Maya sighed as she held up the onesie. It was white with little ducks on it. They danced around in a pattern on the onesie as Maya examined it closely. This didn't feel right. It felt wrong to be shopping under these circumstances. "Well that's kind of cute," Josh said as he walked up next to her in the store. "What do you think?"
Maya just shrugged her shoulders and tossed it back down onto the rack. "This doesn't feel right Josh." She gestured around her as she referred to the items in the store. "Going out and crib shopping and looking at the clothes and buying the bottles-" She paused. "It just feels wrong to be doing this, like our lives aren't a mess right now." Maya shook her head as she put a hand behind her back and placed a hand over her now growing belly. "And don't get me wrong I want to do this. I feel like we've been waiting forever to do this and I just don't want it to be under these circumstances."
She had a point and Josh knew that. He looked over her shoulder and saw their security guard watching them from afar. He gave him a stiff smile and a wave as he turned his attention back to his wife. "I know," he whispered. He took a hand and pushed her hair behind her ear. "You deserve more than this."
"But we have to do it anyways don't we?"
Josh nodded and watched as Maya looked back at all the clothes in front of her. "Hey," he whispered. Maya looked up at him. "I love you."
Maya smiled and reached up to kiss him. "I love you too." As they kissed Maya felt some fluttering in her stomach. Her eyes widened as she clutched her belly. "Oh my god," she whispered.
Josh pulled away from the kiss and frowned as he looked over her. "Is something wrong? Are you hurt? Is it the baby?"
Maya shook her head and laughed. "No, no. I'm fine. It's just-" She looked up at him again. "I think the baby just kicked."
"What?"
"Uh huh. Here feel it." Maya took Josh's hand and placed it over the spot on her belly where she could feel it. The fluttering started again. Maya's smile brightened as she watched Josh's face light up. "You feel it?" Josh nodded furiously. She took a moment and stared at him. She could practically feel the happiness radiating off of him. Despite the circumstances, getting their family was worth it. "This is really real isn't it?"
Josh let out a shaky breath. "Yeah. It really is." Josh rubbed Maya's four month pregnant belly and kissed her forehead. "And I'm glad I get to do it with you."
As the couple laughed and shared their beautiful moment, they were oblivious to their spectator across the street, sitting with his glasses on watching from afar. With a clenched fist, Andrew slammed his fist down on the dash of the car. "Fuck!" He didn't know she was pregnant. And of course with Josh's baby. It was supposed to be him. He was supposed to be in there with her, shopping for baby stuff. But no, Josh just couldn't take the hint.
Starting the engine of his car, he shook his head as he tried to calm his anger. It was okay. This wouldn't last long. Everything would be just how it should be soon enough.
.:.
The shower water hit Josh's bare skin as he allowed the heat of the water to soothe him. Constantly on edge, he found it hard to relax. He rinsed the conditioner that he had in out of his hair and quickly soaped up his body before rinsing it off. From inside of the bathroom, the moonlight peeked in and illuminated a corner against the harsh bathroom lighting. Turning off the water, he wrapped his towel around his waist and stepped out of the shower. Little beads of water ran off his body as he walked into the bedroom and grabbed slipped on his pants for bed. Using his towel to dry his hair, he called out to Maya. "Maya!" No response. Josh walked towards the bedroom door and stuck his head out, figuring that she couldn't hear him from wherever she was in the house. "Maya!"
It was unlike her to just not respond to him. Especially as of late. She made it a point to always know where he was or what he was doing, often enough sitting with him as he did pretty much everything. Josh frowned and walked down the hall, calling out her name as he poked his head into different rooms. "Maya this isn't funny. Can you please just answer me?"
Josh bounced down the stairs, continuing his search, but coming to a halt as he neared the bottom of the stairs. Josh's entire body tensed up as he found himself staring at Andrew who stood behind his sofa, watching Maya sleep. Josh opened his mouth to shout when Andrew held up a finger to his mouth. "Sh," he whispered. "Can't you see she's sleeping? Very rude of you to try and wake her up." He walked around the sofa and moved to touch Maya's face. "I mean she's pregnant and all, she needs her rest."
"Don't you fucking touch her."
As Josh tried to move forward Andrew stopped him by holding up a knife in his hand. "Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you. It would be a shame if she lost that baby... again." Josh stood still as his eyes quickly glanced between Maya and Andrew. "Don't worry. I just gave something that's going to make her sleep for a little while." Andrew took his hand and pet Maya's hair. "God she's so beautiful isn't she? It's a shame that she decided to waste it with you."
Josh's jaw tightened. "How the hell did you get in here? How do you even know where we live?"
Andrew's head tilted back as he laughed. "You think I just popped up in L.A. don't you?" He stood and walked towards Josh. "Joshua I've been here for a while. Finding you two became easy once I slipped a little tracker in Maya's bag." He laughed and carried on. "And no, it wasn't when we had our little fender bender. I ran into her on the street, but she didn't notice. God, it was so easy. Just a quick bump and a 'I'm sorry' and I could track her every move. Plus I just snuck in when your little security guards had their shift change. It was all too easy."
Josh's chest puffed up as he listened to Andrew talk. God, he wished he could just punch him out right here, right now. But he had a knife and he needed to make sure Maya was okay first. "You're sick."
Andrew scoffed. "I'm sick? You're the one that is constantly trying to keep me and her apart! From the jump you've been threatened by me. You know I'm better for her. I make her laugh, I make her smile, hell I even dance better with her. I was here and you weren't. God, I was so close to making sure you were gone but then you had just to come back that night we were dancing in your house. If you had given me even another hour I promise you, you would have found us naked in your bed."
All Josh could see was red as he raised his fist to punch Andrew, but as he raised his arm, Andrew took the knife in his hand and stabbed Josh in the shoulder. Josh fell over onto the floor and clutched his shoulder in pain. "Fuck!" he groaned.
Andrew towered over him and laughed. "I told you that you shouldn't do that. But you don't listen do you?" His eyes stared at the knife embedded in his shoulder. "I'm going to need that." He gripped the knife and yanked it out of his shoulder, causing Josh to groan more. Andrew grinned down at him menacingly and palmed the knife in his hand. He turned around to look after Maya but started to panic as he saw she was gone. He chuckled to himself. "There's no use in hiding Maya. You can't deny any of this anymore."
Andrew started to walk around the main floor of the home and crept around, keeping an eye out for Maya. As he rounded a corner, BAM, he was hit in the face with a table lamp. He stumbled backwards and onto the floor, dropping his knife and holding his forehead. Maya stepped out, breathing heavily, doing her best to keep tears from running down her face. She looked around and locked eyes with Josh as she tried to help him up. "Come on you have to get up!" She pulled him off the ground and quickly led him up the stairs, looking back behind her every so often, making sure Andrew was still lying on the ground.
The couple stumbled into the bedroom and locked the door behind themselves as Josh fell on the ground before the bed, the blood from his stab wound, trickling down his skin. Maya panicked as she stared at the door. "Shit! He's gonna find us up here." Thinking quickly she looked around.
"We need to barricade the door," Josh whispered from the ground. He was losing a lot of blood and fast. He picked himself up and walked over to the dresser. "I can't life my arm so I'm going to need your help to push this in front of the door."
Maya nodded feverishly and moved quickly. It was hard but they managed to push the dresser in front of the door. Maya caught her breath as she leaned against the dresser. She looked over to Josh and saw him start to become pale. "No, no, no. Josh I need you to stay with me okay?" She looked down to his shoulder and held back a sob. She covered her mouth to prevent herself from making noise started to apply pressure with her hand. Josh winced as her hand made contact with his shoulder but it wasn't helping. "What do I do? I don't know what to do! Tell me what to do!" She started to cry.
"Maya." She continued to cry. "Maya!" She stopped to cry for a moment. "I need you to keep it together okay. Grab a t-shirt from the drawer and tie it around my shoulder. It should help with the bleeding for now." Maya grabbed a t-shirt and breathed out shakily as she started to tie it around his shoulder. "I need you to tie it really tight Maya."
"I can't believe this is happening." She finished tying it. "I had heard someone in the kitchen but I thought it was you so I laid down, and then all of a sudden there was this tea in front of me and Andrew was there and he was forcing me to drink it so I faked it and pretended to fall asleep. Then I heard you come down stairs and-" Tears started to fall again. "I heard him hurt you and I panicked."
"Maya I need you to breathe okay? Where is your phone?" Josh groaned as the pain really started to take over him.
Maya shook her head frantically. "I don't- I don't know. I think I left it downstairs. Where's yours?"
Josh sighed. "Bedside table. But I think it's almost dead."
Maya crept over to table and grabbed the phone before going back towards Josh. She took his phone and looked at it and saw that it was at five percent. "Fuck!" she cried. She held her head in her hands for a moment before thinking hard. "Um, I think if I click the power button like five times in a row, it'll send an emergency signal to the police or something. But I think it's going to make a really loud noise. Andrew will know we're in here."
Josh nodded as he found him self feeling weaker and weaker. "Do it." He let out a shallow breath. "Then I need you to go in the closet and open the safe and take out my gun."
"What? Josh no, I don't even know how to handle a gun I-"
"Maya I need you to do this. Go. Get. The gun."
Maya cried as she did as she was told. She sent off the signal and grabbed the gun with a trembling hand as she heard footsteps in the outside hall. Suddenly there was banging on the door and she could see the dresser start to shift. Josh saw it too and got up as quickly as he could and leaned against the door. Maya ran over and gave Josh the gun. Josh took the gun from Maya's hand and stepped away from the door and let out a single shot into the hall, causing Andrew to stop.
It was quiet for a brief moment as Maya stood off to the side, holding her breath and wiping her tears. "Josh?"
"Don't move," he whispered. He started to bleed through the shirt that was tied around his shoulder but he couldn't even feel it, his adrenaline was so high. He paused as he frowned and sniffed. "Do you smell that?"
Maya shook her head. "No. I don't smell anything."
Josh let out a shaky breath and started rummaging through the drawers for a mask. Finding one he threw it to Maya. "Put this on."
Maya held it in her hands confused. "What? Why?"
"Maya please just put it on!" Josh flinched as he raised his voice in panic. "I smell smoke. I think Andrew is setting the house on fire."
A/N: Things are getting serious! What do we think? Let me know!
