"G-go?" I stuttered, rocketing to my feet. "I don't know where to go. I don't know what to do. I'm still chained to the wall and so is he. Oh my god. He's unconscious. How am I supposed to get him out of here?"

"Breathe," Maheen ordered me, although it wasn't in a mean way. Her hand came up to my shoulder blades, rubbing my back in a comforting manner, her cold touch making me shier. "I'm here and I've got it all figured out for you, okay?"

"Okay," I mumbled.

"I need you to listen to me very carefully now."

"I'm listening," I confirmed to her.

"Once I sever the chains from the wall and open the cell door, he'll be alerted, so you have to move quickly. I'm going to tell you the route you have to take now, and then I'm going to get you to repeat it back to me, okay?"

"Okay."

"To the right of the cell is a door. When you walk in, you will see two sets of steps. Take the steps that go down. When you reach the bottom of the steps, keep going straight. The floor will begin to slant up, don't panic. You will come to a set of doors. Take the one on the left. Keep going. Eventually, you will come to a door that will take you outside."

Though I had many questions to ask her, I did what I was supposed to and repeated my directions.

"Good," Maheen breathed. She slid her hand from my shoulder to my hand and pressed something into it. "Here is a key. All of the doors are unlocked except for the last one, the one that's between you and outside. This will unlock it."

"What about Fenton?" I asked her seriously. "How am I supposed to get him outside?"

"You're going to have to carry him. There's no other way. You have to be strong enough."

I was afraid she was going to say that.

"What do I do when I get outside?" I asked her.

"That's been taken care of," Maheen said hurriedly. "You have to go now, though. We can't waste time. Are you ready?"

"I think so."

"Good. First things first, help me pull him into a sitting position."

We sat Danny up on the bed. There were several slicing noises.

"He's free," Maheen revealed. "Just your ankle?"

"Yeah," I responded, and then I felt her down by my foot. I heard another slicing noise, and then a weight was lifted from my ankle. For the first time in months, I was not bound.

"I'm opening the cell door," she warned me. "So you have to be ready to go. I'll help you get him into position."

"Okay."

The door slid and she was suddenly at my side, barking orders and manipulating Danny around my body. "Bend your knees, like that." She was settling Danny across my shoulders. I could already feel his dead weight pushing on me. "It's the best way to carry him, I know it might suck. Don't be afraid to drop him and drag him though, if you have to. He can take it."

"Kay," I grunted.

"Stand up. Make sure you use your legs and hips."

I straightened and, to my surprise, found that I could bear his weight.

"Keep a good hold on that key," Maheen warned me. "Now go, quickly."

"Thank you for everything," I told her, feeling that this was not enough.

And then I went. Feeling like a turtle, dragging around a heavy shell, I tottered to the right of the cell, throwing open the door. There was a faint light, almost burnt out, high above Danny and I. I could make out the steps that lead downward and approached them carefully. I knew that I had to move fast and that I didn't have time to waste, but I also knew that if I tried to run down the stairs, I would fall and hurt us both – potentially get us recaptured. I only had one shot at this and I had to do it right.

I also knew that part of the reason Maheen had stayed behind was to hold off those who would be coming to recapture Danny and me.

By the time I reached the bottom of the steps, I was dripping in sweat. My long winter skirt was getting in my way and Danny felt like a sumo wrestler. But I couldn't stop. I could not afford to slow any more than I already had. I lifted my head and saw that, around me, there were several tunnels branching off. I continued forward, step by step. As promised by Maheen, the floor began to slant upward, each step becoming a struggle. My side began to scream under Danny's weight. I forced myself not to think about it. Instead of focusing on my aches and pains, I made myself rerun the route in my head. I went through it so many times before I reached the two doors that I knew I would be saying it in my sleep.

But I did reach the two doors. As ordered, I took the one to the left. It opened easily under my palm, swinging inward. There was a dark tunnel in front of me. It could be filled with anything: spiders, snakes, Vlad. Still, I lumbered forward without hesitation. This was the path to freedom; I would battle anything that I came across. It was not the time to be scared. It was the time to be determined.

I counted my steps as I walked. I couldn't bear to rerun the route again, knowing that I was on the last leg of my journey; that I was almost free. I trembled as I thought about freedom. It had been so long since I was outside; since I had been around anyone other than Danny. My heart swelled with hope because I couldn't wait. At the same time, though, my elation was undermined by the terrifying thought that I wasn't free yet; that I still had a way to go. At any moment, Vlad could appear and send us back to our cell … or worse.

My shook again, although it was because of an entirely different emotion. I shook my head, as if I could dispel my negative thoughts by performing that one action, and focused on counting my steps. Numbers were innocent. Numbers would keep me distracted.

Two hundred and seven.

Two hundred and eight.

Two hundred and nine.

Wall. Mid-step, I swung my foot forward and hit my bare toes off the stone wall. I groaned in pain, but that was all I allowed myself to do. I repositioned the key in my hand and groped along the wall until I found the door, then the door handle, and finally the lock. In the darkness, it took me several tries to finally get the key inserted. I was cursing and near tears by the time the key finally slid into the lock. Hands shaking with anticipation, I twisted the key and then grabbed desperately at the handle. The door opened toward me, and I teetered back a step to give the door room.

When I finally looked to the outside world, tears began to run down my cheeks and they weren't caused by the harsh winter wind whipping snow toward me. There was freedom. There was fresh air running into my lungs. I took a step forward into the snow and, though the cold bit at my toes and ankles and made it harder to walk, it was the most beautiful step I had ever taken. I didn't know where to go from here; what was supposed to happen next. Maheen said that it was taken care of, but I didn't see another soul.

I moved forward, though, because standing still would be the death of me. I was clearly still on Vlad's grounds, I mused as I walked, but I had no idea what to do about this. I had only been to the mansion twice, and both so long ago that I couldn't remember my way home if my life depended on it. My path started veering slowly to the left, though, and I carried on in that direction.

A sound reached my ears.

"TEN!" the collective scream hit my ears; a multitude of voices screaming the same number.

I blindly headed toward the voices, thinking that one of them had to be good, and that I was too cold and too tired for them to not be good people. It wasn't until they reached "SIX!" that I realized why a bunch of people would be outside, late on a cold winter night chanting a countdown. It was New Year's Eve. Vlad must have been hosting a party and Maheen must have timed it so that we would be outside the same time that everyone else was, giving me a safe place to run to.

Vlad's grand side deck came into view, packed full of people who hadn't yet noticed me and Fenton.

"ZERO!" they cheered loudly.

Fireworks sounded above my head. I didn't look up to see the glittering bursts of colour. Rather, I searched the faces for one that was familiar, hoping beyond hope that it was my mother's. Instead it was the large, neon, Jack Fenton that my gaze landed on first.

"JACK!" I screamed, loud enough that I was heard even above the fireworks and the music that was pounding inside the house. "HELP US!"

I could feel faces turn in my direction. There was a concerned murmuring as the crowd tried to figure out just who we were. I, however, collapsed to my knees, letting Danny roll into the snow. We were saved. My knees gave out as well, and I found myself face first in the snow, listening as people ran toward us, exclaiming things like: "Oh my god." "Is that Sam and Danny?" "PAMELA! PAMELA!"

The last thing I remembered before blacking out was: Mother's here. Mother's here, it's okay.

(-.-)

I woke up to movement occurring near my hand. I bolted awake, flying as far away from the moving thing as I could. Danny would know better than to come near me while sleeping; it had to be Vlad or Elliot, up to something horrible. I was perched on my pillow; back flat against the wall, when my brain caught up to my instincts; when memory kicked in and I remembered collapsing in the snow, free at last.

I drew in heaving breaths, trying to calm my heart as I looked around me. I was in a hospital room. I had been lying in bed. There were no restraints on me. To my right, I could see a large window, showing the snow that was falling outside. To my left, there was a green curtain and a door. If I wanted to, I could make a run for it.

I looked at the nurse; the one who had caused the rustling.

"I'm sorry I disturbed you, honey," she said. "I thought I was over scaring you."

"Over?" I murmured.

"This is the third time you've woken up, but the first time you've run away like that." She chuckled a little, and I let out a humorous sound of my own, feeling embarrassed for myself. "How do you feel?"

"Okay," I said, creeping back down the bed so that I was next to her.

She picked up my arm. I glanced down at immediately felt ill. In my wondrous, adrenaline filled moment, I had ripped my IV out. I turned my head the other way so I wouldn't throw up on the nice nurse, who was wearing pink Tweety Bird scrubs.

"I'm Gloria," the nurse told me as she patted at my arm. "I'm going to go grab some extra supplies to fix up that arm, and then we'll have a little chat, all right?"

"Okay," I agreed.

She was only gone a moment before she reappeared. "I'm going to be putting some gauze and some heavy tape on your elbow there. It won't hurt a lot, but there'll be some pressure on it to stop the bleeding."

"Okay," I repeated. "Why am I here? Where are my parents?"

"You're here because you're severely malnourished and dehydrated. And because of that pesky wound in your side."

"Is that going to be okay?" I gasped.

"Yes," Gloria confirmed. "Luckily for you, little lady, it did not get infected. If it had, you'd be in much worse shape. As it is, it's going to take some time to heal. You must have been going on pure adrenaline and luck, sweetheart."

"Something like that," I muttered. "My parents?"

"It's midnight, honey. No visitors, not even in the case of the Manson family. And, the police want to question you before you see your family."

"That's not fair!" I protested.

Gloria looked at me, dark eyes daring me to complain to her like she had anything to do with the police interviews.

"It's not," I mumbled.

"Well, they're coming first thing in the morning to interview that boy you came in here with. He woke up just a few hours before you did. They'll likely get you at the same time and you'll be all set to see everyone at visiting hours."

I smiled, and then asked, "Where is he?"

Gloria grinned herself, and then went over to the green curtain. She gripped it with one dark hand and pulled it back to reveal Danny, snoozing away in the bed across from mine.

"It's not regular hospital policy, but the first time you woke up, the two of you weren't together. You had a bit of a panic attack about it, so we put you together in the same room to keep you calm."

"Oh?" I said, unable to phrase my reaction to this news any further than that. I had wanted to be near him.

"Yes, oh."

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked.

"He's going to be absolutely fine. Like you, he just needs some food, some fluids, and to cater to whatever happened to his leg."

"Pesky wounds," I breathed.

"Pesky wounds," Gloria repeated. "Now, before I reinsert that IV into your arm, is there anything I can get you?"

I shook my head.

So, I'm back in school (Actually, first year of university) and I completely switched time zones when I went to university, so update times are definitely going to change. Expect them to come more during the day, rather than right at midnight Thursday (which is when this chapter is being published, if you're curious).

I don't own anything recognizable. Thanks to my betas: Forever Sky.