6th Hour Victorian Style House.

Sara could hear voices around her. She couldn't make out what was being said, but her cognitive abilities were too fuzzy to make sense of much. Her head hurt and her mouth was dry. She tried to focus on gaining back full consciousness, but the task was proving to be too difficult.

The last thing she remembered was standing under the broken lamppost, like Erika had instructed. She could remember a struggle, and she remembered looking down and seeing a needle sticking out of her thigh. She didn't quite remember passing out, but obviously it had to have happened.

"Sleeping Beauty is waking up," A voice said from above her. "I wonder if she even remembers her own name."

"That depends on how much drug you pumped into her," A muffled voice called from a further distance away.

"I gave her as much as necessary," the first voice said defensively. "I didn't want her waking up on her way here. She's stronger than she looks."

Sara tried to stay awake. She desperately wanted to, but she couldn't manage it. She fell back asleep before she could hear the response of the second voice.

When she awoke a second time, she wasn't sure how long she had been sleeping, but she did recognize the woman who was leaning down above her.

"Get me out of here," Sara managed to say.

The woman above her smiled. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Fuck," It was the only thing Sara could think of to say in response to her current situation. Somehow, things had gotten a lot worse than she had expected they could.

Erika laughed at Sara's apt assessment. "You never trusted me, right?"

If Sara had the strength to lift her arms and break through whatever she had been chained to, she would have made a sincere effort to strangle the woman above her, but as it was she didn't have the strength to lift her arms. She hardly even had the strength to keep her eyes open. All she could do was stare up into Erika's smiling face and hope that the woman didn't have any plans to kill her.

"You shouldn't be surprised by this, Ms. Sidle. Deep down I know you understood how this situation was going to end up." Erika said, her smile failing to falter. "You should, however, be surprised by that." Erika pointed to the other side of the room where Lindsey was gagged and cuffed to the post of the bed she was laying on.

"Lindsey," Sara's weak voice called out.

Erika placed her index finger softly over Sara's lips. "Shh. Lindsey is resting. She's had a really long day."

"If you hurt her…"

"You'll do what?" Erika looked amused. "Are you going to kill me?"

Sara gritted her teeth, unwilling to give Erika the satisfaction of seeing her lose what self-control she was able to hold onto.

"You should stop playing with the bait," A tall redhead said from the doorway. "You'll ruin her and the main course won't want her anymore."

Erika turned her attention away from Sara and to the other woman. "Marisa, I thought I already made it clear to you how much I dislike you interrupting my private conversations."

Marisa pulled a gun from the waistband of her jeans and pointed it at Erika's head. "I may have allowed you in on my fun, but that doesn't mean you can start telling me what to do. You're not my boss."

Erika stood to her full height and approached Marisa slowly. "Nor would I want to be. I wouldn't want to take the credit for all of your mistakes." She pushed past the redhead and walked out of the room.

Marisa watched her go with narrowed eyes. "Bitch," she muttered under her breath then left the room closing and locking the door behind her.

Sara pulled weakly against her restraints, but didn't expect them to miraculously break. She just didn't know what else to do. Even though, realistically, her body was too weak to put up any kind of fight, she still felt the need to do something.

She looked over to the bed and saw Lindsey's steady breathing. She wanted to wake the girl up, but thought it would actually be better for Lindsey to sleep through as much of this nightmare as possible. Besides, Sara didn't know what she could say that would reassure the young girl. She was chained to a bar on the wall and she was sure she'd didn't look her best at the moment. Lindsey would take one look at her and would probably start crying in desperation and Sara would be able to do nothing to dry the child's tears.

Sara pulled against her restraints again, and again they didn't break. This wasn't looking good at all. If Erika had been in charge of this whole Marisa thing, then there was no way the FBI was going to burst through that locked door any time soon with guns raised and ready. They probably didn't even know Lindsey was missing. They might not even know that she was missing, either.

Sara took a quick glance around the room and for the first time realized she was in the bedroom of a very dilapidated home. The paint on the walls was peeling off and there was a hole in the roof at the corner opposite the bed. The room had one window, but it was barred. The only furnishing in the entire room was an out of place extravagantly decorated bed, an armoire, and the metal bar Sara had been strapped to.

Although she was able to stay up longer this time, her body was still fighting the effects of the drugs and she fell asleep again. Like before she tried to fight it, but didn't end up having a lot of success and before she fell asleep she thought perhaps it was best she slept through this ordeal too.

When she woke up, she saw Erika on the bed with Lindsey deep in conversation. Without thinking, she tried to get up and shove Erika away from the girl but was quickly reminded that she was strapped to the wall. She let out a grunt that caught the attention of the other occupants of the room.

"She really did give you a lot of that stuff, didn't she?" Erika didn't seem amused this time. She was only making an impartial observation. "You're lucky she didn't kill you."

"Get away from her," Sara's voice cracked.

"Lindsey and I are friends," Erika pulled Lindsey closer to her and turned her head to the girl. "Aren't we?"

Lindsey looked up at Erika, and to Sara's surprise the girl wasn't afraid. She also happened to notice that Lindsey's cuffs had been taken off and that she was no longer gagged.

"I was telling my friend why you are chained to the wall." Erika told Sara.

"She said Marisa would kill me if you got loose," Lindsey's voice said shakily.

"Yes, Marisa has given very strict instructions for you to behave. I wouldn't disobey her." Erika's warning tone was almost enough to cover up the threat implied in her words.

Erika released Lindsey from her hold and moved off the bed. "Lindsey will remain unrestrained. The door will be locked so she won't be going anywhere. Please do us all a favor and behave yourself, Ms. Sidle." Erika's face remained serious. She checked Sara's restraints to make sure they weren't too tight, then walked out of the room and locked the door behind her.

Immediately, Lindsey ran over to Sara and dove into the woman's body. "What's happening?" she asked through tears. "Erika wouldn't tell me anything."

"It's okay," Sara tried to sound as normal as possible. "We're going to be fine. Your mom's probably going to break through that door at any moment."

"Marisa wants mom to come, Sara." Lindsey pulled back. "She wants to kill her. She told me that. You have to stop mom from coming," the girl practically shouted.

"I can't," That may have been the hardest thing Sara had ever been forced into admitting.

"Erika will stop her, right?" Lindsey asked hopefully. "She'll help mom?"

Sara tried to sit up as much as she could. "Lindsey, do you know Erika?"

"Yes," Lindsey answered hesitantly. "I met her after daddy died. She was the school counselor's assistant. She still talks to me sometimes. She was the only one that understood what was going on with me. She was the only one there when you and mom were fighting so much."

So Erika had been around for years. She had been watching them.

"Why didn't you ever tell us about her?"

Lindsey shrugged. "I don't know."

"Lindsey." It was Sara's mom' voice. She had finally begun to perfect it.

Lindsey bowed her head and closed her eyes. "I didn't want to. I just wanted to have a friend that I could talk to and that you and mom wouldn't fight about."

"Why would we fight?"

"You fight a lot about me. You fight about my grades, my friends, even my hair. After daddy died and after everything else, that's all you did. That's all you do."

The sound of the lock being undone resonated through the sparse room. Erika came in with a bottle of water and handed it to Sara. "I thought you might need that." Her eyes roamed over Sara's body and to Lindsey's. She didn't say anything.

Within moments Lindsey and Sara were left alone in the locked room once again. Sara started drinking the water that had been handed to her and emptied the bottle quickly. The cold liquid had soothed her dry throat and even made her feel just a tad bit better, at least physically better.

Mentally, she felt like shit. What Lindsey had just confessed didn't exactly fill her heart with joy. When they got out of here, Catherine and she would have a lot to talk about. Somehow they would have to figure out a way they could stop hurting Lindsey in their constant arguments over things Sara wasn't even sure mattered anymore. Perhaps, Sara thought, it was time for her and Catherine to stop arguing and to start talking about everything that had happened between them.

To do that, though, they each had to survive.

Sara pulled one more time on the chain holding her. It didn't give.