Chapter 3: Flight or Trap
732 Words
Elena's heart raced.
They found her.
Those three words hit her hard, shaking her world. Darian's expression sharpened. Dr. Vale was already at the window, quickly pulling down the blinds.
“What does that mean?” Elena asked, her voice rising. “Who found me?”
Darian stepped closer. “It's not safe here. We need to leave. Right now.” He reached for her hand, but she pulled away.
“Start making sense!” she snapped. “Every second I'm here, I feel trapped. Why would anyone be looking for me if I’m just your wife recovering from an accident?”
“There’s a lot you don’t remember,” Darian replied, his voice tense. “You were in deep. I tried to keep you out of it. I'm still trying.”
“Keep me out of what?”
“The truth that could get you killed,” he said, looking straight at her. “The same truth you were almost ready to spill before the accident.”
Elena studied him, looking for honesty behind his calm demeanor, but it felt like trying to see through a frosted window—something was there but just out of reach.
A loud bang startled her. “What was that?”
Dr. Vale pulled out a small tracker from her blazer. The screen was flashing red. “They’re in the building,” she said. “Darian, we’ve got less than ten minutes.”
He turned to Elena. “We have a safe place. We can talk there. Please, come with me.” Panic rose inside her. She didn’t know who to believe. Darian could be telling the truth, or he could be spinning a web of lies. The more she heard, the more she feared her memory wasn't just blank; it had been rewritten.
Elena stepped back. “I'm not going anywhere until I know who's after me.”
Darian paused. Then carefully said, “Before your accident, you were working with a journalist. He went missing two days after your fall. You were both trying to expose a tech company’s illegal activities. You had the files. You were their biggest threat.”
“And now?” Elena asked, breathless.
“Now… they think you still have them.”
Another bang echoed, this time closer. The ground shook a bit. An alarm blared somewhere downstairs.
Elena looked at Dr. Vale. “Is this true?”
“She’s not ready,” Dr. Vale told Darian. “If she learns too much too fast—”
“I’m right here!” Elena yelled, cutting them off.
“Stop talking about me,” she continued. “This is my life.”
Darian's jaw tightened. Then, with unexpected kindness, he pulled out a black flash drive and handed it to her. “Take it. It’s part of your truth. If anything happens to me, you’ll know what you were fighting for.”
She stared at it in her palm; it felt small, yet heavy. “Why now?”
“Because they’ll be here any minute. You need to know your worth.”
Suddenly, the lights went out. The emergency lights flickered on, casting a red glow. A scream echoed from below, then—Boom! The sound of breaking glass followed by heavy footsteps.
They were coming.
Dr. Vale took out a syringe. “We need to sedate her. She won’t cooperate.”
Darian stepped in front of her. “No. If you do that, we’ll lose her trust.”
“She’s a risk now,” Vale snapped.
Elena's heart raced. A risk?
She bolted. She dashed past an overturned chair, down a hallway she hadn’t explored, her bare feet hitting the marble floor. Darian shouted after her, but she didn’t stop or look back.
She had no idea where the elevator was, but she could feel the danger closing in fast.
Turning a corner, she skidded to a stop. Three men in black stood in the hall, their faces hidden and weapons drawn.
One of them spoke, “Elena Carter, you’re coming with us.”
She stumbled back. “No.”
“We don’t want to hurt you.”
She glanced around—no exits, no escape.
Then she noticed a slightly open service door behind them. The kitchen.
And in a split second, she ran for it.
A gunshot rang out. The flash drive slipped from her fingers.
- Writer
