Page 29 of Vengeful

The irony that I may be suffering concussion wasn't lost on me. Chloe's was my fault and so was this. I was distracted by the sight of the rocks in front of me and excitement at the prospect of almost being at the finish.

Once again, I let my guard down and screwed myself.

I leaned my head back against the wall of the pit. I had to think rationally about this. My first instinct was to stand up and scream for help. The guys would find me and get me out of here somehow. Knowing Slade, he kept a rope in the back of his SUV for occasions like this.

I sucked in a few breaths and blew them out through pursed lips. First instincts weren't always right. Someone put this pit here. That same someone might come back. I had no way of knowing how long this lay here, waiting.

Rationally, it must have been here long before the last time the guys brought me out here. No one could have come in here, dug anything this deep and left without leaving signs. For all I knew, it was done years ago.

None of that ruled out the possibility of someone coming and finding me here.

"At least your paranoia is intact," I muttered to myself. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and tapped on the screen. How it wasn't shattered into a thousand pieces, I didn't know. It even turned on. That was nothing short of a fucking miracle.

Unsurprisingly, there wasn't even a single bar of reception. Even in the middle of Sydney, I might get nothing at the bottom of a pit. Out here, I had no chance.

I resisted the urge to throw my phone. Instead, I shoved it back in my pocket. Only after dismissing the idea of using it as a source of light. If someone was looking for me, other than the twins and Slade, then the light would draw them here.

I sat back again and considered my options. I couldn't climb back out. The walls of the pit were too steep. If I had a knife or stick, I could dig handholds, but those would take forever, and the dirt may not be strong enough to hold my weight. With my luck, I'd bring it all down on me sooner.

I could sit here and wait for someone to find me, and hope that someone was the twins. Or I could give in to that first instinct and shout for help.

Rationally, if I sat and waited, I may never be found, even with the guy's skills.

I glanced back up at the sky. It was darker now. How long had I lain unconscious?

According to my watch, two hours had passed since I entered the trees. I walked for a bit over an hour and a half. Or at least, I thought I had. If I had a concussion, I could be way off. Either way, I was knocked out for twenty minutes or so. That was about average as far as I knew. Any longer than that and I might have had permanent damage. Hell, I still might.

I took another few breaths and tried to ignore the way the walls pressed in tighter.

"They're not moving," I told myself out loud. They'd stood for this long, they could stay up until I got the fuck out of here. As long as I didn't move around too much, they may stay stable.

They also might tumble in at any second.

Panic started to rise again. Along with memories of those slow, terrifying hours locked away in the dark. If someone wanted to find a way to new, unique way to torture me, this was perfect. This was as close to my worst nightmare as it could get. Even when my father locked me away, I knew the ceiling wouldn't fall and crush me. Dirt was considerably more fragile.

"I need to get out of here." I blinked away more tears and rolled over onto my knees. I pushed myself slowly and gingerly, until I was standing.

The rush of dirt and rocks that fell around me made me wince.

I stood completely still until it stopped. The rush became a slow slither which gradually faded to one or two rocks falling before the pit became silent.

Silent except for my racing heart that pounded through my chest and my ears. It exacerbated the pain in my head.

"Hello?" I called out experimentally.

A chunk of dirt broke off from the lip of the pit and narrowly missed me before it landed near my feet.

Okay, don't shout too loud, I told myself.

How the hell was I going to get out of here then? If I didn't shout loud enough to be heard, they wouldn't find me, but if I did, I risked bringing the whole fucking pit down around my ears.

"This is payback for what I did to Chloe, isn't it?" I muttered. If that was the case, then when did she get payback for the things she did to me? Granted, she hadn't tried to kill me, not exactly. I was the one who went too far.

My shoulders sagged. This might be exactly what I deserved. Destined to die down here, alone in the dark. Justice for trying to kill my twin. The universe was certainly a vengeful bitch.

"If you do nothing you may die, if you do something, you may die," I told myself. "You're Lila Bell. You don't wait around and do nothing. You take risks."

I took a chance on all of the guys and they hadn't let me down. I always grabbed life by the balls and lived it. That was what I had to do now. I had to take the chance that I could shout loud enough to be heard.

---