Love & Carnage✗Noah Foster [2]

Chapter Forty-Five//Blessed

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"I didn't bring flowers."

--Gustavo Acosta

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**WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD**

I tried to control my breathing, but I knew that was going to be impossible for me. I kept walking, until I saw another door. A white double door. I pushed it open quickly, and saw that I was now in the chapel. I continued on. "Hello?" I whispered. I heard a flutter, and I turned around, only to see a crow flying past me. Crows were never a good sign. I turned back and decided to hurry this up. I ran past the weird statue lady and the banner.

FACE THE MASK.

That's where I saw some stairs. "Audrey?" I whispered. "Audrey, can you hear me?" I called up the stairs. "Arielle!" I fell against the stairs, but calmed down once I saw that it was Emma... holding a gun up at me. "Oh, thank God!" I sighed, standing up. But she wasn't as happy to see me. "What are you doing here?! You can't be here! Arielle, leave now!" Emma cried out, putting her gun down. "Wh--?" He came out of nowhere. From behind Emma. "EMMA, LOOK OUT!" I screeched. She turned immediately, just as the tip of his blade came down on her arm. "Arielle, RUN!" Emma screamed at me. "Emma--"

"Go!" She tried to hold the killer off, blocking me. I cried, and ran up the stairs. I heard shots, as I continued up the second flight of stairs. More shots. The stairs led to a dark place with two doors. One was a double door, the other was a single. I pulled on the single one. It wouldn't budge. I sighed. I heard footsteps, and I rushed into the open doorway, that led into a very familiar place. The place where we'd found Piper's body. I ran to the middle of two bunk beds, huddling in the corner. That's when the bright lights came on. I looked around the room, but stopped when I saw a hooded person slouching in a rolly-computer chair. I crawled to the end of the bunk bed to see the doorway. I sighed with relief as I saw Emma standing there, her gun pointed out. I stood up, and she pointed her gun at me. I gasped and put my hands up. "Arielle!" Emma cried out. "Where'd he go?" I asked. "I--I chased him up here..." She replied. I inhaled sharply, gesturing to the person over there. We both walked towards the chair, with me getting a sense of Déjà vu. When we were close enough, Emma held her arm out in front of me, and pushed the chair with her foot, spinning it sideways. I dropped to my knees to look under the hood. I saw the hair, and I rejoiced. "It's Audrey!" I told Emma. "Oh, my God!" Emma dropped beside me. "Audrey! Hey, hey! Audrey!" I pulled the black hood off of her head, and grabbed her cheeks. "Audrey!" Emma cried. I hit her cheek slightly, but she didn't wake. I let her head drop, and grabbed her hands, that were cuffed. I had just about enough with handcuffs this month. Attached to those, was a big chain, that led to the radiator, where it was locked. "Emma..." I trailed off. Emma pulled on the chain, which I didn't think was going to help. "Hey, hey. Stay with me!" Emma grabbed Audrey's face and shook it. "Emma!" I whipped around to see Kieran coming in the door. "Kieran! Wait, what are you doing here?" Emma stood up. "I got Noah to ping his phone, and we saw you were out here." Kieran told. "I got here as fast as I could. You're cut!" He and Emma leaned down in front of Audrey, but he inspected her arm. "No, I'm fine. I'm fine." Emma stammered. "Audrey--she's...she's drugged, or passed out, or something. I don't know!" Emma cried. I stood up quickly, and looked from Kieran to the door. "We gotta get her out of here. Hurry!" Emma said. This was odd. I had that feeling again. That same... weird feeling that I had when I was kidnapped. "Hey... um... Emma?" I whispered. "Yeah?" Emma turned her head to look at me. "You said you chased the killer up here?" I stared at the doorway. "Yeah, why?" Emma asked, perplexed. "Then, whe--"

It was just then that Eli hobbled through the door. I gasped. Emma stood up immediately, pointing her gun at him. "Hey!" Eli put his arms up in the air, which looked to be a huge pain for him. He had a knife in one hand, and put his other one back to his side, where there seemed to be blood. "Eli...Eli, what happened?" Emma whispered. I went to go towards my friend, but Emma pulled me back. "I followed Kieran from the hospital, and the second I got in the building, he comes behind me and stabs me!" Eli shouted. My mouth dropped open. "So, I played dead and called the police and told them it was Kieran." He explained. I looked at Kieran, who glared at Eli. "What? I didn't stab you!" He got closer to Eli, who moved between two of the bunk beds, clearly afraid of Kieran. I felt terrible for him. Eli came forward, "I--"