Hunter grabs my hand and the three of us move swiftly to the fire escape. It is surprisingly quiet on our level, despite there being two other apartments. Hopefully, they escaped already.
We burst into the stairwell and Hunter stops suddenly. I guess he thought it is strange that the stairwell is dark and empty too. Matthew closes in behind me. And the silence of what should have been full of panic and anxiety surprised us all. As the door closes behind us it steals the light and the darkness engulfs us. The noise of the door locking echoes down the stairwell, hauntingly.
Someone, either Hunter or Matthew pulls me and pushes me up against the door, flattening me so that my back is to the door and I can feel them both in front of me. My heart thuds in my chest and Matthew leans back into me whispering softly that I am safe. Hunter growls in agreement. We don’t move which leaves me feeling even more antsy, but I have complete faith in Matthew. He is strategic in his method and brutal when required.
My ringing mobile echoes through the pitch black, the little flashing lights providing us with a little light.
Hunter reaches back and takes it out of my hand, answering it without words, waiting to see who the No Caller Id will be.
But no one responds. Instead the lights in the stairwell flicker back on and we all look around to see what is going on.
Matthew’s mobile buzzes in his hand and he looks down, we all do. It is Caleb.
“Where are you?” he asks, even from my squashed position still against the door I can hear Caleb.
“Where are you?” Matthew responds tersely.
“At home. Why?”
“Let’s go,” Matthew commands and moves me off of the door so that he can swing it open and we all stumble out of the stairwell.
“Someone is playing games again,” he growls into the phone to Caleb, as we approach our apartment front door.
Caleb meets us at the door, ushering us inside but Matthew stills before coming in further.
“Lock the door down, hold tight. I am going down to see security. I spoke with them and they confirmed there was a fire above us. The alarm sounded,” he says as he jogs over to the lift.
The door closes behind us and Caleb moves quickly to our kitchen.
“It will be okay,” he says after looking at both Hunter and me.
“We all heard the alarm Caleb and Matthew spoke to security before we evacuated. When we went into the stairs, all the lights were off. And then to top it off her phone rang and there was no one there. Forgive me if I am pissed off,” Hunter snarls before walking over to look out the window.
Caleb looks at me before walking over and tucking me under his chin, pulling me in for a hug.
“Come on, Hunter was going to make you breakfast before we were interrupted. Hunter, you’re up,” Caleb says softly as he guides me to a chair at the breakfast bar.
“How can you be so relaxed?” Hunter barks out without looking away from the view out the window.
“We are all okay. That is all that matters Hunter,” Caleb offers, “We have been doing this a while now. It will be another one of Dom’s games.”
“How can you be so sure?” he asks again, his irritation tainting each word. He turns to look at Caleb, his annoyance shining bright in his eyes.
“Cause he will be all sorts of pissed off now that you are here. Don’t you remember all the fun at St Joseph’s or did you miss it completely because you had your head stuck up your ass?” Caleb’s soft words are hard now.
“Watch it,” Hunter snarls as he steps closer to Caleb, his finger jabbing out “You don’t fucking know anything about what happened at St Joseph’s,” my eyebrows jump up high at his words.
