The Earthly Queen: The Woman of Worlds Apart

Chapter 8: (Eris)

I can't believe I actually did it! I got away!

I had to get away. There's no way I could possibly stay any longer. Caine's talk is insane. There is no way that anything he showed me is actually real. Maybe he planned it! Maybe he's a criminal mastermind or something. Maybe he drugged me with hallucinogens that made me see crazy things, who knows! All I know is that he's full of shit and I have to get away from him.

My heart pounds as I run through the unfinished building. Building materials and tools jump out at me from the dark and threaten to trip me as I barrel through the skeletal halls.

Thye gun I was given feels slick and wet in my hand where I hit Caine with it. I hope I was able to knock him out - I didn't wait around to find out.

I nearly collapse by the time I come to the elevators. I was going to take one down but change my mind when I hear the sound of Caine's boots in the distance and see their blue glow approaching.

I bolt away from the elevators and go for the stairs. I run down them two at a time and leap to the landings. It's hard work only made possible by the adrenaline rushing through my veins.

I burst through a door on the first level and bolt for the front entrance. The doors are all locked. There's no way I'm stopping here. I scoop up a loose brick and send it through one of the man sized windows on either side of the entrance doors. The glass shatters and falls away loudly. I leap through the hole, somehow managing not to cut myself in the process.

As I run through the streets I call 911 and in several short minutes a cop car pulls up next to me.

The cop car window rolls down and one of two riding policemen addresses me.

"Ms. Summerfield?" the cop driving the car says.

I nod. "Yeah, that's me. Thank you so much for coming, I never thought in a million years I'd get someone physically out here for me." I hang up the phone with the 911 operator who was to stay on the line until help arrived.

"Hey, read the quote on the car, 'to serve and protect.' kind of our job." He smiles, charmingly.

The two cops step out of the car. "I'm officer Cooper, this is officer Harvey," Cooper says. "Now, the report said you were kidnapped by a man calling himself Caine?"

I nod.

"Blonde hair, goatee, well built?" Officer Cooper asks.

"That's the guy," I say.

Officer Harley huffs, "Should've known he'd do something like this again. That's his shtick; grab attractive women, take em whatever's handy, and tell them all about space and the alien conspiracies and shit."

"Exactly what happened to me," I say. "Has he done this kind of thing before?"

"Oh, yeah! He's a regular down at the station. He'd be fine if he'd just take his happy pills. This is the result if he doesn't. But, he's a rich man so he can afford a good lawyer - it's the only reason he isn't in a padded cell currently. He's a slippery devil, always gets out of the worst of cases."

"Would he have hurt me or, you know, raped me or something if I hadn't gotten away?" I ask.

"I doubt it," Officer Cooper says. "He likes talking up his techno babble and spinning his crazy stories but he's more or less harmless. He wants someone to roleplay with him essentially. Still, we'll try and nail him again. Might at least get him back on his medication for a while."

"Is he going to try and find me again? Am I going to have to go into protective custody or something until he's caught?"

"No, no, nothing like that" Officer Harvey says. "By this time tomorrow he'll have totally moved on. When he's off his meds he doesn't stay on one thing too long."