Discovery Devotion Destiny

Stuck

"Fear is often our immediate response to uncertainty. There's nothing wrong with experiencing fear. The key is not to get stuck in it."

-Gabrielle Bernstein

Ari was stuck. She'd heard stories about people just not being able to move and she never thought she would experience it. Yet in this moment, Ari sat on the damp, cold blades of grass, her eyes wide and locked on the scene in front of her. Soon the cries of Robyn cracked through the wall of shock, and Ari turned to the child, reaching forward and placing her hand on the child's stomach, but turning back to the scene once again. The nervousness, and fear seemed to rumble in her gut and she felt her heart racing, suddenly glancing around for life other than the baby next to her. Ari stood to her feet and did the only thing she could do.

With every bit of strength, the teen screamed, "HELP!"

Earlier that day...

Ari let out a sigh as she stepped into the large kitchen of the Queen mansion. Thea turned from pouring her coffee to see what she thinks is relief on the girl's face.

"You got lost again?" Thea asked and Ari looked over to her with a nod. "Where's the map I gave you?"

"You mean the paper you drew a bunch of lines and squiggles on and called it a map?" Ari asked as she headed over to the refrigerator. "That is as useful as a blind seeing eye dog." she grabbed the pitcher of orange juice and sat it on the counter, a stray thought suddenly hit her and she turned a sweet smile to Thea who turned meeting her eyes.

"Oh, I know that look. Whatever it is you want to sucker me into, the answer is no." Thea grabbed her mug, and picked up her phone and headed into the dining room. Ari let out a huff before following after the woman who took a seat at a large table in front of a plate with fruit and toast. Ari took a seat in the chair beside the woman.

"Ok, so there's this party tonight and-" Ari said, before Thea just burst out laughing.

"You're kidding right?" Thea asked turning to the teen. "We literally had to move into the mansion because there's a psycho trying to hurt Oliver, and you think going to a party now is going to happen."

"Just hear me out. The debate team won the junior finals, and they're having a celebratory party tonight and Jamie asked me to go with him." Thea just shook her head before looking back over to her phone. "It's just going to be this small gathering with a bunch of debate nerds. It's going to be totally chill." Thea didn't say anything. "And I have to go, because if I don't Darcy Hunter is going to be hanging over him all night, I just know it."

"And Darcy is..."

"She's on the debate team with him, and she's always around and it's super annoying. Jamie says they're just friends, but he doesn't see that she's being too friendly. He's just so oblivious." Ari let out a huff before turning back to Thea. "I really need to be at this party."

"I'm just going to circle back to the fact that a dangerous person is out there targeting people close to Oliver. Look I get it, this party is important, but it's not worth the risk."

"And how is that fair?" Ari shook her head. "My life has to be put on hold because some lunatic might hurt me." she turned back to Thea. "I just need you to cover for me with Oliver and Katie." Thea looked up from her phone and looked over to the teen.

"Are you insane? They will kill me, and I could've sworn I already said no. Just give it up?" Thea said turning back to her phone as she continued eating her breakfast.

Just then Oliver walked into the dining room, Robyn in his arms trying to wiggle out of his grasp.

"Dah Daaah," she whined, but Oliver just placed a kiss to her cheek.