Chapter 29:

10 hours earlier:

Once Lexi is out of Caleb's sight, she takes a moment to herself, hidden in the mass of trees before her. She leans against one of them and thinks her plan over.

She's going to sneak in and if Marcus isn't there, she'll look for the phone, grab it quickly and sneak back out.

If Marcus does happen to be in there, she has no choice but to shoot him. She'd do it on his leg so that she doesn't end up taking his life- as much as she would like to do that and as much as she hated him, she couldn't throw away her entire future for someone like him.

Then she could call an ambulance for Caleb and Re and finally she could call the police so that they can lock that son of bitch Marcus up.

She walks up a little further, cautious of the clearing she could just about see up ahead, in case Marcus had been around somewhere.

Lexi clutches her small muddy fingers around the heavy gun handle and keeps her eyes wondering frantically around the area as she begins to see the outside of the cabin they were trapped in merely a few hours ago.

They didn't get a chance to see it earlier because they were too busy trying to escape, but Lexi notices that it's completely worn down even on the outside.

She approaches the door of the cabin with caution, gun ready in her hand to shoot if necessary and starts to wonder when exactly her life became a freaking horror movie.

When she met Caleb. Definitely when she met Caleb.

Lexi sighs a little when she puts her ear against the battered wooden door, the silence coming from within the barn evidently showing no signs of Riverfield. Marcus.

With shaking hands, she clasps her hand around the metal handle of the door and tewists it open ever so slightly, trying not to think about what could happen if she gets caught. It creaks only a little when she first opens it but begins to get louder as she continues, wincing at the noise.

Was it this loud when they left?

Upon entering their personal torture chamber, Lexi actually frowns when she finds it to be empty. Lexi was half expecting Riverfield and the rest of his evil doctor gang from the sanatorium to be standing there with machetes, shotguns and maybe even electro shock cables in their hands, waiting to chase Lexi, Caleb and Re. Okay she was fully expecting that.

But the room had been completely empty and everything was in exactly the same place as it was when they had left which only meant that Riverfield hadn't even noticed they were gone yet. Which in one way was great but it also meant that he could walk through the door at any minute now.

She'd lost track of time but it had been at least a couple of hours since they escaped.

Lexi tries to focus her mind on finding any sort of communication device to help her and averts her eyes from the wooden table full of equipment meant to torture them. If she looked at them, she'd just freeze in fear and she could risk getting caught. She shakes her head and averts her eyes. She could risk her best friend and her- Caleb dying because she was too weak to even look at a bunch of knives.

She silently searches around a little more desperatly looking for a phone but it's a feeble attempt. There's no such device in here and Lexi regrets coming back. She takes one last look around the barn before heading back towards the door.

But of course it looks as if God and luck aren't on her side because that's the exact moment she hears the door knob twist and the door start to creak open.

Lexi's heart beats a million miles per second and threatens to jump out of her heaving chest when she comes face to face with Marcus.

She sees his eyes scan around the room and lock with hers as his facial features switch from calm to angry in a matter of milliseconds. He visibly clenches his hands and doesn't say a word when he sees the gun in Lexi's hand, pointed at him and ready to shoot.

Lexis hand shakes uncontrollably and she fears she may drop the damn thing if Marcus takes a step closer.

Why did she have to come back here?

Marcus' anger fizzles away once he stares down Lexi, looking at the way her stance and expression is fearful. His face twists into a sickening smirk that looks an awful lot like Caleb if she looks past the difference in age. "You're not going to shoot me." He says, nonchalantly.

He takes a few steps closer so he's now fully into the room and shuts the door behind him making Lexi jump. The gun still points at Marcus and Lexi tries to pace back a few steps without making it obvious to Marcus.

"Try me." Lexi voices aloud, voice croaky and surprisingly confident given the situation.

A manic chuckles escapes his throat and he looks around the barn towards the chairs where Caleb and Re were meant to be. "Where are they?" He asks sternly.

Lexi's palms sweat excessively. Okay the gun is definitely going to slip out of her hands. She clutches onto it tighter so her knuckles turn white and remains in her position. "They're safe. Away from you."

"You don't even know where we are, dear. I know this place like the back of my hand. The Forrest goes on for miles but I bet if I called my...colleague, he could find your boyfriend and the girl in less than 10 minutes." Marcus says, putting his hand in the pocket of his jeans and pulling something out.

"He's hates the bastard a lot more than I do so I'm guessing he won't be as lenient as me when torturing the both of them." This makes Lexi even more nervous but she calms down once she notices him pulling out a cell phone. "In fact, why don't I give him a call now." He says, tapping away on the phone, not at all phased by the gun pointed at him.

Caleb and Re aren't far from here. If Marcus isn't lying, whoever is out there will get to them before she got to call the police. What if they kill Caleb and Re. Lexi couldn't let thay happen. It was too risky to call his bluff. "Wait!" Lexi calls out.

He doesn't stop the call, instead putting it up to his ear and awaiting the person the pick up. "I said wait! Don't call him." Lexi tries again but Marcus simply looks at her, bored.

Lexi almost starts begging now. "Okay okay...here." She puts the gun down on the floor and kicks it over to Marcus who still has the phone in his hand. "You have me. Please just let them go. Kill me. Torture me. Just please let them go." She begs, falling down to her knees.

Marcus seems pleased with himself seeing her begging for mercy. He hangs up to phone and walks towards Lexi whose whole body starts shaking uncontrollably in fear. He grabs a hold of her mud filled hair and lifts her up to her feet painfully.

He seemed angry now. A crazed look lingered in his eyes as he shot daggers into Lexis. "What did I tell you about leaving?" He shouts in her face and Lexi's breathing starts to quicken.

Two panic attacks in one day might just be the death of her if no one was here to help.

Marcus' phone rings and he answers it almost immediately, not letting go of his grip in Lexi's hair. In fact he tightens his hold and Lexi grits her teeth down.

Marcus was close enough now for Lexi's plan to work. And him being on the phone and distracted just seemed to be a bonus. She maintains eye contact with Marcus and carefully slips the metal knife out of her sleeve and into her left hand. "They escaped. They can't have gone far. One of them was knocked out and the other couldn't walk. Find them." Was the short conversation he had with whoever was on the other side of the line.

Lexi takes this opportunity to grip onto the knife properly and stab Marcus in the stomach as hard as she can. He's taken by surprise and instantly tightens his hand around her hair making it harder for Lexi to get out of his grip and run.

So she stabs him again a few inches away from the first one and he groans out loud. Whoever is on the phone certainly heard and could also be on their way. So she had to do something fast. She throws the knife away and manages to get a swift punch to the gut, right where she stabbed Marcus the first time which made him scream out in pain and finally let go of her.

Relieved and slightly light headed from the hard grip on her hair, she grabs the phone from his hand and makes a run for it towards the door where she bends down to pick the gun she had thrown moments ago.

She quickly dials 911 on the phone but once she takes a step towards the door again, she feels Marcus pulling her into him with an arm tightly wrapped around her waist, locking her in place. Her screams fill the empty and deserted barn but she couldn't help it.

"Bitch." He growls behind her, holding  her so tight that she struggles to breath. He's so strong, she's pretty sure he could shatter her ribcage with his bare hands.

The phone slips out of her hand but she still has the gun in her hand. She couldn't just aimlessly point behind her and shoot so she opted for kicking him right in the balls as hard as she could which effectively made him let go of her.

He stumbles back from the blow and groans. She turns to face him, pleased with the reasonable amount of distance between them now, points the gun and pulls the trigger.

She closes here eyes waiting for the bullet noise to fill the air but panics when she can't hear it.

The damned safety was on and Lexi never felt more stupid in her life. She doesn't have time to dwell on it though as she fumbles with the safety lock and clicks it ready to shoot again.

Once she looks back up though and she ready to shoot, Marcus runs up to her, backing her up against the door and pierces a metal blade through her stomach.

Only not once, not twice or even theee times. He stabs her four times in the stomach and Lexi had never felt so much pain in her whole entire life. It was excruciating and tears immediately fill her eyes. She's frozen in one place and can't seem to move. As if she's paralysed.

Her mouth is agape as Marcus holds the blade in her lower abdomen for what felt like minutes. The gun slips from her fingers and onto the floor and Lexi looks down to where the knife is stuck inside her, blood seeping through her top.

Lexi feels sick. As if she was going to physically vomit and she looks back up to Marcus, a silent stream of tears escaping her eyes but she doesn't have the power to voice her cries.

Marcus picks up the phone from the floor, hanging it up and throwing it. He smirks deviously at her and twists the knife a little watching her squirm before pulling it out complete and throwing it across the room. "I just realised how familiar you look, Miss Reid." He says with a smirk as he uses his hand to glide down the side of her smooth face.

Lexi wants to protest because she feels absolutely disgusting but shes completely immobile.

Marcus grabs a hold of her arm and pulls her over to the corner of the room, pushing her down on the worn out wooden floor and tying her hands behind her back with rope. It hurts like a bitch for Lexi but nothing comes out of her mouth. Instead her face twists in unbearable pain.

He then tends to his own wounds that were inflicted by Lexi and manages to tie it up with a piece of cloth that was lying about. He doesn't seem phased by the blood loss or the pain, not like Lexi.

He sits down on one of the chairs that Re was tied up to earlier and leans forward on it so his elbows are resting in his knees and the pads of his finger press together. "I know you better than you think Miss Reid."

Lexi refuses to look up at him, instead fixating her gaze to the floor.

"Alexa Marie Reid. Born in New York. Raised by a Mrs Amelia Reid and Mr Grayson Reid." He says cynically, making Lexi's eye snap up to his.

Although she's still unable to speak from her assault, her eyes are narrowed in beg of interest in the subject and Marcus smirks wider now. "I knew your parents back in the day." He says in mock politeness. "Well when I say back in the day, I mean 2 years ago. You know, before they died."

Lexi's eyes widen. Marcus knew her parents? How would someone like Marcus know her parents?

He gets up off the chair, moving it closer to Lexi and sitting back down on it, leaning in his elbows again and examining her face. "You are the splitting image of her." He whispers to himself in fascination. "Your mother I mean."

She wants to tell him to shut up. She wants to tell him that he was a liar and that he couldn't possibly have known her parents. Someone like him didn't deserve to utter their names. But her voice betrays her when she opens her mouth to speak but nothing comes out. Instead another wave of pain consumes her and more tears stream down her face.

"Such a shame she died. She was quite beautiful." He says, almost looking remorseful. "In fact, she looked a lot like my wife in that sense." He goes on to say.

This shocks Lexi the most. She's losing a lot of blood but it doesn't stop her from trying to figure out how and why Marcus had anything to do with her parents. "S-stop." She manages to whisper. Though even that one small sound makes her convulse in pain again so she shuts up.

"Did you ever find out why they died?" He asks, leaning back in his chair but wincing slightly at the wounds on his own stomach. "Must feel sickening, knowing they were murdered. And whoever did it is still out there." Marcus taunts.

"Please, stop." Lexi whispers so low that she isn't sure he hears her.

"No!" He shouts, standing abruptly, scraping the chair back so it fills the air with that ear shattering screech. He crouches down to Lexi's level and narrows his eyes. When he speaks again, it's in a much lower tone of voice. "Don't you want to know who killed them?" He asks cynically.

Her eyes never leave his, desperately clinging onto every word that comes out of his mouth. He couldn't possibly know. Unless...it was him. "Y-you..." Lexi tries to accuse him but her voice gives out.

He chuckles a little and shakes his head. "Oh no, no, no. It wasn't me." He says leaning closer to her but she's immobilised and unable to move. He's so close now that his nose touches her hair. He smirks wider as he whispers in her ear. "It was that pathetic bastard patient of yours."

And that's when Lexi's heart shattered into a million pieces in the space of a mere second.

He was lying. That can't be true. Caleb, he was in England. He doesn't know her. He doesn't know her parents. He didn't...he didn't kill them.

Everything flashes though Lexi's mind in lightning speed and she starts to hyperventilate again. Her breath quickens but it hurts every time she breathes so she tries to slow it down only the memories of Caleb...memories of him doing such a thing makes her head explode.

Shes crying and convulsing in pain at the same time and Marcus simply looks at her with fake guilt. He flashes her one more smile and gets up before walking over to his phone and calling someone.

Lexi doesn't manage to hear the conversation though or even comprehend her current situation because images of Caleb killing her parents flash in her mind. She feels physically sick so she spits out saliva on the floor beside her, a metallic tangy taste overtaking her mouth. It could be blood but none seemed to come out when she did so she was definitely close to vomiting.

Lexi sits back on her knees and her eyes widen when she feels a familiar object dig into her back. It's the knife she had put in her boot earlier. She quickly but cautiously takes it out, zoning back into Marcus' conversation on the phone. "Police?!" He yells down the phone. "You'd better get them before they do!" Is the last thing he says before cutting the line and slamming the phone down on the table of weapons.

Lexi is relieved to have heard the word 'police'. So the phone call to 911 did go through. Maybe they tracked her cell or something. She was finally going to be saved. She just had to make sure Marcus didn't kill her before they got here.

Marcus gets the duct and walks over to Lexi before ripping a piece off and glaring down at her. "You just had to fuck up my plans didn't you." He shouts at her, whilst bending down to her level and smoothing the tape over her mouth.

Lexi makes sure to hide the knife that's in her bound hands up the sleeve of her top. "Stay fucking put." He seethes at her, balling his hand into a fist and swiftly lunching her in the stomach once so she cries out.

"Argh!" Lexi's muffled shrieks can be heard in the room and she falls to the floor beside her, thankfully with the knife in her hand still hidden.

She watched him leave the barn and immediately starts cutting through the ropes behind her with her bound hands. It doesn't take too long but her current state slows her down. She's lying on her side with tears falling down her nose and onto the floor and once her ropes are off, she's physically unable to move.

So she starts crawling after peeling the tape off, leaving blood prints all over the floor but she couldn't care less. She had to get out of here. Every time her stomach glides across the floor, she feels it scraping on her wound and she almost screams out again.

Lexi had to use her blood covered hand to clamp down on her mouth in order to force herself to stop screaming.

She manages to crawl up to the chair Marcus had been sitting on to pull herself up but it's a feeble attempt because she just falls back down. Her whole body hurts and she starts getting light headed but she doesn't give up. She tried to pull herself up and succeeds this time.

She's barely able to stand on her own two feet but pushes aside the stab pains that shoot through her entire body and stumbles out of the barn. She realises once she leaves that she has no weapon with her but she's too weak to try and go back so she just carries on, without being able to look around to see if Marcus is there, going back to where she had left Re.

It seems like forever and Lexi's vision slowly starts to blur so she wonders if she's even going in the right direction, but she finally gets there to find it empty.

"Re." She whisper-yells but it's hurts to whisper. She starts to cry more in panic. What if Marcus had gotten to them before the police had? Where was the police?

Everything around her starts to spin and she feels herself about the fall but she can't do anything about it. So she lets herself collapse onto the wet ground of earth, as blood pours out of her wounds and her eyes fall closed. The last thing she hears before darkness consumes her is the faint sound of sirens but far, far away.

• • • • •

Word count: 3600

A/N:
I just really wanna thank LexiiMascrene and RedLungs so so so so so so much. They helped me come up with a new plot line for this book and basically wrote this chapter for me. Hopefully the book turns out much better now. Thank you guys! Please give them a follow and read their books if you can! 😊

Until next time.

Sara x