Page 41 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

I shot him a look of disgust. “You threw up on him to gain control of the plane?”

He shrugged slightly. “I had to get creative.”

“Jesus, it’s like you were on the Vomit Comet. I swear, there’s not a fucking inch of that plane that’s not covered in puke.”

“I almost flew into a building,” Scottie defended himself. “You weren’t up there. You don’t know what it was like.”

“I know if I was about to die, I wouldn’t throw up and risk ruining the control panel that could save my goddamn life,” I said.

“Hey, I landed in one piece. I would prefer you just say,Thank you, Scottie. I appreciate that you didn’t fly into the fucking substation and create a massive explosion that would have wiped out everyone in a one mile radius.”

“I could, but we have bigger problems on our hands right now than you using puke as a tactical weapon.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that this power grid failure appears to be only the start of our problems.”

16

BETH

The thingI hated most about my job was walking around in the basement. The lighting wasn’t very good, and the shadows had me jumping out of my skin constantly. I hurried over to my cleaning cart and loaded up what I needed. Everything around me stirred, like it was coming to life. A strange feeling washed over me, like something else was going on. But as I looked around, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. One of the other girls pushed her cart over to the elevator, taking it up without waiting for me to join her.

Sighing, I stood outside the elevator, my back pressed to the wall as I waited for it to return to the basement level. I scanned the area, sure that at any moment someone would jump out at me. Finally, I heard the ding of the elevator, but at that moment, I caught sight of five men walking my way. They were coming from the other end of the basement, but I had no idea how they got in.

My eyes widened in surprise, not only at seeing them, but the long trench coats they wore. Everything about them screamed danger. One of them seemed to hesitate as he drew nearer. He leaned over and whispered something to the man beside him, who gave a quick jerk of his head. While the others scattered, this man walked straight for me. As the doors slid open, I shoved my cart inside, quickly pressing the button to take me to the third floor.

When the doors didn’t immediately shut, I pressed the button to close them. Relief flooded me as the light from the basement slowly faded with metal blocking the light. But then a hand shot out, stopping the door from closing. Swallowing hard, I pressed myself back into the corner, putting the cart between this man and myself. He stepped on as the doors opened, his dark eyes boring into me as they roamed over my body.

A sick wave of disgust rolled over me, making me wish I had some way to defend myself. He slowly raised his hand, hitting the button for the third floor again. I nearly choked on my panic, my heart hammering in my chest as I was once again put in a situation I didn’t know how to get out of.

He’s not here for you,I told myself. I watched as he slowly reached inside his coat. My eyes narrowed in on his movements, waiting for whatever weapon he would pull out. I tried to formulate a plan, to think of some brilliant move I could make that would keep him as far away from me as possible. I lowered my good arm and gently pried the spray bottle filled with cleaner out of the basket, praying he didn’t see what I was doing. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but if he came after me, I would spray him in the face until I could get out of here.

His eyes flicked up to mine as he pulled out…a keycard. With a slight smirk, he attached it to his jacket. I slumped back against the wall, sure I was about to throw up from the stress and excitement of nearly dying over a piece of plastic. The elevator finally started to move, but I kept my gaze averted from him, watching the numbers as we rose in the building.

But my hope of escaping this man was cut short when the lights flickered off and the elevator stopped with a sudden jolt. My harsh, panicked breaths filled the elevator quickly as my brain started forming ideas of all the ways I could die in the next five minutes.

A hand clamped on my arm and I screamed, terrified I was about to be murdered.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s just me, the man that got on the elevator.”

That didn’t help me calm down. If anything, my panic increased ten-fold. I shoved myself as far into the wall as possible, wishing it could swallow me up. I grabbed the handle of the cart, trying to box myself into the corner and prevent this man from coming near me.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” he said, but his voice sent me back to a time where terror was a daily feeling for me, one that I could never escape.

His crooked smile sent chills down my spine. As my mother stood there, introducing me to her newest boyfriend, I instinctually knew this one was different. His smile was leering and the way he reached down to adjust himself with no concern for the fact that I could see him nearly made me run out of the room. But that wouldn’t do me any good. Not with my mother standing there, expecting me to behave myself. I knew all too well what happened when I didn’t behave the way she wanted.

He strolled forward and held out his hand, but I refused to take it. I stared in disgust at his outstretched hand, wishing I could run away and never come back. Deep down, I knew this wasn’t going to end well for me.

“Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you,” he said with a teasing grin as he waited for me to respond. As I slipped my hand into his, my hands turned clammy and my stomach revolted.

“Just calm down,” the man whispered.

I came back to the present, my breathing so ragged that it was all I could hear. I knew I was losing it, on the verge of passing out if I couldn’t get my breathing under control.

“I know this is scary, but the power will come back on. We just have to wait it out.”

Except, I didn’t have time to wait it out. For years, I’d worked past the demons that haunted me, but recent events had made it nearly impossible for me to keep those negative thoughts at bay. It was bad enough to deal with the nightmares, but now this…

---