Olivia's POV:
There were no words to describe the feeling I had at that moment; running side-by-side with Elliott, guns out, sprinting up the flights of stairs and dashing through the dimly lit hallways of the building. Part of me felt nothing except the familiar waves of adrenaline coursing through my bloodstream. That was the feeling I got every time we were chasing down a perp. This time, though, I felt another emotion: fear. Simply because seeing Harris's face was enough to get me shaken. I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing his face again and been alright with it, but now I was rushing to find him.
Think of the victims, I told myself, trying my hardest to swallow my fear, Think about all of the girls he killed.. To get to you. You have to catch him.
Picturing the traumatized face of Sarah Parkins and the photographs we had received of the other dead girls, I forced my legs to propel myself forward. Faster. Harder. I was going to catch Harris- for what he did to Ashley and Risa Tyler, to Sarah Parkins, to what he did to countless other inmates at Sealview. I was going to catch him for what he did to me. Suddenly, the feeling of fear that helped fuel my adrenaline was replaced by a new motive: anger.
We stepped off of the fourth flight of stairs, which led us into a large, darkened storage room.
"The staircase to the rooftop has to be somewhere in this room!" Elliott said looking around, "Do you think he's still up there?"
I spun around quickly, surveying the entire room, before my eyes finally found an old, wooden staircase leading up to an metal door.
"Only one way to find out," I said taking off towards the set of stairs.
I was almost there when the remaining three light bulbs shut off, leaving the room in complete and utter darkness.
"Elliot!" I yelled, making sure he was okay.
"Liv!" He called back.
I strained my eyes, but I literally couldn't see a thing. I huffed out a breath in frustration.
"You okay, El?" I shouted.
"Yeah," He called from what sounded to be across the room, "If Harris is still on the roof, he would have had access to the building's power supply."
My jaw dropped slightly before I answered back.
"He shut off the power. He knows we're in here." I said, "I'm going up!"
"No, Liv, wait!" Elliot yelled after me, obviously trying to protect me, but I ignored him.
My hand gripped around the rusty, metal railing of the stairs and I guided my way up. When I got to the door I took in one final deep breath and busted it open, gun out in front of me. It didn't shed much light into the room considering it was the middle of the night, but I didn't look back anyway. Not until I heard the clang of the door slamming behind me.
My eyes widened and I froze in my running stance. And then I heard it. The deep, gruff, humorless laugh that I would never forget if I lived to be a million years old.
"Harris," I whispered.
"That's right," he replied, "Did you miss me?"
I heard his footsteps approaching and spun on my heel, the barrel of my gun ending up only inches away from his face.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, smirking and putting his hands up, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."
I narrowed my eyes at him, confused as to why he was so calm. It's not like we were evenly matched, he didn't have his gun on him. He must have something up his sleeve, and honestly, I wasn't looking forward to seeing what it was.
I struggled to find my voice, praying that I could come off sounding at least somewhat intimidating.
"Lowell Harris," I choked, "You're under arrest for the rape of Sarah Parkins, the murder of Cassandra Low-"
"Oh, am I?" He said, chuckling and stepping toward me.
I gripped my gun tighter and clenched my jaw to hide my trembling.
I looked into his eyes, holding back a tremor of fear as I saw the familiar, animalistic hate.
"For the m-murder of Cassandra Lowes…"
Another step closer to me.
"You have the right to - remain silent," my voice broke.
Yet another step closer.
Finally, I stepped back.
"I'll shoot," I said, tears threatening to spill.
"No you won't," He taunted in a sing-song voice.
My eyebrows furrowed and I was once again puzzled.
That is, until I felt the cold, hard touch of a gun barrel on the back of my head and heard another all-too familiar voice.
"Hey, fishy, you miss me?"
Elliot's POV:
A flashlight, a candle, a match. Anything would do. Anything to help me find Liv. I still can't believe she just took off by herself up there. Although I shouldn't be surprised. Since when does she ever listen to me? It's not like she listened to me when I advised her not to go on her undercover mission in the first place.
No, Elliot, focus. Find a light.
I had already tried finding my way to the staircase blindly, but it hadn't resulted very well considering how crowded, dark, and large this room was. And from what I saw when the lights were still on, the stairs had been quite a bit away from here.
I dropped to my knees and began searching for anything that might help. I stopped when I found a round, cold, metal object. A flashlight?
My suspicions were confirmed when I found a switch and hit it. I had never been so relieved to see light again. It was dim, but it would do for now. Without waiting another moment, I flashed it in front of me and made my way toward the steps.
Olivia's POV:
My stomach dropped about ten stories at the sound of Matthew Parker's voice. Panic began to creep into my veins like a cold wave washing over every one of my nerves. A choked gasp tore through my lips. They seemed to find this amusing.
"Surprise," Harris whispered as he made a move to step around my line of fire. I reflexively went to follow him with my aim, but stopped when the barrel at the back of my head was shoved even harder against my skull. He chuckled when I cringed against the pain.
"Okay," Harris said, now standing at my side. I was absolutely frozen, my gun still straight out in front of me.
"I think it's time we get rid of the gun, Detective Benson," He said seductively, leaning into me. He ran his hands down my arms - earning a shiver of disgust and fear from me- until he had a grip on my gun. With little fight from me, do to the gun at my head, he took the gun, laid it on the ground, and kicked it at least a few yards away from us.
"Good girl," Parker purred in my ear. I flinched, feeling my lip tremble as the first tear ran down my cheek. I knew it was over. It was going to happen again.
Parker's free arm wound itself around my waist and violently jerked my body against his. I closed my eyes and a let out a single, quiet whimper.
"Please," I whispered, feeling another tear fall.
"Oh, so we're going to play that game again, huh? 'Oh, no, please don't.'" Harris stepped directly in front of me, mocking me.
I closed my eyes and turned my head away from him, only to find Parker's face right on the other side, only inches away from mine.
"So here's what's going to happen," he started, "See that latter over there? Well, we're going to take that down to the ally-the one where your little CSU friends aren't- and you're going to get in the car with us."
"No," I whispered, "Please."
"Oh, yes," Harris taunted, leaning forward to grab my face in his hand. I only fought him for a second before I remembered - more like I was reminded- about the gun to my head.
"And you aren't going to say a word," Parker continued, "But just in case.."
I could feel him getting something out of his pocket and I heard something rip, but I didn't realize what was happening until the duct tape was placed firmly over my mouth.
"Mmmmmmm," I protested against it.
That's when I heard pounding on the metal door. Elliot.
"Mmmmmm!" I shouted against the duct tape again.
"Liv!" He shouted .
"That's our cue," Said Parker.
He roughly dragged me behind the two of them as they made their way towards the latter on the side of the building. I could still hear Elliot's furious pounding.
"I'll go first. Then you send her after me ," Harris said to Parker, then he shot an evil look at me, shooting chills up my spine. "She's not going to escape this time."
Guys, I'm going to be honest with you, this was probably one of the most difficult chapters I've written. I worked so so so hard, and I don't even know if its good.. Lol so hopefully YOU like it! Please review, tell me what you think. I could really use the encouragement.
Btw, I have really really really enjoyed all of the feed back I've been receiving for this story J you have no idea how much each review means to me. Thank you soooooooo much for reading! Love, Amanda.