Chapter 24:

It was warm outside, the sun shining brightly in the blue sky as Lexi is walking through the busy streets in order to get to her destination in a hurry.

A smile is plastered on her face for it was her birthday and that meant scoffing possibly the yummiest red velvet cake with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles down her throat.

When asked, she wouldn't share a single bite but knew that she'd eventually give in if it was her parents asking.

The small sound of a 'ding' is heard as she opens the door to the entrance of the restaurant and Lexi instantly grimaces at the sight of her parents stealing a kiss, right in front of her- in public!

"Gross! Mom, dad, that should be illegal after the age of 30." Lexi complains, setting her bag down on one of the tables and nearing the cake that was set out decoratively.

Her mother rolls her eyes and simply replies, "You'll find out soon enough the addiction of kissing the one you love."

Lexis father on the other hand, playfully glares at his wife and goes to hug his daughter. "Not for a long while yet though, right Alexa?"

Lexi simply rolls her eyes and hugs her dad back, moving around him to hug her mom too. "Happy birthday, sweetie. We made your favourite." She says, motioning the cake that looked heavenly delicious.

Lexis dad chuckles. "And by we, your mother means she ruined the first one and I made the second on my own. Without any of her help."

Lexi eyes the cake, eager to give it a taste. "Well it looks amazing dad. Maybe the best one you've made so far."

"Alexa please. His ego doesn't need boosting. The cake is average." Her mom teases.

"Hey!" Her father exclaims.

Lexi simply giggles at her parents' playful banter, dipping her finger in the cake as tasting the icing whilst they aren't looking.

"Alexa! That's for the party later. You can't finish it all now." Her mum only mildly scolds at her but it's all in playfulness.

Puppy dog eyes and a pout always works on her parents to get herself out of trouble. Maybe it's because she's an only child but Lexis parents always melt at the face and it may have made her a tad bit spoilt during her younger years too.

Her mother and father simply laugh at the adorable face she pulls and she can't help but join in too, revelling in the beautifully melodic sound.

Her own laugh fades though and soon she can only hear her parents laugh. The laugh is distorted as Lexi begins to feel dizzy and her parents laughter turns into cries of terror. Soon, screams from her parents are heard and then that starts to fade too, instead replaced with screams coming from her own mouth as well as Re.

Lexi opens her eyes to find herself in a dimly lit room, tied to a chair and the screams seem to be coming from Re, who is also tied to a chair at the other end of the room.

It was a dream.

Lexi can feel harsh tears falling down her face as her head pounds when reality hits her hard. She looks frantically around the room, slightly confused as to why she was there, questioning whether this too was a dream or not.

She soon realised its not when she turns her head to see Caleb in a much similar position to herself, tied to a chair, head hung low as if he was asleep. Their backs are pressed up against each other and she can feel his hands against her own.

The last thing that Lexi remembers is being in a car with Riverfield and him spraying something in the air which resulted in her feeling dizzy and confused and then finally passing out. The next thing she knows, she's awoken from a heart wrenching dream.

"Lexi?" Re calls out when she notices her friend awaken. "That dickhead doctor kidnapped us. And now I think he might kill us!" Re panics.

It was obvious that Re had been crying too. Her makeup is smudged and her eyes were bloodshot.

Lexi looks around for Riverfield in the room, realising that he isn't here to stop them from escaping. "Can you open your binds?" Lexi asks.

She shakes her head viciously and Lexi herself tries to unwind her hands only to find that instead of rope, her hands are bound together with rather strong plastic zip ties that would need scissors or a knife to cut through in order to break free. "Can you?" Re asks in terror.

Lexi can't bring herself to voice her reply, shaking her head too. She starts breathing heavily when she feels Caleb behind her, stirring in his sleep.

This can't be happening. She thinks to herself.

First, her best friend gets kidnapped by a psycho who got loose and is apparently on some revenge plot against the two girls so then he tried to kill them. They are rescued by a senior doctor who should be trustworthy and respected but instead turns out to be equally as disturbed as the psycho patient when he too, kidnaps them and ties them to chair to do God knows what.

She tries to calm herself down by the weight of the necklace that's usually around her neck but panics even more so when she no longer feels it around her neck. She looks down to find it missing and starts to breathe louder and harsher when she finds it gone. "No." Is all she whispers between harsh breaths. "No, no, no, no." She's repeating the mantra as if it'd bring back the silver chain, making it magically reappear upon her upper chest.

Her breathing gets louder and harsher and its soon that she realises that she's hyperventilating, close to a panic attack all whilst tied to a chair, unable to move. "Lexi." Re whisper-yells in order to prevent any unwanted attention. "Lexi, listen to me. It's me Re."

But she can't hear her, breathing too loud as her thoughts are consumed by the fact that everything in her life is wrong at the moment. And to top it all off, her necklace is gone. Reminding her that her parents are gone too.

And suddenly everything around her swivels into a big mess of a blur. It's like her sight is impaired and the dimly lit room around her fades to pitch black and instead of being stable on a hard wooden chair, Lexi is falling fast through what seems like an endless black hole.

"Lexi, listen to the sound of my voice. Please Lexi, just breathe." Re tries again, louder this time, concerned for her friends health. "Just listen to the sound of my voice."

She's heaving now, with tears brimming at her big brown eyes which are so wide that one would question her sanity. She continues with her harsh uneven breathes until a familliar but groggy deep voice calls out her name. "Alexa?"

The voice is confused but it's still there and that in itself calms Lexi in the slightest. "Breathe." Caleb says, turning his head to his right in order to catch a glimpse of her.

Though it's near impossible as she's facing down and her thick brown hair curtains her face, preventing Caleb from seeing what he longs to see.

His presence should scare her, but she find it to be soothing when his voice alone pulls her out of the pit of darkness she fell into.

"Calm down." He whispers close to her ear after turning his head a little more and leaning into her. And it's like she can breathe again. She feels him brush his fingers against hers and that's when she forces herself to breathe slower and calm her heartbeat.

She's pulled back into reality after doing a couple more inhales and exhales, almost getting dizzy again at the awful smell around the room they're in. The smell of gasoline lingers and she remembers it was Caleb who had drenched her in it hours ago.

And that's when she starts to panic again, trying with all her might to rid herself of the damned binds that bite at her sensitive wrists. She doesn't know where she is or what Riverfield is going to do with them, all she knows is that she's sitting right behind someone who tried so desperately to kill her and she needs to run.

"That's not going to work, Lex. I tried it all when you were passed out." Re says, looking more cautious now that Caleb is awake too.

Lexi stops trying when she feels the teeth like texture on the binds that bite down on her wrists that could easily make her bleed if she pulled too hard.

"How long have we been here?" Lexi asks Re in a whisper, still scared of Caleb who stays silent behind her, making her more nervous.

Re shrugs as much as she can whilst in her binds. "I don't know. Could be a few hours maybe." She still sound a little croaky from being passed out herself.

Lexi looks around the room and takes in the lack of furniture, old wooden floorboards that were covered in dirt and wooden door that looked pretty battered down.  It looks like an old, abandoned barnhouse of some sort and it was clear that no one had been her for years given the creepy vibe to it.

"Two days." Caleb speaks up, correcting Re.

His voice sounds different. It lacks the craze that was once laced in it, making him sound almost sane again. Why is that? Lexi thinks to herself.

Re scoffs, unafraid of the man who tried to kill her. "Obviously not. I'd know if I was out for 2 days straight."

Lexi feels Caleb shift behind her so he's facing Re. It's a weird position they're all in and Lexi questions why herself and Caleb are back to back on one side of the room whilst Re is on the other directly facing the both of them.

"I was the only one awake for most of it. It's been two days." Caleb snaps. Lexi can't see his face but from the way his voice angers, it's clear that Re earned his signature glare too.

"Why should we trust you? You almost killed us, you sick bastard!" Re seethes at him.

Her statement shut him up and Lexi feels him physically tense up as his back hardens and straightens against hers. She can feel him look down and away from Re. "Why did you do it? What possible reason could you have had?" Re questions.

When he doesn't reply, she asks more questions relentlessly. "You almost burned us alive! What have we done to you? And don't blame it on your fucking illness because nothing can excuse that!" She whisper-yells, angry but cautious of being heard.

He fails to answer again and Re scoffs sarcastically. "Whatever that doctor has planned for us, I hope you suffer more than us." She seethes and Lexi gasps lightly at the pure hatred laced in her words. She had never seen Re so angry before.

Lexi starts wondering what exactly the doctor does have planned for them. Was he planning on killing them too? Or maybe torture them like he had done to Caleb. It was obvious now to Lexi that Riverfield was indeed behind Caleb being tortured at the sanatorium and cannot be trusted. She always knew there was something up with him. Since the moment they met, he had assigned her to Caleb. Why would he do that if he had never met Caleb himself?

Dr Riverfield also seemed to be hiding facts about Caleb's medical prescriptions and the drugs he was on. She knows now that he was probably trying to hide that fact that Caleb was taking painkillers because of the torture sessions.

And now, he's going to hurt them all because Lexi couldn't keep her mouth shut and decided to stupidly trust a man she barely knew. She had a habit of doing that, trusting people she shouldn't. Caleb for example.

She then tries to put everything together but had a hard time doing it when she knows so little. Why did Riverfield torture Caleb? What does he have against him? Had they been doing it to other patients at the Santorum?

Then she finds herself thinking about Caleb who is sat behind and practically up against her. She knows that she should be scared or angry even that he's right here with her, but why does she feel calm? She feels a little safer and that agitates her because she shouldn't feel that way. She couldn't. He literally tried to kill her and yet she still feels tingles inside her every time his fingers accidentally brush against her own.

Her heart aches and she doesn't know if it's because she is scared of him or because it's the complete opposite.

They sit in silence for what seems like an hour longer, not a single one of them daring to say a word. Deep inside, they were all terrified and Lexi had a million questions but the one that seems to be able to voice first, is: "Why is he doing this?"

No one replies at first, letting the fearful question linger in the air that's filled with the stench of gasoline still.

Re stays silent and after what seems like hours, Caleb answers. "It's me he wants. You two are just collateral damage. Both at the wrong place at the wrong time." He answers surprisingly softly, but it's slightly strained as if he was in pain of some sort.

"But why does he want you?" Lexi questions, refusing to turn her face slightly to catch a glimpse of the side of his face because she knows it'd momentarily destroy her.

She feels him tense up again and remains silent instead of answering her question. Clearly, he knows the answer but refuses to tell Lexi.

Re suddenly gasps and Lexi snaps her head to her right to see her friend looking wide eyed at Caleb. "What is it?" Lexi asks when words fail her.

"Y-you're bleeding." She stutters, aiming her statement towards Caleb and Lexi's eyes widen.

Lexi tries to turn her head as much as she can to see Caleb but she's only met with his back because his build is so much bigger than hers. "What?" Lexi directs the question towards Re because she knows Caleb won't answer.

"There's a knife dug in his right leg." Re replies, grimacing. "There's b-blood everywhere. How long has it been there?"

Lexi looks down at her feet and strains her neck towards the left to see a pool of blood by Caleb's boots. She gasps as soon as she sees it and she's about to ask him if he's alright-which he clearly isn't- when she cut off.

"I'm fine." Caleb snaps, though again, it's strained sounding as if he's in slight pain.

He's handling it well considering he has a knife jammed in his leg. "Did Dr Riverfield do that?" Lexi asks, anger boiling up inside of her.

"Stop calling him that." Caleb hisses, in either pain or anger she doesn't know.

She's about to ask why when they all hear a rustling sound coming from outside of the barn. They all stay silent and face the battered down door, awaiting the arrival of whoever is out there.

Lexi's heart pounds in her chest and she knows exactly who it is before they even pass through the door. Riverfield.

"Ah, you're awake. That's great, let's get started then shall we."

• • • • •

Word count: 2700

A/N: I HATE MYSELF FOR LEAVING EVERY CHAPTER AT A CLIFFHANGER IM SO SORRY.