The Trials of November

Chapter Sixteen

Victoria began to panic. That meant that David was on his way up. Her last breath of freedom was one minute away. Victoria tried with everything inside of her not to cry. She could not show David her weakness.
Her instincts were telling her to flee, but Victoria had nowhere to go. If she would retreat down the stairs, she would only meet David on the way down and she would be taken faster than before. Her only choice was to sit there and wait for him. Victoria decided to go to the other side of the lighthouse to look over the ice again. She was trying to distract herself. She watched the lighthouse beams travel over the snowy surface, and then back around again.
It was in that moment that Victoria felt more at peace than ever before. I can do this. She kept telling herself.
Victoria reminded herself that she was brave and that she could get through everything that might happen to her. She knew that she would not have it any other way. She was saving a little girl, and to Victoria, that, in itself, was very worth it.
Victoria kept pacing, occasionally looking off the edge, just to make sure over and over again that there were, in fact, two sets of footprints. And every time she looked over the edge, there still were.
Minutes passed and Victoria kept wondering how it was taking David that long to get to the top. Her hands were shaking, but not from the cold.
Suddenly, Victoria heard the sound of the metal lighthouse door creaking open from the opposite side of the lighthouse. She froze in terror. He was there. The man that had been terrorizing her was feet away. She could feel her heart pumping around in her chest harder and harder every second. She kept panicking, looking back and forth, wondering which side he would come from.
She then decided that she would be brave and confront it head on. She started walking to the left, around the edge of the lighthouse, taking the same route that the beam took.
Victoria creeped around, but once she got to the doorway, she was shocked to see that nobody was there. She was puzzled, until she realized that it must have meant that David went around the other way, so he was coming up behind her.
Victoria spun around quickly, and she saw that there was a man standing right behind her. She let out a blood curdling scream. She felt hands closing around her head, pulling her head closer to his chest. She kept fighting and screaming, trying anything and everything to get him to let her go.
"Vic. Baby." The man said. Victoria recognized the voice, and she stopped struggling. It was Ben. Victoria began to cry.
Ben hugged Victoria close, attempting to comfort her as best as he could, which he knew was probably not good enough.
"Ben. I'm so sorry." Victoria kept saying between sobs. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, baby." Ben said. "I love you."
Victoria let Ben hold her. Just for a few minutes. She was still super paranoid about David, but it could wait. Ben held her close, and Victoria loved how safe she felt in his embrace.
"Vic. Let's just go." Ben begged. Ben was starting to cry. Victoria had never seen him cry before, and it touched a spot inside of her that she did not know she even had. When the tear fell down his face, Victoria felt her heart fall too. "Let's get out of here. Nobody has to know we were here. Please." He kept saying.
Victoria nodded. She did not want to give up on Anne but the whole thing was a much bigger deal than Victoria had initially realized. She did not understand the feelings until that moment, and those feelings were simply terrifying. She wanted to leave. She decided that she would do anything she could do to help the police find Anne. Anything that didn't involve making Ben so miserable. Victoria simply could not bear watching Ben like that anymore. It made her heart break.
Victoria and Ben went down the lighthouse stairs together, slowly, trying not to slip on the ice that was on the stairs from the condensation. They were holding hands tightly, so if one of them slipped, they would both slip all of the way down to the bottom step.
The chill did not cool either of them, for their love warmed both of them to their cores. They were happy together. Victoria put her head on Ben's shoulder as they walked out the doorway together. When they shut the lighthouse door behind them, they felt as though all of their problems were left inside of the lighthouse, behind the closed door. Of course, that was not the reality.
"Aw. How cute." David said. The pair spun around to see David leaning against the side of the lighthouse with a cigarette between his lips.