I Can't Break Free {Stephew}

Salvation

"Now do you believe I'm not a damn hologram?!"

"Yes, shut up! We've got to find Stephanie before Chris finds her!"

Matt and Ronnie sprinted down the hallway heading straight for the door.

"Okay!" Matt said as he and Ronnie hit the door and barreled through it.

"I had Chris' car and Stephanie took mine, so he had to flee on foot unless he has some power we don't know about, which, let's face it, he probably does. For now, let's just take his car, he left it."

"Good luck with that." Ronnie said, gesturing to the tires, which had all been shot out.

"Dammit!"

Matt was panicking. They were in trouble. Adam had both Jason and Nate, the real Chris was probably still unconscious in the hospital, and the fake Chris was heading straight for Stephanie, for reasons unknown. Maybe he wanted to bring her to Adam. Maybe he wanted to just flat-out kill her. Maybe he was going to make her kill Jason. Whatever the case, they had to hurry or something horrible would happen no matter what Chris did.

Then, he realized. The fake Chris had even pointed it out to him, but he had never even considered it. Steph had hidden in the most obvious place possible. It had to be, but it was actually so obvious in fact that Matt hadn't thought it possible. But it had to be true, there was no other place that she would hide. And besides, she couldn't have gotten that far, Matt had been unconscious for less than an hour before he had started searching for her.

She was inside their house somewhere.

"Ronnie, listen, go after Chris. I think I know where Steph is."

"How am I supposed to go after Chris? I don't even know which damn direction he went! We'll go after Stephanie together, I'm not gonna just chase my tail!"

"Ronnie, please, trust me. Steph and I, we had a fight."

"No shit." Ronnie said flatly, staring at the scars on Matt's face.

Matt ignored him.

"I need to talk to her alone, I can make this right."

"Or she hands you another beatdown."

"She won't, she was angry when she did what she did. She wasn't thinking straight, I'm gonna tell her the truth."

Matt made a move towards the house, but Ronnie grabbed his shoulder.

"Matthew, you don't even know what the truth is! Remember, you heard all of this from a hologram who wants you and Stephanie dead!"

"Then at least let me tell her what I think is the truth! I don't think Chris was lying about what he said, I think he knew that if he told me the truth I would do anything not to get Stephanie killed, including betraying her trust, which would make us play right into his hands! I already fell for that once, I'm being honest with her this time! At least if Chris was lying and we die, then we die on the same side! I would rather we die together than live hating each other, I realize that now!"

Ronnie let go of Matt.

"Fine, go. But I have no idea where Chris is, I'm staying out here. That way I can warn you if they figure out where Steph is and try to get in the house."

"Alright, just be careful."

Matt turned and dashed back toward the house, took a deep breath and walked through the door.

"Steph?"

"Stephanie?"

"Steph?"

Matthew walked through the house, calling out his wife's name. Where was she?