Chapter 10- Submerged

Sometimes when it was dark, I would wake up thinking I was in the water tower and I would reach for her.

On those nights, when I would forget, and I would look for her without meaning to, she'd find me. I'd feel her in my head, she was worried. I wouldn't speak to her anymore, I wouldn't even acknowledge her and that would set alight a rage that didn't belong to me. I knew rage and Karen's was sweeter, it came from a place of compassion. It was so far from my state, she never understood that. The last time she found me, she was unusually still. I knew she was with me but there was a quiet to her emotions to which I hoped was acceptance. Like I'd asked of her. Only, when I felt her leave me, did I notice that my shirt was wet. I'd been crying, her tears.

The beatings, chaining, the solitude of my square of imprisonment, that was nothing. Not that those guards knew to how to cause someone pain. I'd show them if I ever got the chance and give them a lesson in enjoying torture. No, it was her eyes in my dreams, her disappointment in me that stirred me from sleep. I'd have dreams and I wouldn't know if they were just that or if she was with me. Visiting me but in the unguarded place of sleep where I couldn't shut her out. Locking her from my mind was like submerging myself under water and allowing all senses to dampen. When I come back up, she is gone. This time I'd woke from a dream that had felt too real.

She was sobbing, curled up on one side and her arms wrapped round her middle. Only when I held her, did she become quiet. Her body untensed inside my hold and the blackness seemed to cushion around us. We crossed the lines that made us two people and all thoughts, and all pain became a shadow on the wall of our identity. We could see it but no longer feel it and nothing else, but the warmth. Her heartbeat thudded against my chest.

The beep of an open door woke me. Two guards muscled in and told me to get off my ass. That time again, for a beating- or their attempt at one. But instead they took me to a room I hadn't seen before. It was small, enclosed and there was an adjoining doorway at the back. They ushered me to a chair and left the silent room with no explanation.

I wondered what they were planning, some new way to try and punish me that lacked any real vision, do doubt. The door opened and colour hit the lifeless room as Karen strides through it. She sits opposite me with an intense eyes and flawless face. As I looked closer, I noticed the dark circles under the makeup and how her cheekbones had become more pronounced. She tapped her fingers rhythmically on the table.

"Mr Castle."

I cleared my throat. "Wasn't aware they let people visit in here."

She nodded slowly. "What can I say, there is nothing that pisses off a reporter like ignore them."

As she shifted in her seat, she chimed. I caught a glint of metal clashing behind her coat. I stood and backed away. "Go home Karen." I demanded. She laughed, humourlessly. I looked at the camera in the corner of the room and back at her.

"You were well hidden, took me weeks to find you but I did."

"Why?"

"Why!" She stood with clenched hands. "That is what we do, we come back to eachother."

"You listen to me. They will lock you away. You need to get your ass out of this place." I said. She rounded the table.

"Not this time. I've come too far Frank. Done things to get here and I'm not tucking my tail between my legs because you tell me to."

My cuffs dug into my skin. "What have you done?"

"You pushed me away. Everything we have been through and you are still leaving me out in the cold you selfish bastard."

"You woke up in the hospital- again!"

"I have had enough of you taking responsibility for the worlds evils. Bad things happen, maybe it's time you should stop whining about it." Her arms crossed.

"You are the most annoying woman I have ever known," I said. Her lips tugged at the edges. She grabbed my wrists and pulled a collection of keys from the jacket. When the cuffs clicked open my lips were on hers and I wasn't sure who initiated it.

"Right. Let's go." She pulled me by the hand.

"What are we going to do, take the main entrance?" I said sarcastically.

"Back gate."

"Have you lost the small sense of self preservation that you had to begin with?"

She shrugged. "Was never born with a shred."

"Explain a lot."

We walked through the hallway. I kept my head down but Karen waltzed in front openly. She was acting different. What had she done now? The woman was going to be death of me.

We walked past a doorway. A man inside squeezed his eyes shut when he saw Karen. "Come on," She told me. When we reached the gate it was propped open, waiting for us.

"How many people have you got in on this."

"You should know, we can only count on eachother when it comes down to it."

"You did all of this?"

She ignored me. When we turned through the exit gunfire shot into the air. I pulled her back behind the wall as the bullets kept flying.

"This is what happens when you try to organise a one-woman prison break!" I yelled.

"For a shoot first kind of guy you talk a lot."

The guns slowed and at the top of her voice Karen began to shout, "We surrender into your custody willingly. We are not armed" Before putting her hands on her head and dropping to her knees. We were dragged out and thrown to the ground. What a shit show.

Armed officers pointed weapons at us. One came over to Karen and held out some cuffs.

"Karen Page, we have been looking for you. You have the right to remain silent but anything you do say…"

"I do have something to say" She said.

"Karen, be quiet and do what they say." I pleaded. The officer stood her up and clicked the cuffs in place.

"Officer, please collects all the weapons" She said. She addressed the loaded crowd. "You will give him your weapons, put your hands on your heads and allow us to leave." I knelt, unable to take my eyes from her as each person did as she asked. Her face paled and she grasped at her stomach. I wondered what it took out of her to do this.

We left with a duffle bag full of guns and confused, memory altered officers in out review mirror. We drove in silence and I made a unspoken promise that I'd fix this.