Chapter Twenty-Nine
Somewhere in the darkness, Scarlet heard thunder rumble. After that, she heard voices. She waded through her consciousness, trying to resurface, but her dreams kept her paralyzed.
“You’re disappointing me,” an angry female voice said. “We wouldn’t even be here if you were competent in the first place.”
Scarlet opened her eyes and blinked rapidly to focus. She was on her back, and still disorientated. It was dark. She slowly moved her arms and legs to test her surroundings.
Her body was stiff, but she lifted her arms to feel the air in front of her. She slowly turned over and felt the ground underneath her.
“Pathetic.” The voice echoed from somewhere in the distance. “I had to do your job. I was supposed to stay far away from this mess, and you and your dumb, moron partner almost ruined everything.”
Scarlet froze, recognizing Nora’s voice.
Two sets of footsteps walked away, until everything was silent again.
Scarlet inhaled, noting the air smelled of mildew, dust, and a familiar sickly sweet scent she couldn’t place.
Where am I?
She struggled to remember what happened. Nora drugged her. She tried to get away. Nora and the driver brought her here.
The phone, she remembered.
Scarlet reached down to her pocket, feeling the object still inside. They hadn’t even checked her. Relief settled over her as she pulled it out and flipped it up to inspect it. There wasn’t a signal to call out, but the light was still flashing. Maybe it could still be tracked.
She had to hope that was the case.
The time indicated that only a little more than an hour passed since she’d been sitting on her couch, talking to Nora.
Alex would have called by now, right? But what if he doesn’t?
There was a lot of time before morning—before she wouldn’t show up to practice. By then, it would be too late. She had to find a way out.
She held out the screen in front of her to try to see her surroundings. The low green glow from the phone’s screen did very little. There was a blank wall in front of her. She got to her knees and held up a hand to the surface. It was cold to the touch, and she guessed it was cement. She used the wall as a guide to get herself to her feet.
Once Scarlet was up, some of her disorientation faded. She turned and kept the phone out in front. Her heart pounded in her ears, making it hard to concentrate.
Calm down, she willed herself. Find a way out.
She took a shaky step forward, stopped, and listened.
The silence was unnerving. Beyond the sound of her heartbeat, she swore she could hear someone breathing. Her mind reeled with fear of the unknown.
Scarlet kept both hands in front of her as she moved forward. One held the poor phone light while with the other, she checked for objects. She shuffled her feet forward, and her arm grazed something soft.
She squinted at the object in front of her. It was colorful, even in the sickly green light. Scarlet closed her hand around it.
Fabric, she realized. Heavy velvet, tulle, and satin.
The scent she couldn’t place at first was the smell of the used costumes stored under the stage of the North Pointe Theater. It was a faint chemical mixture of Febreze, mothballs, and sweat. The costume rack was probably uncovered to prep for the season’s smaller productions.
Scarlet had only been down there once a couple years prior. Dancers didn’t have a reason to venture down. It was reserved for the costumers and production workers, and they didn’t start their work for another few weeks. The theater was built over an old textile factory that burned to the ground in the 1940s. Jason dared her to go down the dismal halls and stand by the costume room for a few moments, insisting the ghosts of workers who died there haunted the entire underground.
Ever the cynic, she’d gone down and fulfilled the dare, even going as far as breaking into the cage door that led to the costume room. There, she spent an hour looking at all the costumes, imagining wearing each beautiful tutu on stage. She lost track of time and Jason had to suck it up to find her. She hid behind a clothes rack and jumped out at him. He yelled at her for scaring him.
Scarlet felt a pang of loneliness at the memory. She’d give anything to have Jason check up on her now.
Scarlet turned and squinted into the darkness. She moved a bit more, trying to remember the layout of the room, avoiding more racks, until she spied the faint light from the hall glowing through the cage door at the far end of the room.
She took a couple steps forward, tripped on something large, and tumbled to the ground. The bulky mass let out a low moan, making Scarlet freeze. She ignored the pain in her hands from breaking her fall, and scooted quickly away.
“Scarlet?” The voice was weak and raspy, but Scarlet knew immediately who it was.
“Victoria,” she sighed in relief.
The woman reached out and clutched Scarlet’s shoulders. Scarlet couldn’t see much, but she could see the whites of Victoria’s wildly open eyes.
“Oh, God, it’s really you!” She thrust herself into Scarlet’s arms and began to sob. “How long have I been down here?”
Scarlet hesitated as the women’s fingers dug into her back. The pure desperation and relief in Victoria’s mannerisms overwhelmed her. She wrapped her arms around the sobbing woman to comfort her.
“You’ve been missing for about a day,” Scarlet told her.
“It feels like a month.” She kept a tight hold around Scarlet’s waist. “They separated me and Lily awhile ago. I haven’t seen or heard anything since.”
“Do you remember how you got here?” Scarlet asked.
Victoria bit her lip. “No. Lily and I were talking to a man about getting some Adderall—we don’t have prescriptions. He led us to a secluded area behind the club.” She managed a short laugh through her breakdown. “I guess stranger danger doesn’t click when I drink too much.”
Victoria’s shaky hands grasped Scarlet’s arms, as if she needed more reassurance the woman was there. “Another man grabbed Lily and knocked her out. I tried to run and call for help, but he overpowered me. I blacked out and woke up here in the basement with a massive headache. Not sure if it was the vodka, or he knocked me out. Both? Maybe both.”
Victoria’s chest started to heave as she cried. “It’s just been so dark. I can’t see, and it’s getting to me. I tried to just sleep, but my dreams are worse. Please help me, Scar. I’m sorry I was so horrible to you!”
“Do know what’s going on?” Scarlet asked. “Have you seen anyone since you’ve been down here?”
“No.” Victoria’s voice was now muffled as she wiped her face on Scarlet’s shirt. “You’re the first person I’ve seen since they took Lily. The man has a thick accent. I don’t know what to think. Frisco Met just wants us all dead.”
“It’s worse than that,” Scarlet said. Don’t tell her.
“Worse how?” Victoria asked.
“Uh…” Scarlet searched for a way to minimalize the situation. “Have you ever seen Pinocchio? When the boys get turned into donkeys and sold off?”
Victoria pushed back from Scarlet, narrowed her eyes, and grabbed Scarlet’s burner phone.
“You have a phone?” she asked. “Call the police!”
Scarlet reached for her phone, yanking it back from Victoria’s grasp. “Don’t you think I would have called already if it worked? I’m using it for light.”
Victoria cried harder, hugging Scarlet again. “Get me out of here, Scar! Now!”
Scarlet took a moment to breathe and assess the situation. Victoria was a mess; a bossy, dirty, cold mess who apparently was addicted to Adderall. It wouldn’t be easy to navigate out of here by herself, let alone with Victoria slowing her down.
Should I leave her? She looked around the darkened room once more.
No, she told herself. Alex wouldn’t leave anyone behind and neither should I.
Scarlet knew she couldn’t depend on Alex to save them, no matter how much she wanted to just stay put. Being trapped down here, not knowing who was coming or how much time they had, wasn’t an option.
Scarlet took a deep breath and pet Victoria’s head. “We’ll figure out a way out of here. You just have to work with me and chill out.”
“Chill out?” Victoria squawked. “Are you serious?”
She pried herself away from Victoria and grasped the woman’s hands. “We need to move, and we need to move fast. If you see Nora, or anyone you don’t know, assume they mean you harm.”
“Nora?” Victoria asked.
“I don’t have time to explain it to you,” Scarlet said. “Just trust me. We need to get outside and call the police.”
Victoria shifted out from her uncomfortable position.
“Say you trust me,” Scarlet said.
Victoria’s tear-streaked face was highlighted in the dull green light of the phone screen. “I trust you,” she said, meekly.
Scarlet gave Victoria’s hand a squeeze. She didn’t have time to be afraid. She had to keep it together, only if it was for a few more minutes. Long enough to break out of the room.
I did it before, I can do it again.
She helped Victoria to her feet and made her way slowly through the dizzying maze of costumes and stage props to the cage door. Victoria kept a firm grasp on Scarlet’s hand, letting her guide the way.
Scarlet navigated to the door and looked out to the hall. Everything was dark and quiet, but there was a little illumination from somewhere down the hall, allowing her to see what she was doing. Scarlet reached her free hand out to the chain lock that had always kept the room secure.
She let go of Victoria’s hand and turned to her. “Do you happen to have a bobby pin in that hair of yours?” Scarlet asked.
Victoria gave her a strange look, but reached up to her unkempt hair and pulled out a single bobby pin. “I’m supposed to believe you know how to pick locks?”
“You’re supposed to stand there and be quiet,” Scarlet said. “It’s not Fort Knox. I broke into this room a couple of years ago on a dare. I broke free of these assholes before, and now we’re going to do it again.”
Scarlet bit off the small rubber tip of the pin and bent it into a loose “4” shape. She pushed it into the keyhole and began to work.
“So you just moonlight as MacGyver?” Victoria raised an eyebrow.
“Are you cracking jokes?” Scarlet kept her attention on the lock.
“My humor surfaces when I’m terrified.”
“Then I like you better when you’re terrified,” Scarlet said.
Victoria managed a short laugh, before covering her mouth with her hand. “I don’t want to turn into a donkey, Scarlet,” she whispered.
Scarlet didn’t have time to contemplate if she was kidding or not.
A few clicks later, the lock gave way, and Scarlet pulled the grate to the side.
She stuck her head out and peered down the dingy hall. It was cold, but empty, and she could see the red exit sign lit up near the stairwell at far end.
“Okay,” Scarlet whispered, turning back to Victoria. “We move down the hall to the stairs and get up to the backstage area. We move together to the lobby. Once we’re there, we get to the doors.”
Victoria nodded and swallowed nervously. Scarlet couldn’t help but think of how desperate and frail she looked.
She turned her attention away, and closed her eyes for a brief moment.
When she opened them, the hallway looked endless. Scarlet took Victoria by the hand and broke into a quiet sprint. Her senses were on fire as she expected someone to jump out at them at any moment.
Safely at the stairwell, Scarlet looked up at the floor above. Victoria’s hand tensed, and she pressed her body so close to Scarlet’s, she could feel Victoria’s breath in her hair.
“I thought I heard something,” the redhead whispered.
Scarlet strained her ears, hearing nothing. She kept a tight grip on Victoria’s hand and began to ascend the stairs. At the top, Scarlet cracked open the backstage door, hoping it didn’t make a sound. It creaked weakly as it opened. They moved into the backstage area, and crept through the wings to the exit on the other side.
Scarlet heard footsteps.
Both women froze, waiting for the sound to pass. They got closer, and Scarlet held her breath. She pushed Victoria down to a hiding spot under a covered prop table.
“I’m going to distract them,” she whispered. “When you get the chance, you run.”
“But—”
Scarlet didn’t wait for Victoria to argue. She pushed her face down, and shoved her under the table.
As the footsteps advanced, Scarlet turned to face whoever it was.
Yuri emerged from one of the wings, focusing on Scarlet.
“Hey!” came his surprised shout.
Scarlet backed up and ran out to the stage. Her plan was to lure him away from Victoria she could make a clean break for it. She would run down the side stairs and out into the theater, hoping to get as far as she could.
“Stop!” Yuri’s voice echoed out into the theater.
She didn’t reply, she just ran. She cleared the stage and made a beeline for the side steps. Once she was down, she ran to one of the side doors.
As she approached, it swung open fast, and smacked Scarlet right in the head.
Disoriented, she stumbled back and clumsily fell into a theater seat behind her.
Nora closed the gap between them, throwing a look of irritation to Scarlet. “So.” She held up a shiny object. “You’re going to be a problem?”
Scarlet struggled to get up, but the confined space of the seat and her awkward position made it difficult to recover. As she got back to her feet, she realized the object in Nora’s hands was a gun. Nora smirked and pointed it at her.
Scarlet raised her hands up in surrender, fighting to stop the tears of frustration threatening to surface.
As Nora pressed the gun to Scarlet’s back to move her back to the stage, Scarlet’s thoughts traveled to the night of the gala. She hadn’t been happy to take a photo with Victoria and Isobelle, but the moment was now mocking her.
You’ll never know when you may need each other.
As she heard more thunder sound out through the theater, the irony of Isobelle’s words resounded in her head. Scarlet hoped Victoria made it out.