Here's Chapter 6! Enjoy and Review, Pleasee!

It was dark outside except for the overhead lights on the highway. Peter had lost sight of where they were but it didn't matter because driving like this was peaceful. The car was a simple one and he sat alone in the front as Claire sat on the end in the back with Elle's head resting on a pillow in Claire's lap. Elle was curled up and sleeping peacefully with her hand holding on to Claire's. Claire sighed as the music came through the speakers softly. She thought of what had happened about an hour and a half ago as they had been leaving.

The three were in the parking garage and Claire and Elle waited quietly as Peter was filling out the papers for the rental. Claire had missed the whole story on Elle's fear of dripping noises but Peter had just mentioned it quietly to her as they left the hotel. She thought it was ridiculous how much Elle had gone through and couldn't stand the thought of Elle's father still out there wanting to hurt her. She couldn't even imagine the other fears that Elle had.

"Claire are you scared?" Elle asked breaking the quietness.

"Scared of what?"

"Running away."

"Why would I be?" Claire asked with a grin. "I've got my two heroes with me."

"I'm telling you I'm not a hero," Elle said. Claire had noticed a change in Elle since before they rescued her. Before she had been insincere, rude, angry, defiant, stubborn, and defensive. Now she was sad, genuine, thankful, fearful, and kindhearted. Claire was still trying to figure out the exact reason why. She knew Elle had to have had this side to her and that's what drove her to be friends. Claire had seen beyond Elle's tough appearance and attempted to become friends with the new girl when suddenly her world had been flipped upside down and Elle had admitted that she was to "kidnap" her and bring her to some awful place where they hurt people like Claire. But Elle became a hero when she refused to do it and risked her own life to save her. That had to be hero material.

"You are," Claire insisted again. "You risked your life for mine. Simple."

"Okay," Elle said. A minute passed by in silence. Claire looked over at Elle and realized the girl had become pale and was shaking.

"Elle?" she asked concerned. Elle didn't respond and just stared straight ahead as if in deep thought. Then suddenly she seemed to jump a little and looked scared. A few more long seconds passed and Claire was confused and worried as to what was going on. Elle jumped again and this time she came out of the deep thought state and pulled her arms tightly in to herself as if she was cold.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered.

"Hear what?" Claire asked totally confused.

"That water," she replied. Claire strained her ears and suddenly heard an ever soft slow dripping of water. "Oh Elle, Peter told me about that. That's awful."

"He's going to find us," Elle said suddenly panicking. "He's going to get me he said he would." Her heart was racing and Elle felt extremely jumpy and nervous. Claire knew this was some sort of anxiety attack and rushed over and held Elle who collapsed in Claire's arms trembling. "Don't let him find us," she pleaded. "He'll hurt me. Don't let him."

"You're okay," Claire said. "It's going to be all right." Peter came back and quickly got the car. He let Claire sit in the back and Elle sat next to Claire with a death grip on the other girl's hand. She was still shaking and kept saying things about her father finding them. Claire tried her best to comfort but it wasn't going too well. Eventually the music mixed with Peter and Claire's voices calmed her down and she lay on the seat and curled up peacefully and fell asleep while Claire sang along softly to the music.

Claire let out another long sigh and slumped back against the seat. She wanted to sleep but she couldn't. Her mind was on other things. She leaned forward.

"Pete?" she spoke up softly just so he could hear her over the quiet music.

"Yeah Claire bear?"

"I'm scared," she admitted.

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"I don't know, I mean, if Elle's dad could push her to the point where she was almost dead, what's stopping him from doing that to us?"

"Nothing," Peter replied bluntly. "He's a messed up guy Claire. He has to be sick to do something horrible like that to his own daughter. Hell I'm scared too. But there's no way around it. We have to take him down. If we don't then nobody will and the three of us will always be in danger." Claire seemed to process this before answering.

"This sounds like a terrible question, but I mean like you're not mad I said we should save her right? Because that's the whole reason we're in this mess."

Peter looked up in the rearview mirror with such comforting eyes. "Claire I'm proud of you," he responded quietly. "Not mad. I know you've been through a lot and this is just going to add on to it. We'll get through it together Claire. All of us."

"What about my dad?" she asked weakly.

"You can call him from a pay phone," he suggested. "It's not that I don't trust him. But come on Claire, if it came down to it, save the family or Elle? I think we know which one a father would choose."

"You're right," she said and slumped back against the seat. Peter came to a red light and turned around. He looked at Elle first then raised his head and gave Claire a strong smile.

"Hey it'll be okay," he said gently and turned back around as the light turned green. .

"I hope so," she said glancing at Elle who looked like she was shivering in her sleep. Her whole body was trembling and Claire was trying her best to keep her still.

"Pete something's wrong," she said worriedly after a few minutes.

"What is it?"

"She won't stop shaking," Claire said concerned. Neither knew that Elle was reliving a nightmare.