Page 32 of Hollywood Fairytale

“Good. Now I need you to look behind the clothes on my side. Feel along the wall until you find a rectangle like indentation. When you find it, I want you to push in on it. Okay?”

“Okay,” I answered shakily. My hands searched every inch behind his clothes, going over and over it, and not finding what I was supposed to find. I was ready to give up and cry when my fingers hit an indentation. “I found it!”

“Push on it.” I heard some other voices that sounded like they were talking to Luke, but I ignored them. My sole focus was on his voice.

Pushing on the wall a hiss sounded as a door opened into a separate room that I had no idea existed. “There’s another room,” I stated the obvious.

“Yes, grab Mason and close the door. Once you’re inside and press the red button on the panel no one can get in from the outside. One thing before you close the door. Your cell phone will cut out, so I want you to call me on the phone in the room. Can you do that?”

“I think so,” I answered as I looked at what looked like a bunker inside a house. It wasn’t fancy, but there was a cot to sleep on and a chair to sit on along with a small refrigerator in the corner. Along one wall were monitors showing the security cameras. Taking the phone from the wall, I realized I didn’t know Luke’s phone number.

“I don’t know your number. I’m going to pull it up on my phone and call you.” I sagged onto the cot with Mason on my lap, my hands shaking.

“Call me back,” he demanded. “I love you, Alex. Everything’s going to be fine. You’re both safe.”

“I want you to know that I love you so much.” It took everything in me not to say that I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want Mason to be scared more and I didn’t want to admit to myself that there was a possibility we were in that kind of danger, but what other danger made you hide in a secret room.

Hanging up, I pulled up Luke’s contact information and quickly dialed his phone. “Alex,” he sighed in relief. “Now hit the red button to lock yourselves in.”

Standing up on shaky legs, I moved in front of the panel and slammed my hand against the red button as if hitting it hard would make the door close quicker. I watched as it slowly closed with a hiss letting me know that we were now sealed in. Sliding to the floor, I looked up to find Mason watching me with wide eyes. He was scared and so was I.

I got up so that I could comfort him and be able to see what was going on with the monitors. I sat down once again, holding Mason tight and scanning the screens.

“Alex! Alex!” Luke screamed through the phone that I’d placed down when I went to shut the door.

Picking it up, I tried to look for what had set the alarm off and not cry into the phone. “I’m here.”

“Thank God! You went silent and I didn’t know what happened. Did you get the door closed?” I thought I heard tires screech in the background.

“It’s closed. I’m looking at the monitors trying to find what set the alarm off.” As I tried to see if someone was in the yard or inside, I saw a large rock thrown through one of the floor to ceiling windows that were in the living room overlooking the pool. I gasped, “Oh my God! Luke!”

Someone was trying to get into the house and whoever it was meant business. Didn’t they hear the alarm? Luckily now that we were in the hidden room, we couldn’t hear the alarm, but it was still going off when I closed the door and that person had to have heard it.

“What?” He asked, worry strong in this voice. “I swear I’m going to have a heart attack before I make it there.”

“You’re coming? Please be safe. I couldn’t bare it if something happened to you. Someone just threw a rock through one of the windows by the pool.”

“I’m on my way and so are the police. They should be there any minute now. Remember no one can get to you in there. You and Mason are both safe. I promise.”

A lone body slipped from the broken window into the house with a baseball bat over his or her shoulder. I watched the person slowly creep up the stairs heading straight toward the bedroom. How did this person know where to look for us?

“Someone’s coming,” I whispered into the phone as I held Mason tighter.

“Where is he?”

I couldn’t answer as the figure tried the handle but got nowhere since I’d locked it. Raising the bat to knock on the door, the figure stopped short and turned its head to listen.

Sirens?

Up until now the figure had kept its head down so I couldn’t tell who it was except whoever it was, was skinny and short. Now I got a good look at her face as she turned to the camera and it was Ashlyn Jade.

Ashlyn was in Luke’s house.

She had broken in.

Did she know that Luke was gone or was she hoping he was here? Did she know that I was here? She had to, because why else would she have brought the bat?

“Luke.” In that one word, I was telling him that I was scared, that I didn’t want us to die, and I wanted him here with us.

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