Chasing Shadows

Part Two ~ Chapter Five

Matt:

“Okay, look, we can’t jump to any conclusions.” I was unsure of whether I was trying to convince Amy or myself that Julia was not the traitor. “I mean, remember how upset things like guns make Julia? She cries more than anyone I know when faced with danger.”

“True…” Amy sighed and looked down. “It just doesn’t add up though. Or, it adds up the way we don’t want it to. When faced with the facts we have now, it kind of looks like Julia is our traitor.” She shook her hood swiftly as if calling her best friend a traitor was giving her a migraine. It was starting to give me one.

“We have to look at this differently. Instead of like it’s some mystery to be solved, let’s treat it like it is. Our best friend is missing, and we are here tied up in some room that we need to find a way out of.” I was determined to keep us together instead of turning on each other. Amy had pointed out to me a while ago how Mr. Grey had a knack for being able to make us all resentful and suspicious of each other, and I was sure that I would not let him get the best of us this time.

“You’re right, you’re right.” I raised my eyebrows a bit jokingly at her and tilted my head when she relented. “Hey, your ego doesn’t get to grow at a time like this just because I am admitting you’re right.” She shook her head at me. “Honestly, I’ve been trying to think about if there was a way to get out of zip ties-.”

“And?” I questioned, interrupting her.

“Well, I don’t know, maybe I could finish my sentence?” She huffed. “Anyway, it still isn’t coming to me. But I know that I know it. It’s really frustrating.”

“Well, either remember it or we better fucking think of another way to get out because Ethan is out there somewhere, and I bet he isn’t safe!” I started panicking again, worried about my brother being without me there to protect him. Not that I’d been doing a good job at it before now, but it would be nice to see him safe once in a while.

“Stop thinking about him! If you do that, you’ll just go into panic again and become useless to figuring out how to get out of here.” I took a deep breath and nodded at Amy, trying to collect myself. She was right; hyperventilating or getting angry would not get me to Ethan any sooner. “Okay, now let’s think about plausible ways out of here. If there are any.” She muttered the last part dejectedly under her breath before shaking her head as if to get rid of it. “What do we know about this room that maybe we could use to our advantage and escape?”

“You won’t be escaping from here, I promise you.” Amy and I whipped our heads around to the door to see the lady from before standing there, holding a gun at her side. She slammed the door shut and walked into the room, smiling slowly as she looked at the predicament she had left us in. “And not just because of how tied up you are. You won’t be going anywhere because you will be listening to my orders.” A full smirk took over her face.

“Why would we do that?” I spat out.

“Well, Matt, if I may call you that, simply because I’m the one with the gun.” She held up her gun, pointing it at me and then Amy.

“We want answers,” Amy demanded.

“Haven’t I explained enough already? Sometimes you hostages are so much work.” She raised her eyebrows.

“Where is Julia?” I glared at the lady standing in front of us, now with the gun positioned so it pointed at me.

“The crier? Hah. I’d be glad to be rid of her if I were you. Such noisy sobbing…” She trailed off, leaving me and Amy still desperate for an answer. “Fine. I guess this much you can know, since we already have to kill you. That girl had so many tears that we figured she is the perfect candidate for getting us easier cooperation from James.”