𝐱𝐱.

Faith awakened with a start, alone in a semi-dark and unfamiliar room. Mind clouded, and eyelids heavy—she'd been hit with something hard.

A door opened then shut. Faith's brain screamed for her to open her eyes fully and see who it was, but she'd fallen powerless to whatever was currently making its way through her bloodstream.

Come on, Faith. Move!

Sucking in a deep breath, Faith dug her fingernails into the mattress beneath her and sat up. As best she could tell, the door was to her right and it was slightly ajar, the smallest sliver of light spilling through the crack and onto the hardwood floor.

Target acquired—now all she needed to do was reach it.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed made her head woozy, but Faith took a few deep breaths to recenter herself. There was no way to tell where Derek was or what his plans were once he got back to the room. She needed to find a way out and fast, then get to a phone if she couldn't locate her own.

She got to her feet and started to walk. Her legs felt like JELL-O and the more she moved, the further it seemed the door became. She used her left hand to feel along the wall, hoping it would steady her balance.

A loud banging noise startled her the moment she placed a hand on the doorknob. She strained to listen. Nothing, and then...voices. One was Derek's easy to recognize. The other she couldn't tell, except for the fact that they sounded female. And she and Derek were definitely amid a heated argument.

Faith weighed her options. It was becoming increasingly obvious that if she were to make a break for it, she'd have to get past at minimum two people. She'd taken some self-defense classes in the past, ironically enough in the aftermath of what she thought was the last she'd be seeing of Derek, but those skills could only get her so far.

But if she didn't act now, there was a real chance that she'd never see the light of day again. See Chris again. Or Hope, or Cass, or anyone in her life that she loved dearly.

That wasn't an option. If she had to fight for her life, she'd go down swinging.

Faith pulled the door open slowly, praying that it wouldn't creak. When it didn't, she let out a sigh of relief. Light touched her face, making her squint after having been engulfed in darkness for so long. A carpeted hallway faced her, with a few other rooms here and there further down that had closed doors. To the left, there was a wooden railing that overlooked what she assumed was the living area. Her eyes fell on the top of the stairs; based on the location of the voices, trying to go down them would alert Derek and his partner's suspicions immediately that she was awake.

Her wooziness now completely gone, Faith silently dropped to all fours and started to crawl to the next closest door. She kept her breathing quiet and could only hope that the floorboards didn't creak. Although she doubted Derek and his partner would be able to hear her movements above their own noise, Faith wasn't going to take any chances.

She reached the first door and tried the knob. One quick peek told her it was a bathroom. She moved on, trying the knob of the second. It wouldn't budge. At first, she thought it was locked, but the bottom half of the door was slightly swollen, likely from water damage, which meant it'd need an extra push.

Faith sat up on her knees. Getting it open would mean a loud sound, but she had to risk it. There was no other choice. She scooted closer, turning the knob, while lowering her shoulder into it at the same time.

One, two, three–

BAM!

Faith fell forward into the darkened room, scrambling inside and shutting it back in the quietest manner possible. Breathing ragged, nerves pulsating with fear, she put an ear to the wall and listened.

"What the hell was that?"

"I don't know. You think she's awake?"

"You're the one who drugged her, how long was it for?"

"I didn't set a timer, Carly. We were supposed to have dumped her by now."

Faith's next breath got caught in her throat. Was she hearing that correctly?

Carly? As in, Chris's sister?

It couldn't be. And yet when she spoke again...

"Dumping? Hell no. That's your twisted fantasy, Derek. I'm not going to have the murder of my brother's girlfriend on my hands."

Faith decided from that moment on she wasn't going to let anything surprise her. She felt hurt, angry, and everything in between—but as much as she wanted to, she knew she couldn't listen indefinitely. Not when the goal was to find her phone. Or any phone, really.

Getting to her feet inaudibly, Faith felt along the wall for a light switch and flipped it on. It was a small bedroom, not much more inside than two twin mattresses with a nightstand between them, and a dresser with a vanity mirror.

She scoured the space on the floor in between the beds, seeing nothing more than a few streaks of dust on the surface of the nightstand. She yanked open the top drawer—bingo. Her suspicions were right, and Derek had been stupid enough to stuff all her belongings in here.

Her purse had its content dumped out—yet everything except her phone was missing. How stupid was he?

Faith grabbed her phone and awakened it to life, dismayed to find that it was only running on 10% battery. The first thing she saw were all the missed calls from Chris, Hope, their parents—anyone who cared about her had reached out more than once to see if she was okay. Clearing the notifications away for now, she immediately went to her iMessage thread with Chris. If she called 911, she'd have to talk and that was too big a risk right now.

Faith

11:33pm

Chris, I need you to listen to me. DO NOT RESPOND UNTIL I'M DONE

Idk where I am all ik is that Derek knocked me out once I got back to the hotel

I'm in a house I think?? Idk but my battery is low and I have to hurry

Derek and Carly are downstairs trying to decide what to do with me

I'm going to send you my location I hope it works

Pls give it to the police or whoever idk where you are rn

Her iPhone let her know the battery had dropped to 5%. She swiped the notification away, fingers trembling. Suddenly there was commotion outside the room. They were coming upstairs.

11:34pm

They're coming

You're the best thing that's ever happened to me

I love you so much Chris

• • • •

Chris was exhausted. Milwaukee police was doing little to nothing about the fact that Faith was missing. The biggest holdup was that because she was an adult and not a minor, they were dragging their feet on actually investigating. They'd suggested a number of unlikely options, such as her having gone home early, staying with a friend, or simply had her phone off and hadn't gotten in touch with him yet. Despite the fact that he told them that behavior was either impossible or not in line with her personality, they seemed intent on dismissing him. It was infuriating to say the least.

It was even harder to sit by and wait. Physically retracing her steps was hard, especially with Chris's celebrity status—traipsing around a major city's downtown area was going to earn attention for all the wrong reasons. He was thankful that Max had come along with him if for nothing else but what his expertise had to offer as both a bodyguard and as former law enforcement.

Chris had spoken to Hope an hour ago and she'd told him that her flight into the city was going to be delayed. He'd been constantly updating her via text and knew she'd see the messages once she landed. And, as always, he'd had the phone right next to him at all times, praying that Faith would reach out.

Even more so, as foolish as it seemed, Chris prayed this was all just a bad dream.

An hour ticked by. Two. Hope had landed and pretty much from the start had gone out looking for her sister. When both she and Max got back to the hotel empty handed, it crushed Chris's spirit even more.

"Do the police have any updates on the report?" Hope asked after yet another bout of silence engulfed the air between the three of them.

Max checked his phone. "Detective Fowler told me they were trying to get a warrant to review the security footage at her hotel. He'll let me know when there's anything new."

Chris slammed a hand down on the table in front of him, getting up and walking into one of the bedrooms and shutting the door behind him in frustration. He leaned against the wall, pulling out his phone like he had a hundred times before to check for any new notifications.

This time, though, when he saw his lockscreen—one of his favorite selfies that he and Faith had taken together—the façade broke.

He slowly sank to the floor, covering his mouth with the back of his hand as he sobbed quietly. The idea of losing Faith was unfathomable. He knew this was Derek's fault and no one else's. And yet, he couldn't help but feel like he'd failed her. Wasn't it his job to protect her as best he could?

He hadn't, and that was all his mind had on repeat.

It was only when his sobs had quieted that Chris noticed his phone had buzzed. No, wait—it was buzzing almost incessantly. He checked to see what was going on, and it was then that his heart nearly leaped out of his chest.

It was Faith.

Chris opened the thread and read each message as it came in, thumbs prepared to respond. But once she told him not to, he waited. And he was glad he'd chosen that option, because each one that came in felt more urgent than the last.

11:34pm

They're coming

You're the best thing that's ever happened to me

I love you so much Chris

He couldn't move. Could barely breathe. His brain was working on overdrive trying to process the bits of information and make sense of it. She was alive...but for how much longer?

Just as he moved to respond, a hyperlink appeared—her location.

It was the break they needed.

Chris had no idea if she'd see it or not, but he sent it anyway: Hold on baby, I'm coming. Just hold on.

• • • •

oh my god hey y'all i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! sorry for the delay i was blocked for a while but it's all good <3

bro i'd be so mf'n embarrased if anyone who knows chris read this cause i'm just antagonizing his sister at every turn 💀

i can't believe we're halfway to 40k reads...but i shouldn't be surprised you guys are amazing and your support means the world. i love you!!

comments are appreciated as always :)

until next time,

-rach