𝑇𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑥 ✔︎ || 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑

61

~ phoenix ~

I shot up with a gasp, sweat trickling into every crevice of my body.

And yet I was shivering.

Ilya.

Beside me, Gianna stirred awake as well. She'd fallen asleep in the bedside chair, clutching the doctor's report in her hands. Yesterday, she'd read the foreign words out to me, translated them and reassured me that Darius was fine. It was a false labour, induced by stress and dehydration.

My baby was fine.

"Phee?" she murmured, groggily.

I shuffled out of the bedsheets and under the cover of darkness, slipped out of my hospital gown. In a corner, a maid had placed some clothes, a shirt and some pants. Hurriedly, I pulled them on.

"Now," I whispered, "let's go now."

Midnight had fallen far long before now and in the distance, I thought I could spot the beginnings of dawn. Below my window, I observed an empty lawn, guard-less.

Without question, she rose to her feet. Gia approached the door, trying the handle carefully. As expected, it did not budge so she produced a bobby pin from within her brown tresses. After fiddling with the keyhole for a few seconds, I heard the relieving click and the door swung open.

Wordlessly, I followed her. Between the both of us, she had seen more of this safehouse than I did.

We turned a few corridors and after a while, found ourselves at the top of a stairwell.

I shifted on my feet, nervously. Apparently, Gianna felt the same trepidation as she didn't take another step.

Everything was eerily quiet— too quiet. I squinted in the dark, wishing there was more than the straying beams of moonlight falling in through the windows.

Despite my shaky breaths, I took the first step down. In the blackness, her soft hand found mine. I hoped my thundering heart wasn't as loud in the silence as it was in my ears. Because if we got caught—

Gianna gasped.

I opened my mouth to shush her until I turned to see the agony marring her expression. I looked around with alarm and concern but there was nothing

Slowly, wincing, she lifted her foot and collapsed onto a step.

I squinted down, seeing something unidentifiable in her shadow. Only when she shifted, did I notice the glinting nail, now coated in crimson. And my gaze trailed down the rest of the staircase, finding several more sharp objects scattered about.

Stupefied, I tried to understand the logic behind the littered nails. It then dawned on me that those bastards had shoes and we— didn't. This was a trap to catch us in the act of escape.

And they very nearly did.

"Gia," I whispered, fearfully. "Can you walk?"

She schooled her features, muffing the pain. "I have to. Come."

I tried to slow myself to a pace that would accommodate her. But Gianna was limping down faster than she should have been, whilst avoiding the other traps.