Chapter 18

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I could feel Gray's grip on my arm tighten. I totally did not expect what he was going to do next.

I think he must have given up on the 'let's be quiet' plan, because as the door swung open. He got up, yanked me up forcefully, and made a dash towards the balcony as quickly as possible, not bothering about anything we might have knocked over.

My back was soon pressed against the brick walls of the balcony. And Gray pressed his body against mine. We were so close together, that I could literally feel his hot breath on my lips. And for a split second, I thought I was craving for the kiss that never came.

My eyes darted around frantically for something else to look at instead of his lips. My eyes soon fell on the ledge of the window that was clearly in stepping distance. We could easily reach that.

We could use all the ledges of the window to escape from here and to find an empty office where we could 'break into' and then use the stairs down or something instead of staying stuck here with the high chance of whoever was in the office to come out here and catch us.

"Gray. Gray," I hissed.

"What?" he breathed back.

"I've got an idea."

I paused for a while, and his eyes urged me to continue what I have to say. "Go on," he said a while later.

I took a deep breath and sighed softly. "We could use the ledges of the windows to climb down, and then escape through one of the empty offices," I told him, being careful to be as soft as possible.

"Good idea," he whispered.

I started to feel nervous. I am not the one for physical activities. Honestly speaking, I'm bad at it. I'm very scared I might accidentally slip and fall. I mean, we are at least ten stories up. Screw that! We are ten stories up!

I started climbing off the safety railings of the balcony and onto the nearest ledge. I made sure to hold tightly. We wouldn't want an accident now, won't we? And besides, Gray can't exactly hold and steady me. He has to hold onto to his life himself! Literally!

I have to hold to mine to actually...

I started to make my way from one ledge to another, with Gray right beside me. Boy am I glad that it wasn't – or isn't – raining. It would make the whole thing a lot harder if it was. All the ledges would be slippery, and there would be a very high chance of slipping down and falling, and also possibly losing my life.

Willow, please stop thinking of these things. You are going to get too nervous and might actually fall.

I took a deep breath, and continued down the narrow strips of cement. I am also glad that the windows are not really that far apart, because there are no ledges between the buildings. In these types of situations, one wrong step could change everything. Literally.

Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. I command myself not to look down! Because if I do look down, I will panic too much, and I might fall as well.

So the best thing to do in this situation, especially if you're me, is to look straight, and be careful where you step next, and don't think too much, Oh, and don't make myself in any way nervous either.

"Okay, we're going to have to climb down now," Gray said softly from beside me.

"Down?"

"Yup."

I wonder how I'll do that. And that was when I spotted a balcony almost directly below me. "Hey, could I jump on that?" I asked him.

He hesitated for a while, before continuing. "You could, but try to be quiet."

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