The Arrangement

Chapter Forty-Two

Blair

The pounding in my head is astronomical and that's before I've even attempted to open my eyes or lift my head up off the pillow.

"Ergh" I groan rolling over, a little surprised to not feel one of them laid next to me as I do. "I think I'm dying" I then groan but when there's still no response, I force myself to open my eyes.

Every other morning I've woken up here one or both of them have been in bed with me, usually stroking my back or playing with my hair as they've waited patiently for me to wake up but that doesn't seem to be the case this morning.

As I open my eyes and feebly push myself up onto my elbows, I check the other side of the bed a little disappointed to find it empty. That disappointment quickly shifting to utter confusion when I my eyes fully focus, and I realise I'm definitely not in the bed I expected to be in.

Sitting up I look around attempting to take in my surroundings, a lamp in the corner of the room the only thing giving off light as I realise there's no windows in here.

I don't know why I start to panic but I do.

Despite the horrendous pounding in my head, I throw the covers off of me and force myself to sit upright on the edge of the bed, also noticing that I'm not wearing the clothes I was in when I was drinking with Henley and Lennox.

The panic dissipates just slightly as I gather I must have been such a mess last night they must have gotten me ready for bed and put me in here.

If my breath is anything to go by, I reckon it's highly likely I vomited at some point as well.

I could feel that I was getting a little carried away, yet it didn't stop me from downing glass after glass of wine, especially after they brought up Tif. I guess I kind of just used it to push away the tension that just bringing up her name brought me. Clearly I need to work harder on knowing my limits when it comes to drinking.

I take a deep breath calming myself, a self-deprecating chuckle coming from me as the mortifying thought of how much I must have embarrassed myself washes over me. Glancing around I take in my settings a little more, coming to the realisation that it's nowhere near as nice as any of the other rooms.

They'd probably thought it was a better idea to dump me in here, so I didn't vomit everywhere and destroy everything.

Forcing myself up onto my feet I have to really concentrate to not keel over as the full effects of my hangover hits me. Once I finally seem to have gotten my bearings I pad over to the door, taking one step at a time and hoping to God that the churning in my stomach doesn't get any worse because the thought of vomiting again is mortifying.

When I reach the door, I turn the handle expecting it to open with ease but when it doesn't budge at all an uneasy feeling settles over me.

I try it again, rattling the door slightly hoping that it's just stuck but when it doesn't budge at all panic fully seeps in.

"Guys?" I shout banging on the door. "Henley? Lennox? Hey! The doors stuck" I shout my voice cracking slightly.

I wait with bated breath, listening for any sign of them coming towards the door. But there's nothing.

There's just silence and the thoughts that flood my mind have my heart pounding violently in my chest.

Surely, they wouldn't lock me in here. They wouldn't do that, would they?. What possible reason could they have for doing that?.

We've literally had the best few days, every minute of it feeling like a comforting bubble around us. It doesn't make any sense that they'd lock me in here.

Yet as panic fully seeps, I can't help but let that picture of Jamie fill my mind. Her haunted eyes staring at the camera. The way she looked so dead inside.

I attempt to shake the thoughts away but as I continue to panic and start pounding my fists against the door, the thoughts just get worse.

Henley's words creeping in too.

"You gonna push this one so far she'll end up in a psych ward too?"

What if this is what they did to her? What if they made her think that everything was fine but then locked her away using and abusing her until she cracked. What if that's what's going to happen to me?

I try to push the thoughts away again but it's no use. All I can do is think the worst as my fists feel sore from the pounding against the door and my chest tightens to a point it's almost painful to breathe.

There's part of me that hopes this is just part of a game, one of the 'scenes' they've been talking about.

I know it's a feeble attempt at trying to convince myself that everything is fine, yet it doesn't stop me from screaming my safe word so loud it burns my throat as it comes out.

"RED!" I scream over and over again.

Hoping that this is actually just a game, that they'll hear me, that they're listening and will put an end to this because right now I'm scared beyond belief, and this isn't the type of scared I felt in the forest with Ashton.

This is real unrelenting fear.

But again there's silence. No footsteps, no one jumping out to say everything's okay.

I'm trapped with no way out and that thought completely cracks me. Everything around me seems to spin as I spiral from panic to utter despair and completely freak out.