Fai
The car skidded to a stop, the smell of burning rubber wafting through the dark night. I didn’t care, and neither did Will. We both had one priority: get to Sarah.
When the call came in, I didn’t know what to expect. Sarah and I hadn’t spoken since we parted ways after the flight from Montana. Her calling late in the evening was unexpected; her whispered pleas were even more so.
“Hello?” I had asked, picking up the phone.
Will had looked at me with a raised brow from his seat across the desk. Jackie was working late, prepping an article for the upcoming issue of the journal. Will had decided to keep her company but was quickly kicked out of her office, so he’d found refuge in mine. I couldn’t even remember what we were talking about before the phone rang. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but Sarah.
A whispered tone sounded over the line, but I couldn’t make out the words.
“Sarah? Is that you?” I asked. The call was from her, but she wasn’t speaking. My hackles rose, and Will noticed immediately.He stood and stepped closer, straining to hear her voice through the speaker.
“Fai,” Sarah’s strangled voice sounded, just above a whisper. “Help me.”
I stood quickly, looking around for my keys before remembering I didn’t have a car. “What’s going on? Where are you?”
“He’s here,” she whispered. I looked at Will and mouthed for him to call 911. He nodded and left the office, presumably to find a phone. “Gabriel’s here.”
The world stopped. The fear seeping through her tone would haunt me for the rest of my life—and I was going to fucking kill him for doing this to her. “Are you safe?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t know where he is.”
“Are you hidden? Somewhere he won’t find you until I get there?” I asked.
“Y-yes… please help me, Fai,” she pleaded.
“I will, honey. Okay? I’m coming to you now. I’m only a few minutes away.”
“Please come,” she whispered again, her words strained.
“Nothing will keep me away. I have to hang up, but I’m coming to you now, okay? I’m coming,” I assured her, every muscle in my body taut, straining to get to her. To save her.
“Okay.”
I swallowed hard and hung up the phone, running out of the office and through the door with Will hot on my heels.
“Jackie’s on the phone with the police,” he explained, pointing to his car parked on the street.
We ran to the vehicle, hopping in and peeling away before the doors were even closed. I gripped the dash as Will flew through the streets, breaking every traffic law in existence. I didn’t care—and neither did he.
“What did she say?” he asked, somehow staying calm. I couldn’t be calm. I wanted to scream, to throw things, to hurt someone.
To hurt him.
“Gabriel’s there.”
That’s all I could say. I wouldn't be able to breathe until I saw her with my own eyes—until I knew she was safe.
“Fuck,” Will muttered.
The ten-minute drive, which Will managed in less than five, was the longest five minutes of my life. Every possibility of what was happening to Sarah rushed through my mind, filling every corner like a flood. I knew Gabriel was dangerous, but we still didn’t know the extent of it. Hell, we didn’t even know his real name. He was capable of anything, and he was alone with Sarah.
My Sarah.
Will skidded to a stop in front of her house, the smell of burning rubber wafting through the night and filling the small cabin of the car.
“Is that…” he started, his eyes glued to the truck parked in Sarah’s driveway.
