Chapter 2

Night enveloped them, the small patches of moonlight barely helpful in lighting the dark wood in their path. Leaves rustled gently in the damp air, oblivious to the danger lurking in the shadows as Shawn strained his eyes in the darkness, willing them to find any source of help, civilization, protection.

He glanced to his right when he heard Juliet sniffle softly. She had been crying for the past few minutes but he hadn't said anything since she was obviously trying to hide it from him. "Jules, we're gonna get out of here," he said quietly, pulling her arm, urging her limping form to keep going.

Juliet wiped her face on her sleeve and shook her head. "It's not that." She stumbled against Shawn's side and he could hear her shaky breathing. "I could have saved him."

Shawn's heart sank, flashes of blood, the sound of his screams, his pleading...

He pushed it away because he had to. "There's nothing you could've done differently, Jules. Let's just focus on getting out of here."

Juliet closed her eyes briefly, nodding as she wiped a few stray hairs from her dirt-streaked face. Shawn tightened his grip on her arm and kept moving.

-ooo-

A quiet rumbling was the first thing that registered in his head, making his eyes water as it agitated the pounding behind them. Then the sound of soft conversation reached his ears, but he couldn't make out who was talking or what they were talking about. It sounded rushed, panicked. Maybe he was in a hospital, though he couldn't remember any hospital being so dark or smelling so damp and musty.

Trying to shift his body upwards was painful, especially when he moved his neck, the throbbing behind his eyes beating so loudly that all noise seemed to cease for a few moments. Unpleasant sensations tingled up his spine and in the back of his throat from the movement, so he decided he was better off just lying still.

Until he heard her voice.

"Shawn? Are you all right?"

Juliet was there, but her voice brought to him an array of mixed emotions. Shawn wasn't sure why he felt comforted knowing she was with him, or why he felt so utterly terrified for that same reason. She sounded so concerned, so worried-and there, in a flash, came a flood of memories. Crime scene, blood, her unconscious form lying on the forest floor.

"Jules!" His voice was strained as he coughed. He moved to an upright position, no matter how much his upper body protested, and finally opened his eyes.

"Hey, slow down, I'm right here," Juliet soothed, rubbing a warm hand across his forehead. Shawn blinked several times to help adjust his eyes to the dim light and focused on Juliet's face, so close to his own. He took a deep breath, inhaling the faint fruity scent of her shampoo and relaxed his shoulders.

"You with me?" she asked calmly. Shawn reached up to hold onto the hand that gently touched his cheek. His eyes scanned hers, then rested on the dried blood in her hair and down the side of her face.

"How did you get that?" he asked quietly, his fingers hovering over the small slice on her temple.

Juliet let out a deep sigh. "Shovel."

Shawn looked past Juliet and finally took in their surroundings. The room they were in was dark and bare, besides a few tools on a workbench on the far side of the room. There was a small metal door to the left, but there weren't any windows on the dirt walls. The floor was made of rotten wood and stale dirt, lit up by a dim, flickering light that hung in the middle of the room with a long cord swinging from it. However, the most disturbing aspect of the small room were the two over-sized cages, one of which he and Juliet currently occupied.

"A shovel?" he asked apprehensively.

Juliet nodded. "Well, that's what Adam told me. He saw whoever did this dragging it in with us."

Shawn squinted in the dim lighting and noticed that the cage on the other side of the room also contained an occupant; a dark haired man who looked to be in his early 30s. He wrapped a hand around one of the bars and nodded solemnly. Shawn turned back to Juliet, watching as she licked her lips.

"He was hiking along the path when he stopped to rest for a few minutes." Her voice was low and Shawn noticed a hint of guilt in it.

He turned his attention to Adam, who nodded again. "Next thing I knew," he said, his voice rough and shaky, "I was here."

"Adam, what day did you leave to go hiking?" Juliet asked, slightly hesitant. Shawn squinted up at her, still a little unfocused, but noticed she was biting her bottom lip.

Adam thought for a moment, his nose scrunched. "I'm not sure, exactly. What's today? I think it was Tuesday-no, it was definitely Tuesday, because I had been at my sister's place the night before. We always have dinner together on Mondays."

Defeated. That was the only way Shawn could describe Juliet's now hunched frame, though he wasn't quite sure why just yet.

Backing up she turned to him. "You were right about Dorland, Shawn," she said with a weary sigh, sitting down next to him and resting against the back of the cage.

And at that moment, Shawn was positive that being right wasn't exactly a good thing.