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Two sets of black men’s boots fanned out around me, walking in my direction.
My heart caught in my throat, and my head suddenly felt fuzzy as adrenaline crashed through my system like a hurricane taking over.
I silently waved my hands, cursing without uttering a single sound. I frantically looked around the shower. Mason had said, use what you have. Use what you have.
I silently mouthed the words as I waved my hands around.
What do I fucking have?
Shampoo?
My fucking naked body?
I scoffed at myself for taking his advice now, of all times, wondering if it was him on the other side of this curtain. Not sure if it was better or worse, if it was him. I ducked down and glanced again, finding possibly a third set of shoes, though I couldn’t be sure now.
I could feel my heart starting to palpitate as the heat from the water ripped through me. I suddenly realized just how hot the shower was, and suddenly I got an idea.
I quickly covered myself in shampoo, and stepped out of the stream of water and turned the shower temperature all the way hot and then I quickly slipped under the stall into the adjacent shower. I quickly turned on the following four showers, easily slithering under the stalls into the next one until the steam began to steadily billow into the locker room.
The cold tile floor chilled my bare skin, a sharp contrast against the thick steamy air, as I moved from shower to shower, trying not to think about how dirty or clean the tile floor was.
In the last shower stall, I tried to steady my breath as I stood up and pressed myself against the wall. The hot water threatened to scald my skin mere inches away, the steam licked my skin in hot swirls, but I didn’t dare reach up and point the shower head away from me.
I stared at the tile floor and it disappeared as I visualized the locker room, trying to navigate the fastest way back to my locker.
The fastest way to the gun.
If I could just get to my locker, maybe I’d be okay. But not knowing how many pairs of boots were out there, or where they were between me and my locker, it made my heart sink.
I tried to steady my breath and calm myself.
Don’t panic. Don’t give up.
And I finally made the choice that I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. If itwasMason out there…fuck him, he was going to have to deal with everything he’d just taught me. If I was going down, it was going to be clawing, and fighting, and screaming. If I was going out, I was going to shred up the bastard that did it.
I leaned into the fight instinct and adrenaline exploded through my body, my breathing ragged and wild.
My mind wandered back to the prison cell in Iran, how Shah had said, ‘Isn’t it fun when they fight’. And I swallowed hard, suddenly wondering if this was all some big game, if I was just playing right into Mason’s hand. If he’d orchestrated every single event leading up to this.
I shook my head, I couldn’t think about that, not right now.
By now, the entire locker room was hot and filled with thick steam. I peeked through the shower curtain and saw a dark frame moving across the locker room, blocking my path to my locker.
Fuck!
I chewed my lip and looked at the sauna on the other side of the locker room, and quickly snaked my hand out and grabbed a towel in each hand off the cart next to the shower. I didn’t bother wrapping one around myself. I had to move fast, and I did. Softly and quietly as I could, I sprinted low into the sauna and clenched my teeth as I gently closed the door behind me.
I waited for a moment to see if the door would open behind me. Through the glass door, I could see the steam slowly creating a thick veil in the locker room. With my window of time, I quickly grabbed the towels and eyed the hot stones in the corner of the sauna.
I laid my extra towel on the ground to use as a bag of sorts. Then, using the other towel, I carefully pulled the metal grate off the hot sauna stones, trying to move quickly as I felt the heat swiftly seeping through the towel.
As quickly as I could, I grabbed one of the smaller sauna stones in my towel covered hands, using it as an oven mitt of sorts. I quickly deposited the stone onto the towel on the floor, trying to set it down softly. Trying to get the piping hot and heavy stone out of my hands as quickly as possible. Then I grabbed another stone, using my towel once again to protect my hands.
I quietly deposited the stones one by one onto the towel on the floor. Working quickly and methodically, releasing each stone before it burned me through the towel.
As I grabbed the fourth stone, the towel shifted when I lowered it to the floor and it slipped, allowing the stone to burn the side of one hand.
As the hot stone made contact with my bare skin, I jolted, losing my grip and the stone descended the rest of the way to the floor with a soft thud.
