The Mystery Of Elizabeth Matthews (SLOW UPDATES)

Chapter 33

We won "Simply the Best" award for the 2018 Golden Awards in Mystery/Thriller. It feels amazing!

Without further ado, here is the next chapter(Yes, I finally got to writing)

Hot. It was scorching hot. It felt like she was on fire. Her skin burned all over as she thrashed in the arms of her attacker. She needed to find him. She had to make sure he was safe. But how could she when there were so many men surrounding them? One wrong move and she would be fighting fire instead of men.

Breathe. She needed to breathe. The air around her was thick with smoke and she struggled to see clearly. Her eyes watered as she coughed. The man holding her sensed her defeat as he loosened his hold and allowed her to kneel down.

A cry of pain broke out in the midst of crackling fire and she twisted herself towards the voice. Even though she couldn't see through the thick smoke, she knew it was him. Squinting across the room, she could see the outline of two men holding a third one down. He was struggling to get out of their hold with failed attempts.

The urge to call out to him and tell him that she was here was too much. But the fear of what the consequences of not keeping quiet might be, made her will to remain silent stronger.

Taking advantage of the loosened hold, she hit the attacker's knee first and then his shin in quick successive punches. The man cried out in shock at the unexpected blow which caught the attention of others.

The man-in-charge who was leisurely leaning against a wall, stiffened and came forward as her attacker recovered and held her tightly.

"I warned you."

Those three words were uttered so lowly and menacingly that she could feel a chill run down her spine. She shivered despite the heat. The leader casually walked towards him, grabbed him by his hair and made him stand forcefully.

His right eye was swollen shut. He could barely stand on his feet. Blood was dripping down his lips and a bullet had made its way past his left shoulder earlier that day. He had already lost a lot of blood due to the torture he endured. Yet he looked straight in that man's eye and spat on his face. The leader's nostrils flared as anger radiated from him. He clutched his throat and threw him down near the fire.

She cried out in fear. Fear for his life. Fear for herself. Fear for what would happen to the others if they both died here tonight.

"No no no" she shouted as she was dragged outside the warehouse. His body was picked up and tugged near the flames again. The fire growing bigger was the last thing she saw before everything went dark.

"NO!"

She woke up with a start, gasping for air. Sweat running down her face as she tried to control her beating heart. A bile rose in her throat while the vivid memories of that night kept playing in her mind. She felt too hot. She got up from the bed, her movements, shaky and stumbled across the room. She finally made it to the bathroom and vomited till she was dry-heaving. A hand pulled her hair behind and the other rubbed her back until she stopped retching. She flinched from the touch and quickly pulled away to rinse her mouth. Without wasting another second she turned on the shower and set the temperature to cold. She closed her eyes and breathed in and out as the last of those memories faded away into oblivion. Only when she relaxed did she open her eyes to see Tyler standing inside the bathroom with her, his eyes flashing in pain. She heard a noise coming from the guest room she was sleeping in, so she turned off the shower and left the bathroom, Tyler following behind silently. She saw grandpa Sanders already waiting for her with a towel in his hands and concern in his eyes.

She took a deep breath again and gingerly accepted the towel from him, still not uttering a word. Grandpa sighed in frustration and sat on the bed. They were at Tyler's spare apartment which was away from the town so that they could work there without interruption and nobody except their inner circle could find them.

"Will you ever tell us what happened that day?" Tyler asked quietly

She looked away and noticed Trent standing near the window of her room staring at her with wide eyes. He had seen Brian suffering from nightmares but they were never this bad. Emily's eyes widened at his sight and she looked at Tyler accusingly.

"Why is he here?" Her voice, being hoarse from earlier, didn't come out as sharp as she hoped it would.

Tyler shrugged and looked at Charlie making him shrug as well as he gave her a sheepish smile.

"Grans!" Emily exclaimed.

"What? He is already in too deep. He knows more than anyone else. We have to keep an eye on him." Grandpa looked at her pointedly.

"And he is right here." Trent muttered

"That's the problem." Emily snapped at him.

Trent rolled his eyes. "I never signed up for this. I ran to your house to save you and there you were lounging on the couch while Peter tied Nicole up. Where is she anyway?"

Grandpa snapped his head at Emily as soon as he heard Trent.

"You did what?" He demanded looking at Emily and then at Tyler making them gulp.

"We didn't tell you because we knew you would never agree with us."

"Of course I would never agree with this. She was merely at a wrong place. She doesn't know anything and has nothing to do with us."

"On the contrary she knows a hell lot of things she shouldn't know." Emily spat and Tyler nodded.

Trent having enough of it and walked across the room towards the hallway pretending to ignore how the voices stopped on his movement.

"Where do you think you are going?" Emily snapped at him again

"Finding Nicole and getting the hell out of here."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Trent was held by his shirt and thrown on the floor of the bedroom.

"Emily!" Tyler and Charlie shouted together

"You are not going anywhere." Emily said brusquely.

"Nicole is my friend." Trent replied as calmly as possible. He couldn't deny the fact anymore that he was scared of her.

"Right now you are under our roof and she is my enemy."

Trent gulped. What have you done Nicole?

Thoughts? What do you think will happen to Nicole? What would Emily do? What about Trent?

Read. Vote. Comment. Enjoy.

-DS