Page 68 of Catching Fire

This time she saw no cars from either of the two lines of sight that she had. She’d heard nothing from the rest of the house. Nothing from outside; even the wind didn’t rattle a branch or a window. It sounded as if there was no one in or outside the home.

Seline contemplated breaking out the window and escaping that way. Wasn't that what Maggie had done? And didn't it make sense? Two friends abducted by two friends? So crazy and so wrong but it didn’t change the very serious issue that she could escape or she could die. Those were her only two options. Still peeking out into the night and scanning the landscape, Seline began to plot.

It made sense that her abduction was eerily reminiscent of Maggie's. The two men had shared techniques and plans and eventually even one of Sanders’ sites. But hadn't Maggie said her windows had been nailed shut? Seline thought she could just lift this one and run, but she needed a backup in case she couldn’t.

Sanders must have changed something about his methods, or he hadn’t had time to prepare this place for her. Maybe that could work in her favor.

One option was to break the glass and climb through the window.

A second was to lift the sash and climb out.

But both would take time and be noisy and dangerous. She couldn’t afford to get cut or twist her ankle. Her gut was already clenching and she could feel her blood sugar was low. She didn’t have shoes on … going out the window was a last resort, as it could cause far too much damage.

So she softly moved back to the other side of the room and placed her hand on the doorknob. Then she bit her lip and stilled everything including her breathing as she waited for it to swing open in her face.

When it didn't, she slowly began to turn the knob, on high alert for any squeaks or clicks that would give her away. She took possibly a full minute to rotate the knob, until it stopped and told her that the latch was all the way back.

She let her breath out, not having realized she was holding it. The constant screaming of her feet from where she stood on cuts and bruises seemed to play as an appropriate backdrop for the screaming of her senses. If she didn't have her hand on the knob, it would have been shaking fiercely.

Taking another breath for fortitude and knowing this was possibly the only way she’d get out, Seline slowly creeped the door open. As she got a view into the hallway she found that all of the house was dark. She would never go to one of those American Halloween fun houses again. She was petrified something might jump out at her at any moment but, here, it wouldn’t be a costumed player there for the scare. Here, she would find Sanders, or a large dog with fangs bared and gums dripping.

But she'd heard no dogs, and she hadn't heard Sanders either. So she took a step forward into the short hallway and immediately pressed herself against the wall on the left. Slowly, she leaned out and peeked around the corner.

It could easily be that she simply hadn’t seen a car from the bedroom window because it was on this side of the house. Sanders himself could be sleeping in a chair in the front room, or in the room next to her.

Her head whipped back, her eyes straining in the dark of the short hallway. One of the rooms was probably a restroom. The other another bedroom, maybe, but she wasn't going to look. When neither door opened of its own accord, she turned back to the living room.

She was getting out.

This place didn't look as abandoned as the farm outside of Stromberg had. This place had furniture and the floor wasn't covered in dust. It looked as though someone was here regularly, plausibly the place Sanders was living.

When no one and nothing jumped out at her, she began to pad softly across the room, more than aware of the shadows and that the kitchen to her left most likely led to the back of the house. These small circular designs helped with airflow in the days before air conditioning, but now they let someone linger and hide. They offered the chance for Sanders to stay constantly one step ahead of her.

Her breath held tight and her heart pounding in her ears, Seline tiptoed softly across the room. The soles of her feet protested at every step. Her teeth clenched and sweat rolled down the middle of her back. But she didn't let herself stop. If she did, she might never start again.

When she reached the front door, she grabbed for the knob and found it locked. In fact, three bolts graced the side of the door, all of them flipped into position.

If Sanders wasn't here, and if she got out beyond that door, he would know she was gone from the moment he reached the door. His key would turn too easily and he would know all the bolts had been thrown.

Merde, Bon sang! Putain!She went mentally through every swear she knew but dared not speak them out loud.

The question was, was she alone? Was speed her friend here or was diligence?

Chapter Forty-Three

Seline gripped the doorknob almost too tightly. Her breath was shallow but somehow heavy as she tried desperately to make the decision. She realized then that it had already been made for her.

She wanted to go home. She wanted to curl up in bed next to Kalan and tell him how she really felt and let the chips fall where they may. She wanted so many things that depended on getting out of here.

Verner and Rossi had not been checking in regularly with new information about Sanders. Though they would likely have pulled out all the stops searching for her by now, the last Seline had heard, they had no idea where Sanders was operating from. And, she’d stopped swallowing those stupid trackers a few weeks ago.

She was going to have to save herself.

So she turned away and tiptoed her way through the kitchen. Now moving more quickly, she was convinced enough that he wasn’t inside the house, and she didn’t worry quite as much about him hearing her. Though diligence was her primary concern, speed was still a close second.

Quickly, she located a small back door out of the kitchen. This one had two bolts. And she was going to have to make a decision: which one did she think Sanders was using?

She remembered the first time she'd woken, she'd seen the parked car from her bedroom window. So chances were good, he was coming through this door. Then she should have gone out the front in the first place.

---