CHAPTER 21. – NOW YOU'RE HANGING ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW

- MARY -

I got in contact with the people back home. It would be several hours before they could even get to New Zealand from the States, but Henry was already contacting Mr. Westbrook in Bora Bora, who could make it there in half the time. Still… it might not be enough. I would have to face this without any kind of security. They had Bash. My anxiety went through the roof. I felt like I was going to have a full fledged panic attack. This was all my fault. They found us… and we had no security out here.

Around eight o'clock—just a few minutes before, actually, I walked in through the front door of the main cabin. It was eerily quiet inside. I heard footsteps moments later and jumped as I turned around. It was Hugo. "Ms. Stuart," he said.

"Where's Bash?" I asked.

"Come with me. Cooperate, and he'll be fine."

I knew I had no choice. So I went with him. He put me in the back seat of a limo with two armed men. I put my hand, instinctively, to my belly as if to protect the baby I wasn't even sure was really there.

The illegal ass window tint on the limo prevented me from seeing where we were going. I just sat there, watching the men as they kept their eyes glued to me and their fingers near the triggers of their guns. If I tried anything they'd kill me, and then they'd kill Bash. I wouldn't allow that to happen. As much as I wanted to fight back, I couldn't risk Bash's life and the life of the possible baby growing inside my womb.

But…hell, it could have been too late for that already.

There was no clock in the limo. I didn't know how much time passed between me getting in the limo and going there. But it seemed like forever. Eventually… I fell asleep. I knew this because when I woke up, it was because I was being shaken by Hugo. "Wake up," he said. I looked at him once my eyes were open. "Get out," he told me.

I stepped out of the limo. It was pitch black outside from what I could see as the door of a massive warehouse shut. There were armed guards everywhere. The area was open for the most part with the exception of a few vehicles and several armed men. Hugo grabbed my arm and pulled me all the way across the warehouse to a door on the very far right corner, which lead to a ridiculously narrow hallway and then an elevator at the end of it. Hugo threw me inside of it.

"Take it up to the fifth floor. You'll find what you're looking for up there."

Cautiously, I looked at the buttons to the elevator. All of them were broken except for floor number five. So… I really had no choice but to push it. When I did, the doors closed… and I was left alone.

The elevator went up at a steady pace, but too slow for me. I needed to find Bash and discover who was trying to kill me. They were using him to get to me. But how did they find us? It didn't make any sense. We'd been so careful to go undetected to New Zealand from Bora Bora. And we made it nearly a week before it all went to hell.

It was someone on the inside. I know it was. But who? Who hated me enough to want me dead? Catherine was the obvious answer. She'd always been. I was anticipating seeing her behind all of this. I wanted to be there to watch her suffer when she was put in an orange jumpsuit and put on trial for the things she'd done—including killing Aylee.

The elevator jerked to a stop. The door opened on their own. I stepped out into a dark room. There were lamps hanging from the ceiling, on, so I could tell the room was fairly big. In fact, it was huge. It was like this was another warehouse attached to the other one.

As I walked slowly towards the center, I saw a slight glow coming from the center, but it was coming from below. I was abruptly stopped by railings that blocked off a large bowl in the ground, almost like a pool but ten times bigger. It was empty. In the center of it all was where the glow came from. A glass box sat inside the perimeter of the lights… and inside the box…

"Bash!" I called out. I screamed as loud as I could. "BASH!"

Bash turned around. He saw me and started banging on the glass. I could see his lips moving, but I couldn't hear him. There was no way to get down to the box. Everything was guarded off and the railing was too high for me to climb and jump over.

"Bash!" I screamed. "Bash, I can't hear you! Are you okay?!" He kept banging on the glass and he kept talking but I still couldn't hear him. So I started looking around for something…anything to help me. The arena was too big. I felt like I was in some sick episode of Criminal Minds, and slightly like I was in The Hunger Games. There was nothing I could use. As I was running around, trying to find anything to use to communicate with Bash, I tripped.

I landed hard on my front, and cried out in pain. It hurt like a bitch. The floor was cement. It wasn't the most comfortable thing to land on.

Suddenly, the rest of the lights came on. They blinded me and I had to close my eyes, covering my face with my arm as I tried to push myself up with the other one. I looked around. There was only one thing not lit up. It looked like a booth, higher above me on the opposite side of the arena from where I stood.

Then… a voice came over the speakers.

"Hello, Mary," it said. It was a male. Not a female. I suspected this was the person behind all of this. The puppet master, if you will.

"Who are you?" I asked. "What do you want?" I was turning every which way to see where the speakers were located.

"I thought you had it figured out by now," he said. "I want you dead."

"Then why not just kill me?" I asked. "Why the big spectacle?"

"Well where's the fun in that? I want to watch you suffer first." Whoever this person was, he was truly sadistic. He had a dark soul.

But I felt like I knew this voice. It sounded like a voice all too familiar to me…one that I'd known my whole life. "Show yourself! I want to see the man who's behind the attempts on my life! I want to see the person responsible for putting Kenna in harm's way! I want to see the person who killed Aylee!"

"Well that would be Hugo," he said. "He technically did those things."

"He's your puppet!" I shouted. "You're the master planner behind this whole operation! You're too much of a coward to do your own dirty work!"

"Oh, Mary, that hurts. I thought you knew me better than that."

That confused me. "WHO ARE YOU?!" I shouted, bloody murder, in absolute frustration, needing to know who the hell this son of a bitch was. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

"Now that wouldn't be any fun either," he said. "I'll reveal myself to you but… first we're going to play a game."

I heard a noise, and suddenly the glass box Bash was in was rising up in the center of the arena. It was supported by steel rods in all four corners. As it came up, I noticed the top opening.

"Bash!" I shouted.

"Mary!" he shouted back. "Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine, are you?! Who's behind this?!"

"I don't know," he answered, "And I'm alright. Just get me out of here!"

Then, the voice spoke again, "In order to do that, Sebastian, she has to play a game… and win."

Another loud noise. I looked up at the ceiling as I felt a slight breeze come in, and down from the top came a rope. Not just a rope… a noose. It slid down around Bash's neck… and I instantly started panicking.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I shouted.

"We're going to play a game, Mary," he said.

"Yes I understood that the first time of the three you've said it. What kind of game, you sadist?!"

"Isn't it obvious, Mary?" There was an eerie moment of silence. And then…

Finally, he spoke again.

"We're going to play Hangman."

...

A/N: Chapter 22 coming soon! (I know, I'm evil. Hehe.) -heart-