Chapter 21

Terrified To Death

A loud bang coming from Sami's bedroom made Bayley snap out of her dreamless sleep.

She was immediately wide awake, she must have been sleeping for an hour. It had been hard for to fall asleep, but after two hours of tossing and turning, she finally managed to get some shut-eye. The apartment was dark, the only source of light the lamppost near the balcony, outside the apartment; the light dimly illuminated a part of the apartment. Another loud bang was heard, followed by Sami's voice shouting something, causing Bayley to sit right up with a jolt. Her heart was pounding in her head and a trickle of sweat ran down her temple as she feared for the worst. She couldn't exactly hear what he was saying, the door of his bedroom was locked. But didn't he say earlier that he would keep the door open...? Then she finally realized what was going on. It made heavy chills run up and down her spine.

The bangs.

Sami's loud voice.

The closed door.

It could only mean one thing... Oh God.

Those shadows were back. They had found her once more, just like they did when she was staying at Alexa's place. Dear God almighty, they were in the apartment, they had to be! Oh no... Sami! Those noises coming out of his bedroom, the shadows had probably trapped him in there! More bangs were heard from the bedroom, Sami was shouting at the top of his lungs... as if he was being attacked by two wild animals. Listening to those horrifying sounds, Bayley's body started to tremble all over as she clenched her fists into the blanket. Her eyes were widened in fear, it became harder for her to control her breathing by the second. She wanted to go in there, she wanted to help Sami! Her legs were trembling like crazy, but she managed to put her foot on the floor.

But just as Bayley was about to get up from the couch to run towards the bedroom, a choreography of horrors followed. The door of the bedroom was swung open, hitting the wall with a loud bang. The ponytailed woman let out a gasp and pulled her foot back under the blanket; was that Sami opening the door?! Less than a second after the door opened, something big was thrown out of the bedroom, sending it flying through the living room and crashing next to the couch on the floor with a heavy thud. Bayley shrieked, her heart felt like exploding with fear at this point. She heard a soft, pained groan coming from the floor. In the dim light of the lamppost outside the apartment, Bayley saw who was lying next to the couch.

It was Sami.

'Oh God, Sami!' the ponytailed woman screamed in horror. A dark liquid was emerging from his scalp and flowing down his face in a thick stream. It was blood, it had to be blood. The wounded redhead let out another groan, slowly lifted his head and looked at Bayley. Tears of horror welled up in the corner of her eyes as she stared back at him.

'Run... Bayley... run...' Sami whispered with a shaky voice. Then he fell silent, his head hitting the floor.

Was he... was he dead? Oh no, please God, no... Tears trickled down Bayley's cheeks, her body now trembling uncontrollably. She never wanted this to happen, this was all her fault... 'Sami...? Sami!' she whimpered, leaning over and shaking his shoulder. But there was no reaction coming from the redhead, not even a little sigh.

'No... Sami... no...'

Two male voices darkly chuckled in the darkness of the bedroom; it were the same damn voices Bayley heard when she was attacked in her apartment.

She looked up and witnessed how two big shadows emerged from the bedroom, gliding over the floor towards the couch, halting behind Sami's presumed dead body. Paralyzed in fear, Bayley watched as the shadows grew larger, once again taking a humanoid shape. The blackness on their shadowy bodies faded away; the shadows finally revealed their 'human' form to her.

Bayley didn't know what looked more terrifying; their shadow forms, or their human forms, donning black leather shoulders pads and mysterious face paint, giving the two men a nearly demonic appearance.

'Your boyfriend here put up quite a fight...' Viktor said with a sadistic grin, softly kicking Sami's leg. 'But there will be nobody who will protect your sorry ass now, bitch.'

'You bastards!' Bayley yelled with a breaking voice. 'What did you do to him?! What do you want from me?!'

'You've got something that me and my companion Konnor here both want... and we will have it right now. But don't be afraid, you little bitch. It will all be over soon. Your pathetic life will be good for something after all...'

Right on that moment, the ponytailed woman felt the adrenaline kicking in with full force.

She had to get out.

Right now, before she would be killed!

Just as Konnor wanted to grab her to put an early end to her life, she ducked down and leapt off the couch, running towards the balcony as fast as she could. She couldn't escape through the door again, that would be too predictable. If she would do that, these two monsters would catch her for sure. Bayley opened the glass doors that lead to the balcony, thank God Sami didn't close them. The apartment was on the first floor, but Bayley already mentally prepared herself for a rough landing. She got on the balcony, there was no time to look down to see what would catch her fall.

She had no choice.

With the adrenaline pulsing through every vein in her body, Bayley took the leap of faith; she climbed over the railing of the balcony and jumped off. Luckily the bushes that were planted near the apartment broke her fall; twigs poked into her bare arms, some of them were almost sharp enough to cut her skin open. Bayley immediately got out of the bushes and ran like her life depended on it... which actually did. Looking behind her, she saw that the two 'men' had reverted back into their shadow forms and were now gliding down the balcony; they were already halfway the wall of the apartment. Bayley let out a horrified scream and ran faster, more tears of fear running down her face.

There would be a big chance she wouldn't make it to see the following day. She could die right here on the dark streets of this city in the cold night, terrified to death, torn apart by regret of the possible death of the man she loved with all her heart and all alone, at the hands of these monsters. What were they going to do with her if they captured her? They were going to kill her, Bayley was convinced of that. They were going to kill her in the most gruesome way possible, to extend her suffering for a while longer for their twisted amusement. She wasn't sure whether Sami was dead or alive; she wanted to go back, but that would be suicide at this moment. She hoped from the bottom of her heart he was still alive. It was late, there were almost no people on the street. They looked at Bayley as if she was crazy instead of a woman in need. So much for a helping hand these days.

The ponytailed woman looked around her, desperately looking for a place to hide. She didn't care where she would have to hide, as long as she would get rid of those 'men' following her. Everything looked so much different in the dark. She almost never came to this part of the city, she barely knew any place around here.

However, there was a spot here that everybody in this city knew.

The metro, Bayley suddenly remembered. She did travel by that one time, when she just moved to this city. Perhaps she could hide there, metro's were places where there were a lot of people; maybe somebody could help her over there. Or she could blend in there, in the hope of confusing her pursuers. Bayley decided to give it a shot.

But where the hell was that damn metro?

It fueled Bayley's fear only more. She couldn't get lost right now! Either it was a fact or her paranoia, but she could swear to God she could already feel the breath of the shadow men in her neck. She spotted the red and blue neon-sign of an old bar in the distance. Wait a minute... she recognized that sign! She saw that when she got out of the metro the other day, so it meant she was close! During the time she was running for her dear life, Bayley had constantly looked around her, hoping she would've gotten rid of those bastards. But every time when she looked around, she was proven wrong; the shadows were not too far behind her, gliding on the walls of the buildings she ran past by, their huge shapes revealed by the lights of the lampposts. Her legs and lungs were hurting like hell, sweat was running down her face, but the ponytailed woman forced herself to keep going.

When she got close to a crosswalk on a big road, she looked to her left and saw a staircase that led underground; the metro! She had made it! But the question whether she would be safe there or not was still lingering... Bayley didn't hesitate for a moment; she ran to the staircase and went down.

The metro was quite old, but huge. Small, ivory white pieces of stone mixed with red stones and a graffiti tag here and there decorated the place, giving the metro a bit of a haunting look when it was abandoned... just like on this night. Bayley unfortunately found out about that when she was running down the stairs. Her footsteps echoed through the empty metro, giving the impression that it was indeed empty tonight. Oh no, God, why now?!

There had always been one golden rule when escaping... always watch your step.

Bayley had clearly forgotten about that on this moment.

Her foot tripped over the other one, making her lose her balance. Bayley let out a loud gasp as her body fell forward, hitting the stairs with a painful thud, starting her long fall. Letting out a pained yelp, she rolled down the stairs, her body aching whenever she hit a step. A sharp pain traveled through her ankle. Oh no, did she break it?! Not now, please God, not now! If she wasn't going to die at the hand of those shadow men, she would die from a fall down the stairs of the city's metro while trying to escape... faith could be so cruel sometimes. But luckily, Bayley managed to survive the painful fall. She reached the end of the staircase, her body was hurting all over.

But what had to hurt the most was her ankle.

The chance to escape her pursuers and make it through the night alive had become a whole lot smaller...