Chapter 22

Sara blinked rapidly trying to clear her mind as she started to come to. She was in a chair with her arms tied behind her back and her legs tied together on the floor. She turned her head a little to see Michael sitting beside her in the same position as she was. Her eyes quickly scanned over him, he was still knocked out but didn't seem to have any visible injuries.

"I was starting to think you were never going to wake up." the same husky voice from before spoke from behind her.

Sara rolled her eyes as Mark stepped into view "Oh my God, don't you have anything better to do than follow me around all the time?"

"Now Sara that's not very nice. I traveled all the way down here to see you and I don't even get a hello?"

Sara ignored him as she let her eyes travel over to Michael. Mark followed her gaze and stepped over towards him.

"I think it's about time we wake lover boy over her up."

He pulled out the smelling salts from his pocket and waved it under his nose. Michael's eyes slowly opened adjusting to the light as he came to. His eyes landed on Mark and then shifted quickly over to Sara.

"Sara? What are you...what's going on?" he asked confused.

"Michael..."

"Uh, I don't think so. If you have any questions you can ask me; not her." Mark interrupted.

Michael narrowed his eyes at Mark "What'd you want John?"

"First allow me to formally introduce myself; I'm Mark Jacobs and I'll be you're kidnapper this afternoon." he saw Michael's confused look and continued "My God, for a genius you sure are slow."

He then went on to explain his whole story to Michael

"But you see Sara over there put a little kink in my plan." he said turning around to face her "You just couldn't leave well enough alone could you Sara?"

"How are you even here right now? Last I heard you had been arrested and were on your way to jail." Sara asked determined not to show any ounce of fear whatsoever.

"You mean, good ol' Sheriff Foster? Yeah, made him up too. I knew that there was no way I could get to you as long as you thought I was still out there. And it didn't take a genius to figure out that you'd run straight back to him the moment you thought it was safe. And another thing..." Mark started but was interrupted by the sudden ringing of his cell phone in the other room.

"Be right back." he said as he swiftly made his way out of the room.

Sara quickly looked back over to Michael. They stared at each other for a moment; each knowing that this would be the last chance they would ever see each other again.

"Michael, we don't have a lot of time but I just want you to know that..."

Mark then busted into the room "Sorry for that guys seems as though we have to speed up the process a bit here. I'm on a bit of a tight schedule." he pulled out the gun from his pocket "So who wants to go first?"

"Lets start with...Sara!" he said making his way over to her.

"Get away from her you son of a..." Michael yelled angrily struggling in his chair.

Mark bent down to eye level with Sara her face showing no emotion as she peered back at him.

"Aren't you the least bit scared Sara? I don't think you quite understand; you're going to die and there's nothing you can do about it, not even he can save you now." he said gesturing towards Michael who was still struggling to break free.

Sara's eyes raised as she took in the rather large gash on the side of his head "Looks like someone got a good one out on you. Must hurt like hell." she saw Marks jaw tighten and knew she had hit a nerve. "Let me make this very clear when I say this to you, you don't scare me. I'm more scared of a Jack-in-in-the-box than I am of you."

He pushed back from her and raised his gun to her head. Michael stood by staring helplessly as the situation unfolded before him. He rocked from side to side desperately trying to break free.

Sara closed her eyes. She knew what was coming next; there was no way to stop it. She heard Mark cock the gun. She heard the sound of the shot just as she was knocked to the floor.