Escape Plan

**Althaia**

I swung the door open, holding the hairpin tightly in my hand. I stopped at the doorway and just looked at them, feeling the tension between them. I couldn’t do anything since Cara was looking at Maso, who was keeping a sharp gaze at me. I wanted to shout at Cara for not being ready, and possibly wasting our only chance.

“Turn around and put your hands on the wall.”

“What, why?” My heart was pounding and my hands started to get sweaty.

*Fuck, I was going to get caught.*

“I said turn around - ”

“She can’t!” Cara finally snapped out of whatever was going on with her and came to my rescue.

“I need help since I can’t really do anything in this big dress.” She continued and gestured to her dress. Maso’s eyes narrowed as he looked at me. His eyes continued down, stopping by my hands where I had them both into fists.

“Hands on the wall, now!” I took a step back when he came closer to me, and I sent a panicking look to Cara.

“No, wait, Maso -” She went after him but tripped over her dress and crashed into him. Maso was fast and managed to grab hold of her before she could hit the ground.

This was it.

Without hesitation, I quickly kicked the back of his leg, having him fall on one knee. His head snapped to mine with fury, reaching for his gun. Cara managed to push his hand away and with no hesitation, I pierced the hairpin straight into his eye.

Adrenaline was pumping in me like crazy, and my heart was beating faster than ever when Maso shouted out in pain. In fear of attracting attention, I tried to silence him by putting him in a headlock to cover his mouth. Cara was managing to limit his movements by holding on to his legs so he couldn’t get up.

“Grab his gun!” I told Cara to hurry. The minute the words came out of me, Maso snapped out of it and elbowed me right in the face. I staggered backward before falling to the ground. A massive, overpowering shock filled my body before a sharp pain spread on my face like a bitch.

I blinked a few times to get my vision back. I looked over to Cara just in time to see Maso pushing her away from him. With a rush of adrenaline, I quickly got to my feet.

Only to meet the muzzle of a gun. With a very furious Maso behind it.

“You have some fucking nerve.” He sneered with the hairpin still attached to his eye. His eye was bleeding and the way it looked had me trying not to throw up all over the place.

I felt my heart in my throat as I looked right into the gun. There was nothing I could do at this point. I was mentally preparing myself to be gone, and I hoped, whatever was going to happen, at least Cara would be getting out of here. I hoped Lorenzo would be able to find her and get her all the help she would need after witnessing my death.

I watched as his finger curled, ready to pull the trigger. I closed my eyes, just wanting it to be over already.

*I will be with you soon.*

A tear rolled down my cheek, knowing I would soon be on the ground. Dead.

“No!” Cara screamed and I snapped my eyes open at the sound of gurgling.

“My God…” I breathed out in horror at the sight. Maso staggered on his feet until his back hit the wall and dropped his gun in the process. He was choking badly, trying to stop the bleeding where Cara had punctured a knife right into the side of his throat.

“Ca…ra…” Maso choked out as he stared at her with wide eyes. His hands were desperately trying to do something but they were moving slower by the second until coming to a complete stop and slumped down. His eyes closed and his body stilled.

“What have I done…” Cara whispered in fear. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Maso, seeing blood continue gushing out from his neck. I tore my eyes away from him and looked at Cara. She was looking pale and her entire body was trembling with tears in her eyes. I instantly grabbed her and turned her back to him.

“It’s okay, Cara. It’s okay.” I pulled her into me, holding her tightly, and kept telling her over and over again that it was okay, trying to convince myself as well. I put my hands on her face, wiping her tears away.

“You did what you could. It’s not your fault. It could never be, okay?” I talked to her firmly, not letting it show in my voice how appalled I was. She looked lost. I knew that feeling too well.

“Listen, Cara. Right now, we need to snap out of it and get the fuck out of here, okay? It’s our only chance.” I talked to her hurriedly and she nodded, taking a breath and composing herself.

“We need to move his body into the restroom before anyone sees.” Luckily, the doors were heavy and thick to not attract any attention to us, but it was only a matter of time before anyone would walk in through those doors. The other guy might come soon to check on what was taking long for us to be back.

I grabbed Maso, forcing myself to think of his body as a heavy bag of potatoes and not in fact a fucking dead body I was dragging. Cara came to help and I knew it wasn’t easy for her as well as she flinched when his head dangled into her.

“Just a bag of potatoes…” I mumbled. We managed to get him into the restroom and I saw the trail of blood that followed along with the body.

“Wipe away the blood.” We grabbed a bunch of toilet paper and tried the get rid of the blood the best we could, but it was still not enough. I looked down at my dress, getting the idea of cutting it to use as a cloth to cover our tracks. I searched around for anything sharp I could use to make a tear and of course, there was nothing.

Until my eyes landed on the knife stuck in Maso’s throat.

“Oh, fuck… I need that knife…”

“You’re not actually thinking of…”

“I am…” I nodded but made no move to actually get it.

“Okay… Okay… You can do it. You smashed a rock into someone’s head. You watched his fucking brain mass. This is nothing.” I tried to encourage myself.

“Nope, not working.” I gagged at the image that flashed in my mind. I put a hand to my mouth, trying my best not to throw up. I took a few deep breaths and finally mustered the courage to actually retrieve the knife.

I grabbed the handle with a disgusting look on my face as I tried to pull it out. The feeling of the knife being pulled out was so vile that I almost emptied my stomach on him. It was too much for me that I had to immediately pull it out in one swift motion.

“To think our husbands do that for a living…” Cara was looking disgusted and I mirrored her expression.

“Something I will never understand.” I shivered in nausea. Ignoring the blood on the knife, I started to cut my dress shorter and tore the material into a few pieces. We wet them and started to wipe the floor clean in haste. We were almost done when we both froze in place and looked at each other with wide eyes. The sound of loud voices could be heard and they were getting closer to us. I quickly wiped away the last blood on the floor before we rushed to the restroom.

“Fuck, the wall!” I whispered in frantic. I was about to get back out but Cara managed to grab me and close the door just in time when another door banged open.

Men shouting and footsteps running past the door had us looking at each other with questioning looks.

What in the world was going on out there?

I took the opportunity to quickly tell Cara to handle the gun since she had better aim than me, and I was better at yielding the knife. The footsteps were fading and I let out a breath of relief, thankful they didn’t notice the blood on the wall.

“Where the fuck is Maso?!” We both tensed at the voice of the other guy that was guarding the door. We pressed ourselves against the wall next to the door when he stopped nearby. Cara and I jumped in fright when bullets were flying in through the door, and I held my hand to my mouth to not let out a scream.

Then it went completely silent.

He stepped closer to the door and I tried to signal to Cara what to do next and follow my lead. I crouched down, pressing myself to the wall as much as I could, and held onto the knife tightly. The door slowly opened and the second half of his body body was inside, I stabbed him right into the side of his stomach. He screamed out in pain and crashed into the door.

“Now, Cara!” I shouted and she fired before he could pull the trigger.

Shooting him right in his face.

“We have to move.” I pulled the knife out of him. I had no time to be sensitive about the sight in front of me.

“Cut my dress.” I nodded and went to cut it but stopped.

“Such a beautiful dress though.” I said.

“I know.” We both took a second to admire it. I sighed and cut the dress.

We ran down the long hall after we made sure the coast was clear. The others went this way so there must be a way out from here. We walked through yet another door and came to a staircase. I looked up, seeing there were three floors.

“We don’t know how many we will face up there.”

“I know. But we have to take the chance and see if we can fight our way out.” I told her.

“Shoot whoever comes in sight and we can take their weapons to make it out.” I knew she was nervous. Hell, so was I. It was not like we had years of training to be doing this. Cara was more advanced than I was as she did have proper training in handling the gun and had good enough fighting skills. I, on the other hand, had just begun training. And I was so thankful Damiano decided to train me because there was no way I would have survived so far without it.

“Don’t think, just shoot. And I will stab those bitches who come near us.” She cracked a small smile and took my hand tightly in hers. Together, we made our way up while trying to keep out of sight.

“They’re here!” Someone shouted from below us. He ran up the stairs while I heard more footsteps approaching.

“Run!” Cara reacted faster and dragged me with her as she ran up the last few steps to the first floor. There was no time to check the situation on the other side as we burst through the door.

“They’re escaping!” There were men to the far right of the hall, guarding the floor. We quickly ran to the other side with the hot on our trail. We ran as fast as we could but stopped when someone came appeared at the end with a machine gun. I was already exhausted, breathing loudly and my heart was thumping like crazy. At this moment, I wanted to cry that we were surrounded.

“Duck!” I barely registered the word but still managed to hold Cara and threw us both to the floor as bullets went flying over our heads.

When everything stilled, I looked up and got to my feet, wary of the person in front of us. He was dressed in all black and wore a mask. I held the knife tightly, getting ready to swing as he neared us. Then he took his mask off.

“Michael?!” Cara gasped.

“I thought you were…” I trailed off but then really looked at him. He looked like he had been through hell. Cara was about to go to him but I stopped her, unsure if we could trust him.

“Look, I know what I have done is unforgivable, and I would like to explain my side of things. But that will have to wait until I get you out of here. I’ve got clothes for you to change into so hurry up. We don’t have much time.” Michael explained but I still hesitated.

“Althaia, please. I would never intentionally put you and Cara in danger. Trust me.” He looked sincere with his pleading expression.

“Come on.” Cara nudged me and I gave in. He looked relieved and we followed him from where he came from. This place felt like a maze with so many paths, it felt impossible to navigate around.

“You can change here. I will keep an eye out.” He led us to a dim area and handed us the duffel bag he carried with him before turning around to give us privacy. We hurriedly helped each other get out of our dresses and pulled the clothes out, black leggings and black shirts.

“The vests too.” Michael said. I went to grab one when I was suddenly pushed against the wall. I immediately swung my knife at the person but my arm got blocked and pressed into the wall. I let out a strangled gasp and dropped the knife in shock.

His lips curved into a beautiful smile as he looked at me.

“Hi, baby.”

____

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