Her hairline caked with dried blood from falling and hitting something with her head in the studio. Then her legs. The part of the jeans that she had been wearing, the material that covered her knees, were no longer there, and knees covered in blood.
Well, that definitely would make me walk slower, I guess.
Willow went to take off her shirt and winced at the pain that started at the movement it caused as she lowered her arms.
Willow saw Micheal right behind her in the mirror, as he hesitantly walked up behind her.
“Let me help.” He said, as Willow felt his hands land on the end of her shirt as he pulled it up and over her head. Willow quickly put her arms up, feeling the pain coming back but not as much, as Micheal pulled Willow’s shirt from her upper body. Willow went to pop the button on her jeans, hesitating.
“Willow, you realize I helped change you into different clothing before. When you sprained your ankle.” Micheal reminded Willow, as she shook her head, and spun around to face him in just her bra and jeans.
“Yes, I get that, but still. I got it from here.” She said, as she went to undo the zipper on her jeans. Looking up to see that Micheal was still there, watching her as if she was going to fall over any second.
“Micheal I’m fine, you don’t have to watch me. I can get into the tub just fine.” Willow said, as she took a couple of steps, painful steps.
“Like I said, I’ll be fine. If I need anything I’ll let you know.” Willow said, as she grabbed for the door and closed it on Micheal’s surprised face.
And with some more privacy, she felt like she could now undress confidently and slip into the warm water to wash the caked blood from her skin.
Willow winced as she submerged herself in the water. Her cuts came into contact with the warm water. Moving too quickly dipped her head under the warm water. When she surfaced, she noticed a bar of soap. Willow picked it up and started washing the blood from her knees.
Her eyes moved from her scraped up knees, seeing something in her peripheral view.
Micheal.
“Here let me,” Micheal said, as he grabbed the bar of soap, and went to kneel at the side of the tub.
Willow passed the soap to him. Her hand landed on his t-shirt and pulled him down and kissed him. At first, he was still above her until Willow felt one of his hands go to her hair and the other to her shoulder as Willow kissed him back. Smiling into the kiss as she pulled him into the tub with her.
He tried to not put his weight on her, placing most of his weight on to his arms that moved to take a hold of the tub. Causing Willow to laugh slightly at his stumbling. He looked right back down at her, a surprised look on his face.
“What? I thought you could join me,” Willow said, as she pulled his face down again to kiss him. This time he didn’t hesitate, returning her kiss as her hands tried to grasp onto his shoulders, through the wet material of his black shirt that was now soaked from the tub.
Micheal pulled away from her and looked down at Willow, smiling.
“How about I take you out of this tub?” He asked rhetorically, as Willow noticed some fuzziness in her vision.
Must’ve bumped my head really badly.
Willow squinted her eyes and blinked. Micheal was gone and there was only darkness.
“Micheal? Micheal?” Willow called, as she repeatedly blinked her eyes, and only seeing darkness.
Was I still in the studio?
Willow went to get up from where she was laying and hit her head as she felt around. Feeling carpet under her fingers. Her fingers stopped at an object that was by her legs.
A spare tire.
“Oh god.” Willow said aloud as she realized she was locked in the trunk of a car.
Which made Willow really wish that the dream she had was real, and that she was with Micheal now. Feeling tears well up in her eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Thought you wouldn’t see me again did you Micheal?” The woman asked, as she tilted her head to the side, smiling wider and wider at him.
Micheal stepped back in surprise.
“Carmen.” he said, as he didn’t take his face off of her, not knowing what she would do.
“So nice to finally see you after all this time, Micheal. What’s it been a couple days?” Carmen said, as she went to the side of the pool, and lifted herself up, as Micheal moved quickly back away from her.
Carmen laughed as she stood to her full height, tilting her head at him.
“Thought I was Willow? No wonder you fell for her. But was she as good as me in bed?” Carmen asked, as Micheal tried to step back, not abruptly enough for her to notice, as he tried to come up with a plan, the wheels in his head started turning.
“Awe she hasn’t fallen for your charms yet? Or you haven’t been man enough to take what you want from her yet?” Carmen asked, her head tilted in thought.
“You know I could call the police Carmen? You aren’t supposed to be anywhere near me,” Micheal said, as he noticed that seemed to get her attention.
“Restraining order, you realize that that wouldn’t keep me from you?” She said, rhetorically, stepping closer, as Micheal tried to keep his head level, to make sure it didn’t look like he was looking at anything lower than her head. Although she had been wearing all white, which was now translucent because of the time in the water. So, he could see everything.
“You think Willow knows I look like her? That I’m the reason you were drawn to her in the first place?” Carmen kept on saying, all the while, stepping closer and closer to him.
“Willow isn’t like you. You look nothing like her, but in your demented mind you think you do,” Micheal said, as Carmen narrowed her eyes at him, ignoring his statement.
“Guess not, she doesn’t take what she wants like I do,” Carmen said, as she moved towards him to put her hand on his chest. Causing him to flinch at her touch and move away from her again.
Just a couple more steps.
“I was so disheartened about the last time we saw each other properly, years ago. What was that girl’s name?” Carmen said, as Micheal’s eyes narrowed.
Can’t let her get to me, can’t stop moving.
His foot reached the threshold to the open sliding door as he smiled before taking that last step.
“That was my wife, you crazy bitch!” he shouted as he went to close the sliding door and lock it, as he went to run to the second story of the house where Evan was.
Carmen rolled her eyes and smashed the glass with her hand and unlocked the sliding glass door.
Willow felt around the trunk to find something, anything to get her out of the back without Andrew noticing. Her hand came into contact with the spare tire again. Her hand went further and found something that seemed to be a latch. She smiled at the fact that watching so many true crime stories had been beneficial. Realizing that it was the inside latch that would pop the trunk. She pulled on it in both directions, hoping it would move. Willow pressed the latch down and there was an audible click, and the trunk snapped open.
Oh, thank god
Willow couldn’t take any more chances. She pushed it open just enough and slipped out of it, as the car was moving. Rolling against the pavement, feeling it cut into her.
After a spin around on the pavement, she opened her eyes. The world seemed to spin. But she knew she only had a few moments before Andrew would notice that she popped the trunk open, if that.
The bastard always had a tendency to not look back while driving. Maybe that’s to my benefit this time around.
Willow struggled to get up, planting her weight on her hands. Bracing herself against the pavement of the road, she stood uneasily for a second, noticing that it was nighttime.
Better odds of being able to hide.
Willow quickly made it over to the side of the road, shrouding herself further in the darkness, away from the lights of the streets that would give her away. Walking in the opposite direction that Andrew had been taking her.
&nbs
p; As Willow walked stiffly, she felt around her, smiling as she felt her phone in her pocket. Somehow, in the struggle of everything, it was still in her pants pocket this entire time. Willow dug the phone out of her pocket, hoping that the impact of the fall didn’t crush the device and she could still make calls from it. She squinted in the darkness and clicked it on and saw the home screen. She went into her contacts list and pressed Micheal’s number, dialing it. Waiting until it went to voicemail, she ended the call, scrolling through her contacts and dialing Amanda, feeling the tears well up in her eyes.
“Willow, what is it?” Amanda said on the other end as Willow broke down crying to her friend explaining everything.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Willow walked down the dark street after calling Amanda and telling her everything about Andrew taking her from Micheal’s house and ending up in the trunk.
God, Amanda must be going crazy right now. What about Micheal and Evan?
Willow stopped walking as headlights hit her face. She backed up as the truck pulled up beside her. Passenger side window rolling down.
“Hey, Amanda called us. Thought we could help with the situation,” Eric said, as Willow got into the back of the suburban bumping into Amanda, feeling her arms go around her squeezing her tight. The suburban peeling away from the sidewalk and headed back toward Micheal’s house.
“How the hell did this happen?” Eric asked, as Willow felt Amanda look her over, poking at her certain places to see if she had any broken bones.
“Well, I had a restraining order against him. I knew that wouldn’t stop him though. I knew I shouldn’t have let my guard down,” she said feeling like this was all her fault, leaning back against the seat in the darkness. Feeling the suburban going faster towards the house.
“You know he knows exactly where you would go back to. We need to get there first,” Tommy said, as Willow looked at the outline of his face, worry written all over it, as her eyes went to his hands on the steering wheel that were shaking.
Micheal ran up to the second story where Evan’s room was. Opening the door and seeing his son playing video games with noise cancelling headphones on. Micheal pulled them off of his son’s head, as Evan started to protest, and Micheal put his hand over his son’s mouth.
“There's an intruder in the house, you need to be as quiet as possible. I’m going to go to the gun safe, and you're coming with me,” Micheal instructed, watching the horror cross over his son’s face as he took his hand from Evan’s mouth.
There was a crashing sound that they both heard on the first floor, as they exited Evan’s room slowly. And walked to the master bedroom, as Micheal opened up the walk-in closet and went towards the back where there was a gun safe. Clicking the combination in and opening it. Revealing various shotguns and handguns. As well as an array of different ammunition. Grabbing two handguns, he passed one to Evan.
“You know how to use it, so use it now to protect yourself. If you need to shoot, aim for the waist down,” Micheal ordered, as he passed ammo to his teenage son.
“Protect yourself if you need to with it. The goal is to call the cops. I want her in jail,” Micheal said loading up his own handgun, clicking the clip back in. Both turning at the sound of the creaking of the floorboards just outside the master bedroom. Micheal put a finger to his lips as he walked across the carpeted flooring and opened the door slowly and walked out into the hallway. Leaving Evan alone and waiting.
“Dad? Dad?” he whispered, as he hurried towards the door, craning his neck passed the doorframe and sighed seeing Willow and his dad in an embrace.
“I was wondering what happened to you.” He said, as he looked Willow over.
“I need to get you both out of here, this is my fault. I had a restraining order against her but–” Micheal said.
“Wait, her? Tommy, Eric, and Amanda picked me up from the side of the road after I bailed from Andrew’s car. He took me away from here,” Willow said, not understanding, as Micheal sighed.
“It was this girl from a couple years ago, Carmen. At first it was one gallery showing, a regular fan. But then she was popping up at other ones. Trying to get back in restricted areas. Security would brush her off. Showing up backstage and being handsy with me. Then she found out where I lived. She showed up here while I was away, when Pam was pregnant with Evan. I got home just in time to find her pinning her up against a wall,” Micheal said, wiping his hand over his face.
“They must be working together, that must be it,” he said, as Willow looked up at him.
“That’s why you walked me down to the police station, and let me stay here afterwards,” Willow said aloud, realizing his reasoning for his actions all those weeks ago.
“Let’s get you two out, and the cops here,” Micheal said as Willow shook her head.
“I’m not letting you do this alone. Andrew is my problem; he could come back. And I want to help you with her. Give me a gun,” she said, pushing past him. Micheal followed her and reopened the gun locker, passing his gun to her and grabbing another one and filling the clip with ammo.
Willow turned at the sound of a creak on the stairs and an engine in the distance. Which wasn’t possible with how far the house was to the main road. A chill ran down Willow’s spine as she looked out the open master bedroom door and didn’t see Evan.
“Where’s Evan?” she asked, as Micheal clicked in the clip as they walked out of the room, looking down both ends of the hallway and not seeing the boy anywhere.
“You check up here, I’ll check downstairs,” he said, pulling Willow to him and kissing her before heading down the stairs.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Micheal ran downstairs, looking through every room and not finding Evan or Carmen. But heard Willow up on the second floor quickly looking through rooms.
“No one is up on the second floor!” Willow shouted as she ran down the stairs, where Micheal was now looking in the living room.
“He isn’t here. She isn’t here either. But did you hear a car pull up?” he asked, trying to remember.
“Yeah, but that could have been Tommy. They came with Amanda to drop me off. I told them to not come. They said they would call the police and be off by the gate, waiting. I didn’t want to get them hurt,” She explained, as Micheal nodded, looking passed her and out at the sliding glass door. Broken now from where Carmen smashed her hand through to undo the lock to get in. Willow’s eyes following where he was looking out back. Where Carmen and Andrew were standing. Carmen having the gun that Micheal had given him nonchalantly pointed at Evan.
Micheal and Willow hesitantly walked through the house and out to the open sliding door out into the backyard where Carmen and Andrew were waiting.
“If you don’t drop the guns, Micheal’s little offspring gets it.” Carmen said, as Micheal immediately clicked the safety on the gun and set it down on the floor, as Willow followed suit.
“He’s not involved in this Carmen, let him go. It’s me you want,” Micheal said, as he stepped up. Carmen thought about it, smiling and pushing Evan towards Micheal and Willow, as Micheal clutched Evan’s shoulders.
“Go. Eric and Tommy are by the gate waiting for the police,” Micheal whispered, as Evan nodded shakily as he looked from Micheal to Willow before running out of the house, hearing the front door open up.
“Good, now it’s just the adults. No more interruptions.” Carmen said, pointing the gun now at Micheal and Willow, as Andrew did the same. With Andrew noticing Willow flinch as he made a point of aiming the gun at her.
“You think I would shoot you? Now what would be the fun in that?” Andrew asked.
“Thought you could just shack up with my girl huh?” Andrew said, he narrowed his eyes at Micheal.
“Looks like you were fast in getting a replacement. And a rather bad one at that,” Micheal replied, a smile on his face, mocking Andrew.
“Because let me tell you I’ve had her. She’s no comparison to Willow,” Micheal said, lying as his
eyes narrowed.
“What? You didn’t tell me that?” Andrew said, as he looked at Carmen in surprise.
“I think they are better as a couple, don’t you? With both of them being crazy,” Willow asked Micheal rhetorically to rile them up.
“Oh, you don’t know how we met. Took one look at a gallery page and saw her comments. We connected on social media. She’s a fan of his. And I knew she could help me find out exactly where you’ve been going,” Andrew said as he grabbed Willow and pulled her to him.
“Don’t think we are together it’s just a relationship for a means to an end, sweetheart,” Andrew said, running the gun down Willow’s face as she closed her eyes and flinching in his hold.
“What are you talking about a means to an end? I thought we were together?” Carmen asked, turning towards Andrew, rage in her eyes. Andrew let go of Willow as he narrowed his eyes at Carmen.
“What? A couple times with me, and you assume we are in a relationship? I was only in it to get Willow back and away from him,” Andrew said gesturing at Micheal with the gun.
Andrew and Carmen’s attention was no longer on Willow or Michael, as they both started to slowly walk in the opposite direction. Andrew looked in his peripheral view and saw them trying to leave. Micheal pushed Willow to the side out of the way. Andrew came at him and punched Michael in the face, causing him to stumble back.
“You bitch! You caused all of this!” Carmen said, firing the gun at Willow as she tried to run.
Willow went down on the ground, feeling a burning sensation along her arms and legs, as she rolled onto her side. Her hands went to where the pain was centralized at her chest. Pulling her hands from the spot and seeing blood on her fingers. Trying to put pressure on the wound, but to no avail as her eyes rolled in the back of her head as she slumped back on the ground.
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