Panic Room

Part three; the fourth

Ok, I don't really know what to put here so I'm just gonna say that I am so glad that this story is finally going somewhere. And a huge thank you to those of you who have read Panic Room. You mean sooo much to me!

Thursday; 1998; The secret room; Luna; 09;37 am

Luna sat on the floor, hands plastered over her face, thinking about what Abigor had just told her. He had known that she had observed the meeting, and had not tried to capture her. She had known that the S.N.A.K.E people must be evil, but she had never thought the reason that they wanted her was to force her to use her power to read codes for evil! She had just thought that they wanted to hold her ransom or something, but this was much worse. Now it made sense why Salron had wanted to use her in particular and would not settle for some other agent. Luna sat there for a minute longer, taking deep, steadying breaths and only removed her hands when she had gotten her trembling under control. She walked over to the bed and collapsed onto it, trembling once more.

 After a while, she stood up and paced the bedroom, before her trembling got so bad that her legs would no longer hold her weight and she crumpled onto the floor. She scrambled into a sitting position, and hugged her knees up to her chest shaking with suppress sobs. All of the weight, and fear and sadness off the past few days, that she had been holding above her head, now seemed to collapse upon her. She was doused in panic and fear and grief and remorse all at the same time, and she began to breathe very fast as her eyes filled with tears. The realisation of her situation bared down on her and she gave a loud gasp as it hit her: She was never going to see her family again. She was never going to be able to go to college, or get a boyfriend or have a first kiss. Luna let out a low, despairing moan as the tears splashed from her eyes and hit the carpet. She then felt suddenly extremely scared, more scared in fact, than she had ever felt in her life. People much older and more powerful than her, were trying to capture her to exploit her powers for their bidding. What chance did a girl like her stand against people like them in the long run. She couldn't hide in here forever. Or, at least, for the few months that she had left to live.

 Try as she might, and boy had she tried, Luna could not find a bathroom in the secret room. She would have to go upstairs at least once a day, and what if Nicholas, or Abigor, or whoever the spy at S.P.I.D.E.R was, managed to get in and just sat there, waiting for her to come upstairs, and when she did, then what? Would they take her to S.N.A.K.E before experimenting and using her, or would they just do them right then and there? And what would they do? Would they torture her into using them, or would they just find a way to take them from her and use them to their will. She let out a hitching, sobbing breath, and broke into a new fit of crying. As she wept, Luna heard footsteps above her head and stopped at one. She covered her mouth with her hand and sniffled, straining to hear who was there. The footsteps stopped and Luna heard a soft thump as whoever was there, sat down on what appeared to be the bed. She heard another person make their way into the bedroom and sit down making the mattress scream under his or her weight. Luna slowly, shakily lowered her hand and moved to the door, pressing her ear firmly against it. The people were talking, but Luna could not make out their exact words. She tried harder to hear them and caught snippets of their conversation.

"She must be here." She heard a deep voice speak, it must be Nicholas. "We'll find her."

Luna heard another voice speak and caught Abigor's voice. "Yes, Nicholas, I am sure that she is here somewhere." He said the last word rather loudly, and Luna heard a note of urgency. "We just haven't found her yet Nicholas. I'm sure that she is just hiding from us at the moment, and as long as she doesn't come out, we might have some difficulty capturing her!" Luna heard Nicholas turn, and then he spoke in a confused voice.

"Are you ok Abigor? You sound like something is wrong? Do you not believe that we will find Luna within Salron's deadline?" He shuffled back and Luna heard Abigor shift uncomfortably.

"No no Nicholas, I fully believe that we will find her. I was just pointing out that we may have some trouble. Yes, Yes, um well, we had better be off then, if we have an agency to search, shouldn't we Nicholas?" Luna heard the springs creak and then relax as Abigor stood up, but he was not joined by Nicholas.

"Didn't we agree that we would search this room before turning to the agency? After all, where else could she be?" Luna heard Nicholas stand and walk around the small bedroom before his and Abigor's footsteps began to move further and further away, and Luna relaxed slightly. She walked over to the bed on trembling legs and sat down. Abigor must know that she was hidden and had told her to stay where she was. Luna took a deep breath and tried to see if she could hear Nicholas' footsteps, but there were none. She took another deep breath and looked toward the door, wondering if it was worth it to run upstairs and use the bathroom. She suddenly realised that she had not showered or changed her clothes in a few days, so she took off her shoes and prepared to run. She would just grab a change of clothes and a bag, and have a quick shower, then she would just come back downstairs and everything would be fine. She counted down in her head from three and when she got to one, Luna ran.

She hurtled up the stairs and burst into the bedroom, swinging her head from side to side and running over to the bed. She found the pyjamas and undergarments, and, oddly enough, a small duffel bag. She stuffed things at random into the bag, underwear and socks flying in every direction, and scuttled over to the cupboard. She threw blouses and trousers into the rucksack and hurried back to the mirror. She dashed downstairs and threw the bag onto the bed, most of the clothes flying, and sprinted back upstairs. She ran to the bathroom and undressed, throwing up the water switch. Freezing cold water splashed onto Luna's face and she gave a gigantic shudder. She groped for the soap and spread it over her body, rinsing the excess off as she did so. Once she was finished, she flicked off the water and hopped out of the shower, grabbing a towel and drying herself off. As she did, she listened carefully, and heard the dull thunk of footsteps and froze. She dried off hastily and ran out of the bathroom so quickly that she slipped and fell. She collapsed to the floor with an echoing clunk and the footsteps stopped abruptly. Luna lay there, the world spinning and the place where she had hit her head aching. 

Everything was silent for a moment longer, before the footsteps began to move toward her very quickly. Luna tried to stand up but her feet were still wet and so she only fell back to the floor. She rested her head and saw two pairs of shoes come into the room. She closed her eyes and prayed that they would not see her, and for a moment, they did not. She heard the deep voice of Abigor speak "She is not here Nicholas, maybe something just fell off a shelf." Nicholas turned to look around the room and saw her. Luna knew that she had been spotted even before the tell-tale cry of, "Abigor, ABIGOR, she's here Abigor. Luna's here." He sprinted over to her and Luna saw a rough-looking sack and a strip of cloth in his hand, before they were thrown over her and stuffed inside her mouth and the world went dark. Two pairs of strong hands lifted her by the arms and legs and she thrashed around, screaming through the cloth. As she squirmed, she was carried further and further, and she moved around so much that her head collided with something hard. Stars blinked before her eyes, and the last thing she heard was the thuds, as she was taken away.