A Hero In The Dark

Chapter 47: Dire

I stare at the phone in a sheer fear and dread; look to John, whom stares from the phone to me with similar emotions coursing through his veins.

I am unmoving; cannot move a muscle. My entire body is tense and rigid. My breath held.

That's the worst kind of panic. When you can't make even the most subtlest of movements. When you can't breathe the finest touch of air. When you can feel everything stop. Just stop.

It's as if you're dying. Dying without dying. Dying without even being physically hurt.

I only stare. Stare at the phone and the sender's two messages.

I gulp at the extreme nervousness and yet even that is a struggle.

"Emily," John says, and I know by the tone of his voice that it isn't the first time he is saying my name. "We will get them back. We will find a way."

I shut my eyes. Grit my teeth. Hope with everything I have that this is not real.

When my eyes open and find the phone once more, I know my efforts to rid the vile present was futile.

It is real.

And there is only one thing I can do.

I grab the phone with both hands and begin typing a response. Though just before I hit send, John stops me.

"Emily, what are you doing?" he asks.

"I don't have a choice John," I say. "I have to. I don't have a choice."

"We'll find another way," John says, and I can tell his heart is breaking at the thought roaming through his mind, his voice trying to remain stable yet failing.

"Maybe," I reply with a heavy heart without making eye contact. "Maybe we will all survive. Maybe we will save them. Maybe no one will get hurt. But until then, I have to do as they say."

John is silent.

I know he understands.

John isn't one to tell me to do the unthinkable to keep my loved ones safe. Nor is he one to tell me not to do it. He understands that dire times call for dire consequences.

And so, I read over the message that I have already typed.

What do I do?

It will have to suffice.

I hit send.