Chasing Anne

Growing Dim

Faintly, Anne could hear the crackle of a fire's flames. Her mind instantly signaled that that wasn't right at all. Her room in Parr Manor had no fireplace and not even in the banquet hall was there a place for a fire. She tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt like massive mammoths. Wincing, she let the muscles in her eyes relax once more and became still again, listening to the thump of her heartbeat. She didn't know where she was, but it wasn't that that scared her. Being alone scared her. Or rather, not knowing if she was alone or not scared her. She shivered from both the cold and her fears, her entire body beginning to tremble. Where was she? She tried to recollect where she'd been last. It took her a moment, but ever so slowly her memory began to rewind and replay the last events Anne remembered. She'd been at dinner with Raymond...and he'd said something that had made her laugh. Anne winced again as her mind strained to remember what Ray had said. It was something along the lines of I love you, but she wasn't sure if that had been exactly what he'd said. Thinking about the possibility of Raymond loving her though just made her laugh all over again. Her laugh was weak and seemed more like a cough than a laugh, but at least Anne was remembering something. She still had no idea how she'd gotten to wherever she was, but at least she knew something. She forced her mind to recollect what had happened next, but she couldn't remember it all that clearly. After Anne had laughed about the possibility of Raymond's love, he'd looked hurt and so she'd walked over to...had she tried to comfort him? Whatever she'd done, she'd ended up walking over to his side and then...then Raymond had said something to the extent of he'd tried to kill Mark to win Anne's heart or something. Anne had been horrified so she'd run. But after that...she had no idea what had conspired. But somehow she'd ended up here. Wherever here was anyway.

She decided to try to open her eyes again. It was a lot harder than she knew it should have been. Had Raymond drugged her to keep her from running again, or had something else happened? She winced as her eyelids slowly opened, letting in the light from around her. She instantly located the fire and smiled, relieved that she could now see the snapping and crackling flames. She then turned her eyes and tried to look around the rest of the room. But as she did, she quickly realized that it wasn't a room at all. From the looks of the walls, she was in some sort of cavern or cave. But...why? Why was she-?

A sudden movement at her feet caught her attention and her eyes instantly shifted to see what had moved. The dark figure of a man slowly came toward her, his eyes glowing in the firelight. She stifled a scream and instead bit her tongue to keep quiet. The worst that it could be was Raymond Parr and she could live though that. If he loved her like he'd said, she didn't think he'd hurt her. But then again, he had shot her just after shooting Mark so there really was no telling what he would do. The figure moved closer and as he did, his clothes and face came into more light and a gentle smile crossed his face. Anne tried to move away, but upon moving her legs to push herself away from the unwelcome guest, pain shot up her left leg. Anne lost control of her mouth and let out a scream. It was too weak of a cry to bring much attention to them if anyone was around, but the figure's face instantly lost its smile and instead gained a worried look. Two cold hands came to rest on Anne's left leg and what felt like ice was pressed against her ankle. The ice sent a frigid shock to her leg, but it numbed at least some of the pain. The figure lifted her leg and rested it down on a pillow, making sure the ice on her leg was kept in place, but as soon as he'd finished, he looked back up at Anne.

"Stay still, Anne. You can talk, but other than that, please don't move."

Anne's heart sighed with happy relief. She smiled as best she could against the pain penetrating through her and opened her lips to speak. "Mitch?" she asked.

Mitchel James smiled back and touched her cheek with his cold hands. "I'm here," he said, his voice so incredibly tender and worried it made Anne's heart nearly break.