eyes sometime forced hard together, then opened up again to look at me, it was like she didn't believe I was there.

She finally relaxed and slowly, extremely slowly reaching over to me. Her hand first touched my knee, but she pulled her hand fast back as if she was surprised. She looked at me as she crawled closer, this time touching my hand, I looked down to our hands, her hands still petite but more rough that I remember, but it was still Chloe's, I slowly turned my hand, and took her hand in mine. I looked up at her face when I heard sniffling, she was crying, tears streaming down her face as she inspected my face. I took my hand up and cupped her face, trying to give her comfort, I have always hated when Chloe cried, it was like watching a puppy being kicked, no matter how tough I am, I will never be that tough.. She leaned in close, as the tears started running down her cheek faster. She crawled the rest of the way and climbed up on my lap, hugging me close. And it was there that I realized how much I really needed it, I could feel my whole body ease up even my soul being cleansed by all the fear and stressed I've felt. Just washed away by Chloe Beale, as usual.

"I..I.. I thought you were dead..," She sobbed into my shirt, I could feel my cheeks getting wet, I hadn't even realized it, but I also started crying.

"I'm right here Chloe, I'm right here.."

We just lay there hugging, for I don't know how long.