Page 17 of Take Her

Let me go!

Stop begging.

My hands clenched against the floor as bile rose up, just as fast as my memories. I was going to throw up?—

And then the lights came back on, all at once, drowning me in their fluorescent safety.

Not fast enough to stop me from puking up the Snickers bar though.

I made sure to hold my hair out of the way—and the irony of the fact that I was going to have to mop up the mess I made wasn’t lost on me as I made it.

But I was safe now.

Right?

I rocked back, crawling away from my vomit and towards my phone, picked it up, and then kept going until I could curl up with my back against a desk, sobbing.

7

RHAIM

When I’d gotten up from my nap, I’d made my way back down into the panic room and turned on my connection to Corvo’s cameras.

Ruiz was in the lowest corridor waiting for Lia just like I’d told him, pacing back and forth, clearly wondering if I was wasting his time.

As I rubbed sleep out of my eyes, I had to admit I was curious about that too.

Would she even show?

Had she talked to her father yet?

I was still alive.

I went upstairs to grab myself a beer—there was no reason why I shouldn’t get to have a buzz on if I was going to die—and by the time I got back, Ruiz was gone.

Had she been a no-show and had he given up on her?

I hopped through cameras again until I caught him—both of them. Him leading her to the facilities locker room down the hall.

They were having some sort of conversation. That was the only bad thing about the cameras. They didn’t pick up sounds, so I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but when she came out, she had a janitorial uniform on, seemingly without question, and then followed him with her gear up into an upstairs bathroom like a puppy dog.

I squinted at the camera, after taking a long sip of my beer, finding myself lightly jealous of the other man—and curious if, after twenty seconds or so, she’d run out screaming, shaking her head.

But no, they were in there together for what seemed like an eternity—long enough that I sat and did the math as to how quickly I could get back into town, ignoring my growing BAL—then they reappeared with their trashcans full, to haul their supplies to the next one.

They did the same for another bathroom, parted ways, and Lia was on her own for a third.

She didn’t have the decency to seem disgusted, or really all that upset, so I figured I’d drink along with her, until she was.

Lord knew she’d never had to clean a bathroom before at her father’s house, and likely hadn’t ever had to do a single chore while off at boarding school.

But somehow, over the course of the evening, she seemed happy. Ruiz came and brought her a Snickers bar, and told her to take a break—I knew, because he went off to his breakroom, like a good union employee—but she didn’t, she just kept cleaning.

And possibly talking to herself, like I’d been in the park yesterday morning.

Without sound, it took me a bit to realize what was going on—it wasn’t till I saw her shimmy without a hint of self-consciousness that I realized she was singing.

And dancing.