Drowning • Billy Hargrove

Chapter 53

After we spent time together, we eventually fell asleep on the couch. We awoke a few hours later to a knock on the door.
"What the?" Billy groans.
"I'll get it." I say, slowly pulling the blankets off of me.

"No, no. You stay here and I'll see what this jackass wants at 2 in the morning." Billy rubs his eyes and walks over to the front door. I follow close behind, stopping at the window near the door to see a white van out front.

Billy swings the door open. "Dontcha think it's a little too late to be knocking on peoples doors?"
I can hear a little chuckle come from the other side of the door. "It is a little late, I'll admit it. I was just wondering if Jane and Katherine Hopper are home?"
My heart drops as I can hear a slight russian accent.
Billy notices it too. "They moved a long time ago, sorry." He slams the door, but the man sticks his hand up.
"I know this is the residence of the Hoppers. No need to lie, it won't get you anywhere." And with that, he turns and walks back to the car.
Billy closes the door and locks it before making his way back over to me.

"Was that him?" He asks. After dad and El left, I had filled Billy in on the situation with the Russians stalking us.
I nod my head. "Yeah I think so."
Billy sighs. "I should've knocked him out if I knew sooner."
I put on a sly smile, trying to stay positive in this scary situation. "It's fine. As long as he doesn't know where we are it's fine."
After that, Billy and I walked over to my bedroom and we went back to sleep.

I woke up in a sweat and I was breathing heavily.
"What's the matter?" Billy asks, extremely concerned.
I stood up and began pacing around my small bedroom. "El. What if he gets El?"
"She's fine babe. She's with Mike and Nancy. They would never let anything happen to her."
I wipe the beads of sweat off of my forehead. "Yeah you're right."
He pats the bed beside him. "Come lay down."
I listen to him and cuddle up beside him.
"You'll be fine."
"Mhmm." I mumble, drifting back to sleep.

No longer than five minutes later, the phone begins to ring.
"Oh my God!" I say, reaching over to grab it.
"Hello?"
"Kate!"
"Nancy? What's the matter?" I say, rubbing my eyes.
"The man just came to my house!"
"What?"
"He asked for El, but I said she wasn't here. She and Mike are downstairs in the basement, but I didn't say anything." She sounded panicked.
I run my hand through my hair. "Okay, I'm going to call my dad and we'll meet over at your house in ten minutes."
"Okay see you -" Nancy didn't get to finish her sentence because she was cut off by Mike yelling.
"She's gone!" I can hear him yell in the distance.
"What?!" Nance yells back.
"I don't know where she is!" Mike screams back.
"Oh God." I say while hanging up, and quickly dialing my dads number.
"What's going on?" Billy asks while sitting up.
"They've got El."
"Oh shit." He responds.

"Kate, why are you still awake?" Dad asks as soon as he picks up.
"They've got El!" I say, panicking.
"What do you mean?"
"We'll meet you at Mikes house. The Russians got her!" With that, I hang up.

"Come on." I say to Billy, tossing him his jacket and throwing mine on over top of my pjs.
He grabs his keys off of the kitchen table and together we run out to his car.

We arrive at Mike and Nancy's house before my dad.
Immediately, Nancy runs out to meet us. "Kate! I don't know what going on! The man knocked on our door and then she was gone!"
"Yeah I know. My dads on the way. She'll be fine." I try to remain calm for everybody else's sake.
I look up to see Mike sitting on the doorstep in tears. I tap Billy's shoulder and point over at Mike. "You should go sit with him."
Billy sighs then nods. "Okay, just for you." He winks at me and walks off in Mikes direction.
"Maybe she wandered off somewhere in her sleep." Nancy throws out the idea.
"Maybe. I'll look for her in the backyard." I respond.
"Okay, I'll look in the house once more." She runs off and enters the house, followed by Billy and Mike. Until my father arrived, I was the only one outside.

I rub my eyes to try to adjust to the dark lighting.
"El?" I call out hopelessly.
"El? You out there?"
No response.
"El?"
Still nothing.
A rattling noise coming from the bush causes my heart to drop. I turn my back to see an innocent squirrel running across the lawn.
"Jesus." I mutter.
As I turn back around, I see two men standing right in front of me.
I scream but not for long because they chase me down and knock me onto my stomach.
"Help!" I try to yell, but it doesn't work.
"Shut up!" The man says. He was Russian and I just knew that it was the same one who was at my house hours before.
I try to fight but it's no use because the two men are bigger than me and I have no chance.
The one man lifts me up and the other has his hand around my mouth as they sneak me out past Nancy and Mikes house, down the street to a van parked on the side of the road.
As the van door slides open, my dad, along with police cruisers pull up in front of the house. I bang my hands against the side of the van, hoping they'll hear me, but they don't. Instead, I get shoved into the van.

I look up to see El leaning against the blacked out window.
I gasp and she opens her eyes.