Finders Keepers (27 page)

           
Once she’d watched a documentary (her mom had control of the remote) about a mountain climber who had fallen down an ice crevice, hole thingy and he’d followed the crack out in spite of having broken both legs.
 
She thought about that as she shoved herself harder against the rock.
 
Her arm could still feel space in front which gave her hope that this would be a similar crack and it would finally open up to something instead of just stopping in a dead end.
 
She could still make it even if she had to break a collar bone to do it.
 
Desperately, she pushed until she’d made it another inch.
 

           
A distinctly familiar voice grunted to her left.
 
He was closer than she thought if he’d already reached the narrowing.
 
Another inch.
 
The rock pressed so tightly on her torso that she gasped for breath.
 
A couple more inches.
 
Her fingertips reached an opening just as his weathered, wrinkled ones reached her.
   

           
Letting out a screech, she pushed herself, shredding her shirt in the process.
 
One foot into the opening and then one shoulder, then her upper body, and lastly forcing her hips through. She landed on her backside into ice cold, knee deep water.
 
The breath she’d been holding was forced out of her as though she’d been hit and she floundered in the water disoriented before she managed to feel around and find a small dry ledge to pull herself onto.
 
The splash had soaked her pretty thoroughly and already she could feel the chill penetrating through her skin and into her muscles.
 

           
The phone!
 
She reached into her shirt where she’d stashed the little black phone in her bra.
 
The object Taylor had accidentally dropped earlier with a soft, “Oops” turned out to be her throw away phone.
 
She would never doubt her best friend’s loyalties again.
 

           
She’d tried it earlier in the cellar and couldn’t get any reception.
 
But the wall behind her was damp and slimy.
 
Did moss grow this far underground?
 
She hoped that something living meant she was somewhere closer to service.
 
Please let me be directly under a cell tower.
 
The screen lit up, thank goodness, when she flipped it open.
 
One bar.
 
Two bars.
 
Back to one.
 
Gingerly, she tested her balance while attempting to stand up and get higher.
 
Two bars!

           
There were only a handful of numbers she had memorized.
 
The rest went in her contacts on her
iphone
.
 
There was no way she was calling her parents.
 
Her mother would probably call the psychologist before taking her seriously enough to send someone useful like the National Guard.
 
And she knew Taylor’s number.
 
Let’s hope she’s not still tied up with Lola and her
nutso
dad.
     

           
“Hello?”
 
The masculine voice that answered the phone melted Ellie’s knees and she clung to the slick wall to stay on the ledge.
 

           
Her teeth chattered so fiercely her words came in spurts.
 
“How did you get Taylor’s phone?”

           
His sigh of relief was audible.
 
“Ellie, where are you?
 
Are you all right?”

           
“I followed a crack in the wall through to a small cave with a pool.
 
Xaneth
is behind me.
 
I don’t think he can get through, but he’s blocking my way out.”
 
She felt giddy.
 
“I know he’s still there.
 
I can hear him humming…Skip to my Lou I think.”
 

           
“What’s wrong?
 
Why are you…”
 
And then it must have dawned on him because he went silent.
 
“How wet are you?”

           
She half-laughed, half-sobbed.
 
It was déjà-vu to be wet, cold, and trapped by
Xaneth
again.
 
Her last hope had been the phone, but now she realized that there wasn’t enough time.
 
No one could find her, could even get to her quickly enough.
 
Her shoulders slid down the wall until she slumped completely against it.
 
To keep her feet out of the water, she pulled them into her chest.

           
“Is Sky safe?”
 

           
His voice was steady, in control, but hollow now, and her fears were confirmed.
 
The warm tears on her cheeks were barely noticeable demonstrating even more how numb she’d become in the last few seconds.

           
“Listen to me.
 
I know where you are and I will meet you on the other side of the crevice.
 
But you have to get out of there.”

           
“He’s waiting for me,” she whispered.
 
“I can’t go back.”

           
“You have to get up and fight.”
 
His voice nearly broke.
 
“Ellie, stand up and fight.
 
Do it for me.
 
I love you Eliza Brown and I am coming for you.
 
Now get up and fight.”

           
She squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed another sob.
 
Her heart was tearing itself in two.
 
He loved her!
 
But
Xaneth
was waiting for her.
 
He wouldn’t let her go again.
 
He could plunge the knife right into her heart as soon as she came within reach.
 
She’d be his for eternity with glass eyes and all the blood drained out of her.
 
The fear paralyzed her.
 
Ellie shook her head.
 
“I can’t.”
   

           
“I am already half way there.”
 
Indeed his breaths were coming hard and fast through the phone.
 
He must be running.
 
“What would you want me to do, if it were me?”
 

           
Ellie cradled the phone to her ear.
 
It was getting harder to hear him.
 
His voice crackled and broke apart.
 
“Gibbs?
 
Gibbs!”
 
The connection broke.
 
He was gone and she hadn’t even gotten a chance to tell him that she loved him too.
 

           
After several attempts to stand again where her stiff legs did not want to cooperate, she finally found her balance.
 
She leaned carefully against the cold stone and peeled off her long sleeve shirt leaving just her tank top on underneath.
 
It was sort of a relief when she could feel the cold intensify around her.
 
Then she pried off her shoes and socks and stripped her jeans off.
 
They were so stuck to her legs it was like trying to remove pantyhose made of cement.
 
Under her jeans she wore plain black leggings.
 
They were wet too, but there was no way she was facing down
Xaneth
in her underwear.
 
She wiggled her wrinkled toes back into her Nikes and then inched along the ledge, her arms outstretched to guide and steady her.
 
What she really wanted was a big rock to brain
Xaneth
with, but she wasn’t going to risk falling back into the water in search of one.
   

           
He wasn’t a rational person, so she wasn’t going to treat him as such.
 
“All right, you
wackjob
.
 
I give up, you win.
 
I’m half-frozen already and I’ve decided I rather live in taxidermy infamy than let myself rot in this hole.
 
I’m claustrophobic so there better be some serious height on that throne.”
 
She tucked the phone back into her bra and then placed both her hands on the wall in front of her.
 
One step at a time she shimmied carefully along the ledge until she came to the cave opening.
 
It was still several feet above her head.
 
The wall scraped her palms as she searched it for good hand holds.
 

           
“Just give me some space and I’ll be out in a jiffy.”
 
She braced her leg, dug her fingers into the rock and climbed.
 
She paused long enough to catch her breath and that’s when her toe grip slipped.
 
Scrabbling frantically she slid down the wall.
 
The stone scraped the skin off her raw skin again.
 
She hit the small ledge.
 
The momentum almost sent her over it, but miraculously she clung to the wall by the tips of her fingers.

           
There were tears when she finally knew for sure she’d stopped falling.
 
I will not end up a frozen fish.
 
I am a mountain lion.
 
Ooh, better yet, a mountain goat.
 
I am the smallest Billy Goat Gruff.
 
She giggled.
 
Too much longer down here and she was going to be as cracked as the goblin waiting for her.
 
Maybe that’s how it starts
.
 
Her stomach flipped over on itself.
 
Pretending her ninth grade gym teacher Mr. Mann (yes, that really was his name) was yelling in her ear, she pulled herself up and started to climb again.
 

           
Her arm barely reached the crevice when she heard, “Excellent choice my dear.”
 
His voice sounded even more creepy echoing through the crack.
 
“A much better queen you will be here than there.”
 
Ellie hauled herself up the remaining distance and then stood, breathing with difficulty.

           
“What are you talking about?”
 
She advanced into the opening, stumbling once, and then sucking in her breath in preparation of the narrowing of the crack.
 
It was difficult to hold her breath when her body wouldn’t stop shivering and she let it all back out opting to instead lean doggedly against the roughened wall.
 
It would be a lot easier to just sit down and wait for Gibbs to come for her.
 
Her knees weakened, having liked the thought.
 
Ellie rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, waffling.
 
“Seriously,” she called out and sort of mumbled at the same time.
 
“What are you talking about?”

           
“Sky will choose you for queen.
 
If he does it before he dies, you will reign.
 
After all these years, I couldn’t let that happen.”

           
She laughed out loud.
 
“Fat chance.
 
Lola’s got her claws in for that position already.”

           
“
Ahh
…”he cooed.
 
“…But he doesn’t love Lola.
 
He loves you.
 
And he will choose the one he loves.
 
Such a pretty queen you would have been, too.
 
But you’ll still be pretty.
 
I will make you pretty.”

           
He’s absolutely nuts.
 
But his words had a soul dampening effect all the same.
 
She couldn’t be queen.
 
He couldn’t have marked her.
 
The panic woke her senses a little.
 
Gibbs had wanted to see her arm and then they’d been interrupted by Sky.
 
Her eyes instantly started scanning her bare forearms, half-expecting it to glow in the dark.
 
Gibbs wouldn’t fight his brother for her, not when he’d give up his whole life for his brother’s well-being, would he?