The Falling // Daniel Seavey AU

VIII. HOME

Tears fall down my face. Daniel looks at me and his face turns from determination, to sympathy. "No, Brynn, shh. It's okay. We're getting out of here," he says softly, pulling me into his chest. I lean into him. My head rests in the crook of his neck. He hugs my waist protectively and strokes my hair, calming me down. "We're okay. We're going to get out of here." He whispers.

He pushes me away from his body and places his hands on my shoulders. I look at the ground. "Look at me." He tucks a piece of hair behind my right ear and wipes a tear from my cheek. I glance up into his ocean-colored eyes. "We will get out of here. I'm going to get us home. Okay? I promise." I nod before he pulls me into another hug, possibly more for his sake than mine at this point. We remain in each other's arms long after I've stopped crying.

When we finally pull apart, it's go time. We stand against the bars of the cell, scanning the room for any possible escape routes. There's a small window at the top north wall of the room. It would be an option, but it's so far up that we wouldn't be able to reach it; there's no way to climb up the wall. Even if we did reach it, I'm sure the glass is too thick for us to break. Even if we could break it, it's to small for either of us to fit through.

We search the ceiling and the floor, there's no vents to open and crawl through. The lock on the door of the room is activated by a key card and a fingerprint. The lock on our cell is the same, a key card and a fingerprint. There's no way we can get out of the cell, meaning we also wouldn't be able get out of the room.

I spot security cameras in each corner of the room, and one in a corner of our cell. Even though there's no one in the room watching us, they can see us on camera.

I turn to Daniel, "There's no way out."

"In the morning when they take us out, we're probably going to a trial or something. We'll have to make a run for it then somehow." He explains.

I nod. It's risky, but at this point we have no other options. I look up at the small window again and see that the sun has gone down, so it's probably around eight p.m. It's going to be a long night.

I sit against the back wall of our cell, close my eyes, and try my best to relax. Daniel comes and sits next to me. I rest my head on his shoulder and he rests his head on mine. If we weren't in this situation right now, I'd be completely over-thinking all of his kind gestures today.

I can't help but wonder if it's more than friendly. We were inseparable as children, until we were actually separated. Now that we're older and back together after having spent so much time apart, things are so different. I love Daniel, I always have, as a friend of course. But now? I think I'm falling for him. I tell myself that I'm only feeling this way because of the situation that we're in. But is that true?

And now I'm overthinking it.

I will myself to try and think of something else, but the sound of a door opening does it for me. I pick my head up from his shoulder so I can hear what's being said by a few men who've just entered the room.

I hear one voice say, "...In the morning..." the rest is muffled.

"See you then," a new voice says.

"Yeah, we're off. All you..." again, I can't pick up the rest. I hear footsteps of what sounds like two people walking away from where we are. I know the door is still open, I haven't heard it close yet. I shoot Daniel a puzzling look. He shrugs his shoulders and looks down at his hands.

The door shuts and I hear footsteps coming towards us. I look up as a new guard that we hadn't seen yet stops in front of our cell. My mouth falls open. I nudge Daniel who's busy fiddling with his fingers. He looks at me, and I take in his expression. He's exhausted, and I don't blame him, but this is important. It just changed everything. I nod my head towards the man standing in front of us. Daniel looks up and furrows his eyebrows.

"Tyler?" Daniel asks. Sure enough, Daniel's oldest brother, one of the people we came here to find is standing right in front of us. He's wearing the same uniform of the two officers who brought us in. "What th-"

"Man, you two are stupid. You're lucky I've got the night shift," he says, chuckling slightly and shaking his head as he walks out of the room.

My jaw hangs low in shock, confusion, and disbelief. Daniel's face reads the same feelings. "What just happened?" I ask, and receive no answer.

As abruptly as he left, Tyler comes back into the room and stops in front of our cell again. "Get over here," he says sternly. Daniel and I exchange a look before standing up and walking over to him. Daniel opens his mouth to say something, but Tyler does not let him speak.

"Listen," he begins, "we don't have much time, we'll have a reunion later. I've disabled the security cameras in here, they'll turn back on automatically at seven a.m., when you're scheduled to be released from this cell, investigated, and tried," he pauses.

"But that's not going to happen. I'm the only officer here all night, I'm in charge of keeping you two here. I'm getting you out, and I'm coming with. I hate it here; I never should have chosen this sector. I should have stayed with you and Anna." He looks up at Daniel and holds a gaze with him for a moment. He shakes his head and focuses back on the task at hand.

"You're Wren, right, Annalise?" He asks. I nod quickly. "It's a long way to Wren, but I know a good route where there are no officers stationed. It'll be easy to go unseen in the dark. Do either of you have a weapon on you?"

It's so much information to take in at once, that I stammer at his question, "I-I do yeah." I say awkwardly. He nods and slides a card through the lock on the cell and presses his thumb against the fingerprint pad. The door unlocks and he opens it for us. Once we're out, he locks it back up.

"Let's go," he says energetically and begins walking towards the door. Daniel and I, dazed from everything that's happened today, follow him without question. We walk the confusing hallways back to the front of the building. Tyler steps inside a small room and grabs a gun. He hands it to Daniel, "Ever shot a gun before, little bro?" Daniel shakes his head nervously. Tyler snickers and begins to lead us back through the hallways.

We reach a door near the back of the building. Tyler unlocks it and we exit the building. The door leads straight into the woods. We walk at a quick pace through the trees. Besides an owl in the distance, and some crickets here and there, it's silent.

We walk, and walk, and walk; until finally, we come upon the all too familiar fence that divides our sectors. We hop it quickly. Now in Wren, I take the lead and we walk some more.

I don't think I've ever been so relieved to see my tiny little house. We rush inside and for a minute, just stand in silence catching our breaths, replaying the day's events in our minds.

Finally, for the first time in a long time, one of us speaks up. "Tyler, I-" Daniel starts.

Tyler interjects, "I know. There's a lot to catch up on, but I think we could all use some rest. We'll talk in the morning, but for now, we should sleep." He explains.

We agree, and I show Tyler to Amber's old room and Daniel to my room. When he asks where I'm going to sleep, I tell him the couch. He refuses, and insists that he sleeps on the couch instead. Too exhausted to resist, I give in and show him to the couch.

When I crawl into bed, I'm instantly met with warmth and comfort, something I've been void of for the past twenty four hours. Wren has never felt like home. This run-down little house has never felt like home. But today, right now in this very moment, it's home.

It's my home, and I've never been grateful for it until now.

//

This is easily one of my favorite chapters and I don't really know why lol. This is the halfway point of the story! What are you thoughts and predictions?

xx