Mommy//Clifford//Halsey

cuatro.

(PLEASE REMEMBER TO READ MY NOTE AT END)

"Just hold on to me, okay?" He tries to coach her, and she raises an eyebrow at him. She was scared out of her mind, and probably just made a fool of herself in front of him. In that moment, she forgot about everything else but the fact that something non human had scared the living shit out of her. Despite that, she couldn't help to forget another simple fact:

She wasn't alone.

"Michael." She swallowed, relaxing a bit. He comforted her a bit, and suddenly she didn't feel as bad.

"C'mon, we're getting out of here." He pulls on her arm, but she jerks back.

"No!" She shouts. She couldn't decide if she wanted to stay here, or go with him. Pick your poison: regardless, she would probably encounter the ghost no matter what she chose. Regardless, even if the figure does come back, it'll eat both of them, and not just her. It was her funny, screwed up logic.

"I'm right here Stella!" He pleads, and lets go of her, "Listen, I know you want to get out of here," he slowly snakes his arm behind her and rubs her back, "I'm gonna help you out of here, and you can just go back home, okay?"

"Fuck." She stutters under her breath. She probably looked awful now; stuttering, and drooling at the same time. He couldn't blame her, though. If he saw the same thing, he probably would've reacted even worse.

"I can just cover your eyes."

"Michael, I just saw a fucking ghost!"

"Don't you want to get out of here? To get to the exit, we have to get across." He looks at her, "C'mon, Stel. I'm right here." He snakes his arm around her shoulder, swallowing the growing lump in his throat. He wasn't as scared, because he didn't see it himself, but he had no doubt that what she saw was real; It was a little nerve wracking for him as much as for Stella.

"Michael," she breathes, realizing he's right. She wanted to break out of here as fast as possible, and never come back. She forgot who she was with; Michael Clifford. The guy who she fancied for years. He had is arm around her, and she wasn't sure why. Of course, it was supposed to comfort her, but for any other reason? She doubted it.

"Let's go, okay? When I say go, we'll just run." He says.

"Three, two.." He counts, his heart beating like crazy. He squeezes her hand, and she squeezes back, making him smile a bit, "One." he shouts, and they take a few strides, almost crashing into a set of boxes into their way.

Barely picking up speed, they let go of each other's hand. In front, Stella tries to look back at him and run simultaneously "Michael?" she breathlessly shouts, "Michael!"

"The fire escape!" He replies, shining the flashlight towards the end of the wall, "the alarm is gonna sound off!" He rushes behind her. They were in the middle of the store, and so far, no sign of the ghost yet. Stella turns around and around, trying to look for the 'exit' but still no sign, until Michael points it out to her.

"There!" He points to the baby blue doors a yard away from them, "We're almost there!"

They both crash against the door with red writing above it, and Michael pushes,as hard as possible against them "It's not budging!" He shoves against the handles, but the door stays shut, "Is it locked or something?" His hands start to sweat, and he kicks at the door, "Fuck!"

Stella kicks it with her foot, but it doesn't move, "C'mon!" she angrily shakes at the doors, "We have to get out!"

A click from the ceiling above alerts them, and suddenly water spouts from the sprinklers above their heads.Out of nowhere, the sprinklers shut on from above, and Stella curses herself.

"What the hell?" she looks up, and jerks her head back when water splashes into her eyes. It starts to soak the both of them, and water starts to drip into Michael's phone. The alarm wasn't triggered yet, so she didn't know what triggered the sprinklers. It made the whole situation even worse.

"There has to be someway." Michael pushes against the doors, when the veins in his neck pop out through his wet shirt.

"Hold on to me." she suggests, and looks at up him.

"Y- you mean, like, hold on to you?"

"Yeah." Stella looks up at him in confusion. She wasn't really surprised that he was uncomfortable with that, or her. But, that was their only choice. Stella was frail anyway; she needed all the strength she could get. Along with the thought of Michael behind her.

"Maybe we could just push it together." He swallows, and places his hands on the right door, "Ready?" He stutters. In his mind, he starts cursing himself, because to him, he had just rejected the hottest girl ever. But, what if his hands started to shake on her waist, and she found it weird? Would she figure out he had a huge crush on her because he was so nervous? He knew that Stel was just as weird, but he had to seem confident to make up for his embarrassment earlier.

"Sure." Stella replies, obviously disappointed. She almost thought that he was uncomfortable around her, when in fact, it was the opposite. They push against the two doors together, and the doors open slightly, with a loud scrape against the bottom. They were jammed with carts against the fire exit, and they had to somehow push the carts away to get out.

"Who the fuck does that?" Stella leans against the door in defeat, "Stupid Walmart. It's a fucking fire exit!" The sprinklers from above continue to spew water out, and making Stella's blouse sticking on to her.

"Should we call 911 or something?" Michael asks, and accidentally glances at her bra, making him gulp.

"We can't stay in here Michael." Stella starts to looks around the dark building again, praying not to see that figure again. This was possibly one of the worst nights of her life. Michael was here; she finally got to talk to him, but the rest of the night was fucked up beyond repair.

After this, they'd just sneak back in to their rooms, and go back to their normal lives.

But, it was gonna take a long time to get back home, now.

Thank you so much for the 500 reads! There are readers in places like Colombia, Jordan, Australia, the Netherlands (the Netherlands? What?) the Philippines, and many other places!

I cannot believe I was able to reach such a wide audience with a book with only 500 reads! I'm from the Bahamas, and it's so amazing to be able to reach countries I've never even visited before. You guys are fucking awesome.

I'm making up for my shit. Update tomorrow.

X.