2133

2.17 Unexpected

Mr. Tomlinson swiftly closed the door again and paced around the tunnel. "We have bad and good news."

"What is the good news in all of this?" I asked him.

"When I installed this system, I hid microphones all around the house so that they would start recording once the alarm was triggered. So everything they just said has been recorded. But the bad news is that I forgot about the cameras. If he checks them, he will see that we entered the tunnel. It will not take long for him to crash the door," Mr. Tomlinson explained. "We are screwed."

"I thought you were rich. Did you not make this place unenter-able?" I asked him, handling the situation with humour.

"My wife just said she put a killer to go after you, and you are joking around like we are playing hide and seek?"

"What do you want me to do? Scream and sob into your arms?" I asked him. "This is fairly the most surreal situation of my entire life. Let me be."

"I did not expect you to react this way," he said quite bewildered.

"Where you training your biceps and your sixpack so that I could have a big pillow to support myself on? Yes, I might like you. I might have doubts about myself, but I will not let you soften me anymore," I told him. It was the adrenaline speaking. I had never experienced something so dangerous before.

"You like me?" he asked me, as if I had not confessed my feelings five times already. Even his wife had noticed that I like him.

"But you do not," I fired back.

"Do you know how hard it is for me to restrain myself around you?" He gently pushed me against the wall. He was blocking my view of the tunel with his arms that were situated on both sides of my head. "These clothes you are wearing - I chose them. I am aware every single fabric that is touching your sensitive skin. I bought them so that you could look like the woman in my dreams. It is just that now these clothes make me want to tear them off of your body and see what is underneath."

His words took me by surprise. Lust was speaking. I did not know whether I should be happy about that.

We were woken up from our sexual-encounter trance when we heard loud noises. They were coming from where we entered the tunnel.

Theo had found us.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked nobody in particular. Mr. Tomlinson once again motioned to follow him.
We rushed to another door, and he opened it with his hand. Theo was just about to enter the tunnel, the noises were getting louder and more brutal.

Mr. Tomlinson whispered, "It is my daughter's room. She does not have any cameras in her room, she begged me, actually, she threatened me to deinstall them, or she would stop talking to me."

At his daughter's room he had to tear boyband posters instead of putting a big painting aside.

"Will he be able to do anything in the tunnel?" I asked Mr. Tomlinson in a whisper. Theo cracked the tunnel. I was able to hear his breathing, it echoed.

Mr. Tomlinson shut the door behind him, and we landed in his daughter's room.

"Since he forcefully entered the tunnel, the lights will not go on. It is automatic. In order to get the system going each order has to be given with my DNA on it," Mr. Tomlinson replied.

We were in his daughter's make-up room. There was a giant beauty stand with perfumes, mirrors and stools. As quietly as possible we moved out of that room.

Mr. Tomlinson led the way, and he walked towards the window. The plan was crystallising out. We would jump out of her window to leave the building. It was on the first level of the house.

I did not see it coming.

Somebody wrapped a fabric around my neck, and I screamed in panic.