Survive the Night

by Katie Ruggle

  “In Otto?” She dropped her gaze to the puppy again. “He’s really sweet.”

  “Yeah, he is,” Grace and Jules said in unison, and then laughed.

  “And he’s gentle.” Sarah realized that she was smiling. Just the thought of Otto made her happy. “And he’s so beautiful. And big.”

  When Grace and Jules started giggling, Sarah couldn’t help but join them.

  “Morning.” Theo’s grumbly greeting distracted them as he made his way into the kitchen, followed by his K9 partner, Viggy. Sarah jumped and immediately blushed, wondering how much of the Otto conversation he’d overheard. He seemed like his usual mildly grumpy self, so she hoped they’d been talking quietly enough that he’d missed the juicy parts. Sarah assumed his shift started early like Jules’s, since he was already dressed in uniform. Leaning down, he kissed the top of Jules’s head. “You should’ve woken me.”

  Tipping her head up, Jules accepted another kiss, this one on her lips. “How you can sleep through my obnoxiously loud alarm is beyond me. Puppy?”

  “Sure.” Settling down on the floor, Theo accepted the last puppy and bottle.

  Sarah’s pup had finished eating, so she put him on Grace’s lap with his littermate so she could get some warm, wet paper towels. As she massaged Bruce’s belly, simulating the mother dog’s tongue to get him to go to the bathroom, Sarah made a face. “This is my least favorite part.”

  With a snicker, Grace said, “At least human babies don’t need any help with that. They just go freely.”

  “Ew!” Jules giggled, scrunching her nose. “There’d be a lot fewer people willing to have babies if we had to lick them.”

  At Theo’s disgusted expression, Sarah joined the other two women in laughter. Joy bubbled up inside her. What a difference Mr. Espina and a few days had made. She couldn’t remember the last time, in her old life, when she’d truly belly-laughed. It felt good to be happy.

  * * *

  Later that morning, the knock on the door made Sarah smile. She hurried into the entry, feeling giddy despite her sleep-deprived state. The previous night had been brutal. By the time she’d fed and cleaned all four puppies and tucked them back into their heating-pad-warmed crate, she’d only managed to get an hour or two of sleep before the alarm went off and she’d had to start the whole process over again. After the four a.m. feeding, when Jules, Grace, and Theo had helped, things had gotten easier. Grace, a visiting Hugh, and the kids had assisted with the next two, but Sarah still hadn’t been able to do more than grab quick naps. The prospect of seeing Otto woke up her clouded, sleepy brain, though. It also created an entire herd of butterflies in her belly.

  They’d be pretty much alone, too. Sam had gone to work at his kennel job, Grace was running errands with Hugh, and Jules had dragged the rest of the kids outside for a Saturday home improvement project, despite their complaints. Jules was unsympathetic to their pleas. It was supposed to snow any day, and she was determined to clear away the remains of the old burned-out barn before everything was covered in a blanket of white.

  The idea of being alone with Otto was both nerve-racking and glorious. The last time hadn’t gone so smoothly, but Sarah was hopeful that this time would be different. After all, the ice had been broken. Jules and Grace seemed certain he liked her. Maybe he’d even ask her out. The thought made her swallow back an excited sound as she hurried to the front door.

  Her fingers fumbled a little with the locks, but she finally managed to get the dead bolts and chain unlatched. Swinging open the door, she felt her smile fall away.

  Aaron stood on the porch.

  No. No, no, no, no, no! The word echoed over and over in her head. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. She’d just broken free, just started a new life. It couldn’t end already.

  “Alice.” Her brother’s mouth curled up in a smile that wasn’t reflected in his flat, cold eyes. “You’ve put me to a lot of troub—”

  She slammed the door. Her hands were clumsy on the lock, slipping against metal, as an angry shout from outside made her joints go weak and loose, like a marionette. Finally, though, she managed to turn the dead bolt, giving a quiet sob of relief at the click as it seated itself. The second lock was easier, but she left the chain hanging where it was. She had to get away.

  Turning, she sprinted down the hallway, yanking the phone Mr. Espina had given her out of her pocket. Her sweating fingers fumbled on the screen, but Sarah finally managed to hit Send.

  “Why are you calling me, you nutball?” Jules laughed as she answered. “I’m in the backyard. You could’ve just yelled out the back door.”

  “Jules! My brother’s at the front door.” Fear made her voice thick. Sarah dashed through the kitchen toward the back door. “He found me. Oh God, he’s found me already.”

  “Ty, Tio,” Jules said. Her voice was hushed and muffled, as if she’d lowered the phone slightly, but Sarah could still hear her urgent words. “Take Dee into the woods. Sarah, get out here. I’ll wait for you.”

  “No!” Despite her protest, Sarah was so tempted to run out and let Jules help her, but that would only put Jules and her family in danger. She locked the single dead bolt on the back door and hoped that would hold—at least for a little while—if Aaron came around back. “Run, Jules! Get the kids away from here. I’ve locked myself inside.”

  “That won’t stop him for long.”

  Sarah knew that, but hearing it out loud was still terrifying. Her heart thundered in her chest, so hard that her pulse throbbed. “It won’t need to. As soon as you promise to hide in the woods with the kids, I’ll hang up and call the po—”

  The sound of breaking glass made her flinch, almost dropping the phone. Sarah sucked in a ragged breath. It had come from the front of the house. Jules had been all too right when she’d said the locked door wouldn’t stop Aaron for long.

  He’d broken in.

  “Sarah? Sarah!” Even though Sarah knew Jules’s voice couldn’t be heard all the way across the house, she still winced at how loud it sounded in her ear. “I’m calling Theo.”

  The phone went silent, knocking Sarah out of her terrified paralysis. She ran for the back door again, automatically dropping her cell in her hoodie pocket. As she fumbled with the dead bolt, desperately wishing she hadn’t locked it moments earlier, she saw movement outside. Someone was walking between the trees bordering the backyard.

  No! Go back! she mentally shouted, sure that it was Jules heading back to the house to help her. The dead bolt opened with a thunk, and Sarah yanked open the door. Before she could cross the threshold, Logan Jovanovic stepped into the open, heading toward the house—and directly toward her.

  With an indrawn gasp, Sarah jerked backward, silently closing the door before he spotted her. Aaron was at the front of the house, and Logan was coming through the back. She was trapped.

  Stop! A commanding voice in her brain broke through her panic. It wasn’t over. There were other options. If she couldn’t go out the doors, then she’d have to find a window. The police were coming. Otto’s face flashed in her mind, and it gave her courage. She just needed to keep herself safe until Otto arrived. He’d never let Aaron or Logan take her.

  Locking the back door again, Sarah forced herself to move to the kitchen doorway. Her heart was racing, and air felt thick in her lungs, making it hard to breathe. She was certain that Aaron was standing right outside the door, waiting for her, but she couldn’t stay in the kitchen. There was no place to hide, and Logan was coming.

  Gritting her teeth, she peeked through the doorway. No one was in the hallway, but the front door was wide open, one of its beautiful stained-glass windows shattered.

  Moving silently, Sarah darted into the dining room, feeling hunted. It was almost worse that Aaron wasn’t standing there, waiting. Now, she had no idea where he was. He could be around any corner, through any doorway. Her heart rate sped up
until the beats started to blur together, and it was a struggle not to gasp for air.

  Knock it off, the stern mental voice scolded. Get to a window and get out. Otto will be here soon. She clung to that thought. She’d dealt with Aaron and Logan before, and she’d survived—and escaped. Now, she had friends. She had help, something she’d never had before Mr. Espina had offered to help her. She just needed to hide or escape until her new friends arrived.

  The windows in the dining room were the crank-open type, and she knew she couldn’t fit through the opening—even if she wasn’t caught trying to open it. She needed to get into the library. There were two windows in there with sashes that slid up. She’d be able to squeeze through one of those.

  “Alice.”

  Aaron’s raised voice echoed through the house, freezing her in place.

  “You’re just making this worse for yourself, Alice.”

  The dining room went gray around the edges as she struggled to breathe. His voice was getting closer. It sounded like he was right outside. Her frantic gaze darted around the dining room, but there weren’t any hiding places, just an uncovered table and chairs.

  She was trapped.

  Chapter 8

  “I’m not happy with you, Alice.”

  Aaron sounded like he was even closer. Any second, he’d come through the dining room door and find her. “Do you know how much of my time and money you’ve wasted with your little stunt?”

  She spotted the small, waist-high door in the wall that Dee called an elf door. Silently, Sarah darted over to it and pulled the small, glass knob. The old wood stuck, and she had to hold back a frightened sob. There was a creak of a floorboard right outside the dining room door, and Sarah gave the knob a desperate yank. The small door popped open, revealing a serving hatch that opened into the kitchen.

  Boosting herself up, she folded herself into the hatch, pulling the small door closed behind her just as the door to the dining room swung open. Scared that Aaron had spotted her, she didn’t try to hide there, but shoved through the other side. Even as the small door leading to the kitchen swung open, her breath caught. What if Logan was in there?

  As the opening widened, revealing an empty kitchen, Sarah sucked in a breath. Turning so she could swing her legs down, she lightly thumped her knee against the side of the hatch. The sound seemed so loud, even over her heartbeat drumming in her ears. He’d be rushing in at any second, Sarah knew, and she slid out of her hiding place as quickly and silently as she could.

  She held back a terrified, frustrated sob. Now she was trapped in the kitchen again. Her only other options were the hallway where Aaron was, the back door where Logan was, and the basement.

  Even as she thought it, her feet were already moving. The door was warped, and she tugged at it, her fingers slipping on the glass knob. It finally popped open with a thunk that sounded much too loud. With a frantic glance behind her, Sarah slipped through the doorway.

  Standing on the first wooden step, she carefully pulled the door closed, stopping when it rubbed the frame with a squeak. Even though it wasn’t latched, Sarah left it, hoping it wouldn’t swing open and that Aaron wouldn’t notice the door wasn’t completely shut. She paused for a moment, listening. All she could hear was her own heartbeat and the rasp of her frantic breaths.

  Her right hand automatically reached to the side and felt for a light switch, but she only found rough, unpainted wood and something fragile and sticky that she figured were spiderwebs. A faint sound through the door made her go still, her breathing loud inside her head. Had she imagined it, or was Aaron in the kitchen? He could pull open the door at any second.

  Swallowing as much of her panic as she could, Sarah searched for the second step with her foot. As she eased her weight onto it, it gave a low creak, and she went still again. When the basement door stayed closed, she started breathing again in short, hard pants. She lowered her other foot onto the step. Her fuzzy socks caught on the rough wood of the step, and she wished she’d worn shoes. Why would she have, though, since she was going to go back to bed immediately after Otto picked up the puppies?

  The puppies. Content with their full bellies, they’d been sleeping in their crate, which she’d placed on the living room floor under an end table. If they stayed asleep and silent while Aaron was searching for her, maybe he’d miss them. She’d never seen him be cruel to animals, but then again, she’d never seen him around animals. Sarah’d had a kitten for a few weeks when she was younger, but her father had taken it away from her after she’d broken one of his rules. After that, she’d never asked for another pet.

  Aaron was carelessly cruel to people, though. Sarah knew this well, and her stomach churned with worry. She forced herself to focus. If she couldn’t save herself, then she’d be no help to anyone or anything else.

  Step by blind step, she crept down the stairs, one hand trailing down the exposed studs of the unfinished wall. The stairs were steep and uneven, some risers narrow and some wider, and the distance between them varied wildly. Her eyes started to adjust to the near-blackness, although she wasn’t sure if the shapes she could barely make out were really there or just her wishful thinking. It would be infinitely less terrifying to be able to see where she was going.

  Her foot dangled in space, and she had a moment of panic. What if the stairway ended, and she was going to fall off the edge onto a hard concrete floor below? Her toes finally made contact, and she blew out a relieved, silent breath. The next step was shallower than she expected, and her foot thumped against the wood.

  Sarah froze, holding her breath as she listened for any sign that Aaron had heard her misstep. All she could hear was the blood thumping through her ears, and she started to breathe again.

  As she stepped down again, the surface her socked foot came into contact with felt different. It was slightly uneven and cool. When she tried to descend another step, her body jarred when her foot connected too soon with that same bumpy surface, and she realized that she’d reached the bottom. It was a relief to be off the untrustworthy stairs and farther from Aaron, but the basement was an unknown. Sarah had no idea which way she should go or what she might run into.

  She extended her hands, hoping to feel any obstacles before she crashed into them, and her fingers bumped into a wood surface. Flattening her palms against it, she ran her hands up and down, trying to figure out what it was—a wall? A large piece of furniture?—when she found the doorknob. That was why it was so dark—there was a door at the bottom of the stairs.

  Turning the knob, she pushed it open, hoping it would be lighter on the other side. She only stepped into more blackness, however. She closed the door behind her, cringing at the click as it latched but wanting as many barriers between her and Aaron as possible. Although she felt for a lock, the door was smooth except for the round knob. Giving up on locking it, she turned to face the pitch-black room. With her arms stretched out in front of her, she took a shuffling step forward and then another. The dark was so complete that it was dizzying.

  Something brushed her face. Sarah sucked in a hard breath through her nose, barely preventing a scream from escaping. She batted at the air, trying to swat away whatever had touched her, but it didn’t work. The light tap against her cheek repeated once, twice, and a third time before she realized that she’d walked into a hanging string.

  With a ragged gasp of relief that it hadn’t been a giant, fanged spider or a rabid bat or a serial killer or whatever else might hang out in a dark basement, Sarah grasped the string and tugged. A lightbulb clicked on, blinding her for a few moments until her eyes adjusted.

  She looked around, taking in the shadowy space. Antique-looking things were stacked against the walls, some broken and some not, some older than others, but all dirty, cobweb-covered, and very creepy. The floor was packed dirt, and the walls were unfinished with exposed, battered-looking insulation filling in the areas between the studs. Th
ere were suspicious rustling noises and the musty smell of rodents.

  Hoping that nothing furry—or scaly or slimy or…well, anything—ran out in front of her, she crept forward, trying to see around the piles to a possible exit—a door or window or anything that would give her a chance to escape. There was nothing—no convenient outside door into the root cellar, no window. The bare bulb was dim, though, and threw a harsh, white light that distorted shapes more and more the farther from the bulb she went.

  What she wouldn’t give for a flashlight. Sarah promised herself that she’d start carrying one at all times. A flashlight, and a utility knife, and a gun would’ve come in handy at the door earlier.

  A wave of guilt swept over her. Could she have actually shot her brother?

  Then she remembered that he was planning on basically selling her to Logan Jovanovic. Her flash of guilt disappeared, replaced by the burn of anger. Aaron was the one who should feel guilty. He’d locked her up, hurt her, driven her to escape, and now he’d just ruined the first place she’d ever been uncomplicatedly happy. Rage built until it was pounding against her insides, wanting out. At that moment, if she’d really had a gun in her hands, Sarah would’ve shot him without remorse…although she’d probably have aimed for his foot.

  There was a shadowy alcove behind an old dresser stacked with dusty picture frames. Sarah’s heart rate sped up with hope that she’d found a way out—one that didn’t involve backtracking and running into Aaron. The large dresser mirror blocked her view, hiding the nook. Was there a door there? Could she be that lucky?

  Sarah picked her way around some scattered scrap lumber and wire hangers so that she could wedge herself between the dresser and the wall. She held her breath as she brushed against both surfaces, unable to stop thinking about what was rubbing off onto her—dirt and dust and spiders and… She forced herself to quit obsessing before she completely lost her nerve.

  From her new angle, she could see behind the mirror, but it was too dark, the shadows too deep, to make out any details. Carefully, Sarah climbed onto the top of the dresser, making sure not to knock any of the picture frames off onto the floor. Peering over the top of the mirror, she could see into the nook. Disappointment struck as she saw the alcove was lined with solid rock.