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Chapter 22

“I thought I’d find you here.” She smiled at him.
A smile that could have sent shivers down his spine if it wasn’t for the fact that he was already so cold that he didn’t feel a thing. Nick looked around to see if there was anyone around he could call, but they were alone.
“There’s no one around Nick. It’s just you and me.” Tara said, as if she was reading his mind.
Nick swore silently to himself.
He wanted to get up from the bench he was still sitting on, but he felt so exhausted and drained that he didn’t have the strength to do so, and Tara’s presence only made him feel worse. A part of him wanted to punch her, hit her straight in the face, but his mind screamed at him not to. He was desperate for some answers to all his questions, and not just that. Tara knew where Ali was.

She knows…

Nick sat up straight, using every bit of will he had left to raise his head and look at her.
“Where is she?” He whispered, his voice cracking as he spoke.
“Who?”
Nick raised his eyebrows and shook his head a little. “Don’t pull this crap on me Tara. You know who I’m talking about. I know you know where Ali is.” He wanted to raise his voice at her, but even though he tried, he just sounded more desperate.
“Ali huh?” Tara sat down next to Nick, and he shifted uncomfortably.
She seemed so calm. Almost too calm, and it worried him. It was like she just wanted to sit there with him and talk to him like they were best friends. Like him and Ali.
“Tara… just please. Tell me. I need to know. This is killing me.” He didn’t want to sound so desperate, but he couldn’t control it.
Tara sighed and rolled her eyes, as if she was telling him to stop complaining and get over it.
“You know…” she started speaking, her eyes fixed on a spot across the street. “I’ve been a fan for over 10 years.”
Nick frowned but didn’t get the chance to speak before she continued. “I always liked your music as a group, but it was because of you that I became a fan in the first place.” She took a deep breath. “I have three older sisters. They were always into these hard rock bands, and I hated it. So I went a totally different direction, and ended up with you. They teased me so much because of it. It was hard. I was the backstreet girl to them, to everybody. But still, I kept defending you and doing everything in my power to make them like you. But it only made things worse. You made it worse. I always wanted to be with you, and everybody always laughed at me for believing that we would be together one day.” She stopped and turned her head to look at him for a few seconds. “Give me a chance Nick. Forget about Ali. She’s probably dead anyways, you don’t need her. What do you say?”
Nick couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Be with her. He’d rather be with a dirt bag. He avoided her question, and decided that he had to push her buttons a little if he was ever going to get something out of her. He was tired, but he realized that this might me the only chance he would get, and that he had to take full advantage of it.
“Are you even a real police officer?” He asked without looking at her, his voice sounding weak, but yet very interested.
“Of course.” She laughed at his question. “I’d never have gotten the chance to come here with you if I wasn’t an officer. Granger trusted me. He’s so naïve.”
“Did you have anything to do with Ali’s disappearance?”
She shook her head. “No, of course not. This was just an opportunity to get closer to you.”
“But to prevent me from finding her…”
Tara shrugged. “I’ll do anything to have you to myself.”
“I’ll never be with you Tara. Why can’t you see that?”
“I do see it… That’s why I’m here right now.”
Nick looked at her. She looked almost sad as she spoke now, and it was making him nervous. He shook his head. “I don’t understand…”
“If we can’t be together here and now, I’ll find a way. If I don’t appeal to you in this world, there’s always somewhere else.”
Nick looked confused, and kept looking at her, trying to read her expression. It wasn’t until then that he noticed the gun attached to her belt. She saw him looking at it and smirked.
“If I can’t be with you, no one should.”
She slowly moved her hand to pull out the gun, and Nick felt his heart raze as he suddenly realized what she was talking about.
Was she going to kill him?
He wanted to react and defend himself, but as much as he wanted to, he didn’t care. A million thoughts ran through is mind at that exact moment, and for every memory that filled his head, the image of Ali became clearer and clearer to him. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back to let his mind focus on Ali and not Tara sitting next to him, ready to pull the trigger. Before he knew it, the sound of a gunshot filled the air and he closed his eyes even tighter to wait for the pain.
A pain that never came.
Slowly, after a few moments of not moving an inch, he opened his eyes. Granger was standing before him, looking down at Tara’s body on the ground. She was sitting next to the bench, leaning her back against the wall, her eyes closed, breathing heavily.
Tara had been shot.
Not him.
Tara.
The only person who would ever be able to give away what she knew about Ali. Nick looked at Granger with horror and quickly kneeled down in front of Tara. Placing his hands on her shoulder, he started shaking her.
“Where is she Tara? Tell me!”
She opened her eyes and looked him straight in the eyes, but never said a word.
“Please. She’s everything to me. You have to tell me. I’ll even forgive you for all of this, if you just let me know where she is.”
Tara laughed a little. A hollow laughter that made Nick feel nothing but resentment towards her. But to his surprise, she answered him.
“She’s in there….” Tara lifted her right hand and pointed towards the barn behind them.
Nick looked up at Granger who shook his head.
They had been in there several times before, and not once had they found anything. Not even a slightest clue.
“Please, Tara. Tell us the truth. We know she’s not in there…” He could see her fading away as he watched her close her eyes again and he prayed a silent prayer that she could still hear him.
“She’s in there…” She said again, her voice sounding weaker. “There’s a hatch.”
It was the last thing she said before Nick watched her head fall to the side, and he knew that she was gone. He didn’t know if he felt relieved or angry.
There was a hatch.

There’s a hatch.

~*~

She was so tired. The food she had been given days before was long gone and at that moment, the only thing on her mind was the gun lying before her. Right then, it seemed so inviting. It could end everything in only a few seconds and take her to a better place where she felt no hunger, cold or pain. But still, wherever she went if she decided to end it, something would still be missing.

Nick…

She had tried several times to crawl over to the door across the room that was double bolted, but as the days passed and she got weaker and weaker, she wasn’t able to move without feeling pain in every inch of her body. Screaming for help felt useless to her, as her voice was so weak she even had trouble hearing it herself. The only thing she could do was sit on the cold mattress and try her hardest not to fall asleep. Sometimes, she wanted to give in and close her eyes for a few hours, but at the same time she was afraid that she wouldn’t wake up if she did. For the past couple of days, she had been in a state somewhere in between, not sure if she was dreaming at times, or if she was awake.

Sometimes, she thought she heard voices and footsteps from above, which gave her a feeling that she was under ground, in a basement maybe. But she wasn’t sure. In a way, she didn’t really care either. She was so tired that she had almost given up, so tired that she didn’t even feel cold anymore. But the hunger was definitely there. So much that it hurt just thinking about it.

A sob escaped her lips as she begun to realize that the end was drawing nearer. At that moment she wanted more than anything to have Nick with her. He always made her feel safe, and the thought of death scared her beyond her own imagination. If he could only be there to hold her and tell her that everything would be alright.

A tear made its way down her cheek.
Everything will be alright.