Her throat was dry.

It was the first thing that came to mind as Nadine slowly opened her eyes, face mushed into the pillows. She swallowed in a poor attempt to salve her parched throat, blinking deliriously as she wiped the side of her mouth out of habit. She coughed into the back of her hand, smoothening her fingers down the front of her evening dress. Everything felt sore, her muscles throbbed like she hadn't used them in a while.

It took some time for the environment to dawn on her, the misplaced balcony door and oddly coloured drapes breaking through the cracks of her haze harder than the sun rays falling on the carpeted floor.

She wasn't home.

Nadine moaned, digging her fingers into her hair, pressing down on her skull, trying to massage the looming ache away. She was dressed in the same clothes she had when she fell asleep in the car. Dominic had her in his arms, she remembered laying against him, waiting for the car to get back home, but she couldn't remember anything else. Even sieving through the mess of her mind, she couldn't remember Harrison waking her or telling her about any plan to take her somewhere else.

"Dom?" she whispered cautiously, her voice still lost. She was barefoot, the hairs on the carpet rubbing against the skin of her legs. She reached for the door and turned the knob, walking out of the room and into a thin hallway. "Dom?"

The house, whoever's it was, was empty. She walked from the room to the kitchen, the study, and a few other rooms, but no one was around. Not even Dominic. Her phone was gone; there was no electric alarm clock in the house to give her an idea of the time or the date. The furniture was new, the utensils were clean, and there was no speck of dust anywhere, so someone had to be taking care of the house.

There were no wounds on her, and her dress was intact, nothing felt odd or out of place. Except for the fact that she was alone in a large mansion, without her husband. Had there been an accident? Did someone find her and bring her here, or was something more sinister going on? Was Dimitri somewhere else in this house, or was he lying somewhere hurt and bleeding?

Nadine drank a few glasses of water to quench her raging thirst before she continued to search the house. Not finding anything of use, she finally decided to see if there were any neighbours around. Dominic wouldn't take her anywhere without having someone to watch her if he had to live. She held on to the sofa to catch her breath before moving quickly, rushing over to the door, but it held fast. Nadine frowned, looking up at the large door, turning the knob over and over.

"Hey!" She finally screamed, coughing into her hand and then banging against the door loudly. She was finally sure that something was wrong. Her mind was racing faster than her heart, trying to recall what happened after she went to sleep. "Come on, this isn't funny. Let me out."

Panicked, her breathing growing laboured, she turned to the nearest window and tried the lock, but it held fast, not budging under her weight. Nadine ran over to the next window and another after that, but they were all the same. She was hyperventilating by the time she ran up the staircase to check the rooms above, only to find that the windows were the same. Only a small rectangular window, way above her reach and too small for her, was open at the top of the locked one.

"Can somebody hear me? ANYBODY." She crumbled to the floor, on her hands and knees, her chest rising and falling erratically, as she tried, and failed, to catch her breath. She rested a remarkably calm hand on her belly, enormously surprised that it was not trembling given the situation.

"Calm down, breathe. In and out." She inhaled deeply and exhaled, repeating the words. "In and out."

The house was a fortress. From the balcony door, also firmly locked, she could see the high fences around it and the large, definitely steel door and barbed wires. Even if she could make it out of the house, she didn't see a way to make it out of the compound, especially not in the ridiculous dress she had on.

Nadine wiped the tears off her face, looking over to the wardrobe she barely noticed when she woke up and ran over to it, throwing the doors open. Thankfully, or frighteningly, there were clothes. She wasted no time on thought, looking around for a comfortable pair of joggers and a shirt. She tore through the closet finding a pair of sneakers and slipping them on. She returned to her discarded dress, lifting a piece of the material between her teeth and biting down hard before tugging to rip it apart.

"Calm down." She repeated, wrapping her hands with the piece.

She couldn't tell how long she had been there or when her kidnapper because she was sure she was kidnapped, would return. Dominic was nowhere in the house, and she didn't notice any other places where they could hide him. Nadine didn't want to believe he was dead, but she couldn't stay inside the house and expect news to come to meet her. When she got out, she could run to the nearest house, no matter how far it could be, and look for a phone. She remembered the number for her house phone; someone would tell her if Dominic was alive and someone could come for her.

The balcony door was the only thing in the house that didn't seem too hard to smash through. It was a high drop, but she had the sheets and a few other things to wind together. Nadine picked up the bedside lamp and hauled it into the glass door, turning away as the glass shattered. Splinters flew around the floor, and the body of the lamp fell to the floor.

She picked up the wooden body, using it to break the last shards of glass away and slinking down to walk to the balcony.

The drop was considerably high, and she was panicked, worried about hurting her baby. News she wanted to share with Dominic when they got home. Nadine did not doubt that he would be happy with the news, content to learn that they were to be parents again.

She began to rope the ends of the sheets together, along with towels and any sturdy material she could find. She rolled it around a rail, testing it to make sure it didn't give under her weight when she was dangling above the ground. There was no one in sight as she descended, looking down as she went, almost breaking with relief when her feet touched solid ground.

She crouched down to look around, asserting that she was safe before bolting across the large field, rushing towards the large gate. She looked around, but there was no way to climb it. It was smooth, with nothing to hold on to, and the wires overhead were definitely electrified. Nadine turned, intending to run around the fence until she found something when the sound of an approaching car caught her attention. There was screeching, like the brakes being engaged, silence followed, and then the gate began to open.

Nadine rushed behind it, pressing against the body to hide as a car rolled into the compound. There wasn't any time to wait for the driver to come down and notice her, or for the gate to close her back in again. As soon as his car was through the gate, she was out of it and running into the road.

There was no other house in sight, the mansion she woke up in was buried in the woods, one road leading into it, and it was a long one. She didn't know how long it would take to get to the main road, and she didn't have the time because when she turned to peek behind her, a man was already running towards her.

She ran into the forest, struggling up the slope to try and find any place of safety to run to, but there was absolutely nothing. Still weak from, whatever she might have been given, it was hard to run and even harder to catch her breath, but she went on. Even with her best efforts, it didn't take long for him to catch up to her. He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off the floor. He turned her around, and she turned with flying hands, striking him where ever she could until he locked her arms behind her back with his own.

Her eyes roamed his face, familiarity pricking at the back of her mind, but she couldn't get a hold of it, and she had no time to start grappling with faded memories. She kicked him as hard as she could, buried a fist into the side of his face and stumbled aside, trying to stay on her feet as she ran through the forest.

He bumped into her again, harder the second time, but they didn't fall. When she struggled, his arms tightened around her, firmly placing a hand at the base of her neck before she had the chance to scream. Suddenly, everything went dark.