Taken By Surprise

by Jessica Frances

  ***

  “What happened?” Charlie’s voice wakes me and I reluctantly open my eyes and watch Will walking back out into the lounge area. He shrugs and Martha glides past him, looking down over Charlie and me.

  “Feel up for a talk, Zoe?”

  “Not really.”

  “That’s okay, we can chat tomorrow. Since Charlie seems to be your pillow I’ll talk with Rose next.”

  “Great,” Rose remarks sarcastically, but she does stand up and follow Martha back down the corridor, heading to our rooms.

  “Sorry.” I force myself off Charlie’s arm, which I’ve been using for a pillow, again.

  “Don’t be; you’re like my own personal heater.”

  “What did Martha want with you?” I ask Will, afraid she has poisoned his mind like future Drew warned.

  “Just to talk. When are we getting out of here?” Will whispers to us, leaning from behind us over the back part of the couch so he still has a view of the television.

  Charlie grabs the remote and turns the volume up. “We need a plan. Drew might have said security was lax, but there still is security. We need an exit strategy.”

  “How on earth do we get an exit strategy?” I think about the fact that none of us have any expertise in any of this. How are we supposed to outwit Stan, Martha, all the guards and security they have here?

  “I don’t know, but we have to think of something fast.”

  “Rose is some great hacker, right? So if she can get word out, maybe we can be saved? It’s not like these guys are actually from the government; they’re rogue, right?”

  “And where do you expect Rose to get word out from? I don’t see anything she can hack around here.”

  “So that should be our mission, find Rose a computer.”

  “Sounds easy.” I roll my eyes, but know this is the best suggestion we have. I notice my side is back to leaning on Charlie and this time I can’t manage to move away.

  “Come on, you need to get proper sleep in an actual bed, I think.” Charlie stands up and holds out his hand to me. I let him pull me upwards until I’m standing. He leads me down the hall and I call out a quick goodnight to Will who says he’ll pass along what we’ve talked about to Rose. The volume on the TV is still up loud and my ears are ringing when Will turns it back down.

  I stop us in my doorway and again feel the same emotions I had earlier. I can’t sleep on the bed Drew died on.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t sleep on that bed, not after…” I let my voice trail off, not wanting to say something wrong when someone is most likely listening. The hall light is still on so I know the power isn’t off.

  “Oh right, of course. Umm…” Charlie looks around us. “Do you want to take my room? I can stay in here.” I look up at Charlie and see him eyeing the bed the same way I imagine I looked when I saw it, freaked out.

  “No, I can’t do that to you. Besides, I don’t even have any linen to give you since we wrapped up…” I again stop myself from saying anything incriminating.

  “Well, what do you want to do?”

  “I’ll just stay on the floor again, it wasn’t so bad.”

  “I think it was, my back was killing me all day from that. You can’t spend another night doing that.”

  “I guess I can sleep on the couch out in the lounge.” I frown, though, thinking that I had just slept uncomfortably on that all day.

  “Look, seriously, just take my bed.”

  “No, I can’t do that.” I shake my head, refusing to kick Charlie out of his own bed. That isn’t fair.

  “Why not?”

  “I feel bad taking your bed away, please just forget it.”

  “Why don’t we both just sleep in my room?”

  “What?” I wasn’t expecting those words.

  “We can both just stay in my bed.” Charlie shuffles on his feet and looks away from me while he moves his hand through his hair. He’s nervous.

  “I don’t think that’s any better an idea.” I let my brain speak for me since my body wants nothing more than to go to his bed.

  “I’m a good sleeper and you’re small. I don’t think it’ll be weird. Besides—” Charlie leans closer to me and speaks softly into my ear sending shivers down my body. “—they already think that we’re, you know. This will just help cement it for them.”

  “I don’t…” I try to think up a good reason not to. It’ll definitely be weird. As tired as I am, knowing he is next to me will mean I won’t sleep and what if I wake up in the same position as this morning? I can’t get attached to Charlie. Our goal is to get out of this place, to escape. A relationship won’t work at all, not to mention the fact that the last guy I liked tried to kill me.

  “Come on, we’re both adults here and I don’t see any other solution.” Again Charlie leans close to me and whispers, “We can just give it a shot for tonight and figure something else out tomorrow night if we’re still here.”

  I look back at my room and shiver. Really, what would be the harm in this? Nothing is going to happen and Charlie is right, we’re both adults.

  “Okay. Let me just brush my teeth and stuff.” I push past him slowly, determined to do this on my own.

  I feel Charlie’s eyes on me until I make it to my bathroom and then sigh in relief as the walls in there protect me from his gaze. I remove my clothes and examine my bruise, as well as the one on my arm from the needle. I shiver, thinking about needles, and take a shower even though I have already done so this morning. I change and brush my teeth while slowly freaking out about this new arrangement.

  What if I snore? What if I kick him in my sleep or something? A single mattress doesn’t leave you much room.

  I take a deep breath and shrug on a long sleeved shirt over my sweats and walk to Charlie’s door. I’m still standing outside it when Rose walks out of her room with Martha.

  “Not sleeping in your room tonight, Zoe?” Rose innocently questions.

  “What?” My eyes widen and I instantly want to lie and say I am. I don’t want her to know Charlie’s and my arrangement. I don’t want them to judge me, to judge us. If my bed didn’t have someone just die on it, I would not be doing this, I would be staying in my own room. This is my last resort, right?

  “You heard me. You guys have fun and please try not to make too much noise.” Rose winks at me as she passes, walking towards the lounge area. Martha watches me carefully, standing in front of Charlie’s closed door before she finally says goodnight and walks away from me.

  I wonder what she’s thinking, but am snapped from that train of thought when Charlie suddenly opens the door and scares me half to death.

  “Are you okay?” Charlie’s voice is concerned.

  I look over him, feeling like all the air in my lungs just suddenly disappeared. He’s standing in just dark blue sweatpants and a plain, fitted grey t-shirt. My eyes take in his arms and I see he’s perfectly tanned and while he doesn’t have bulging muscles, he definitely doesn’t look weak. I move my eyes to his chest. The tight shirt shows off his large shoulders and I instantly want to move into them. His previous clothing hadn’t revealed how good looking his body is. I hadn’t even noticed when I helped him get around yesterday.

  “Zoe?” Charlie looks even more concerned and I’m horrified at myself for openly gawking at his body. How embarrassing.

  “Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking.” I decide it’s best not to mention that my thoughts were about how incredibly hot he is and how attracted I feel towards him right now.

  I follow him back into his room, knowing my body is aching to rest, but also knowing I won’t be getting it in this bed. I’m going to be acutely aware of every move I make. Knowing Charlie is next to me will drive me crazy.

  I watch him move around the other side of the single bed, which I think is getting smaller right in front of me. How on earth are both of us supposed to fit on this thing?

  I follow suit and hesitantly pull the covers down, look
ing forward to getting my cold feet off the tiled floor. I should have worn socks.

  I climb in and then hug the edge of the mattress while Charlie also gets in. His legs brush mine a couple of times then after a bit of adjusting, it stops and I’m clear of any touching.

  I hold my breath when he turns out the light and wonder how long it’ll take for him to fall asleep. I could just wait for that and then move out onto the couch.

  “Good night, Zoe.” I shiver hearing his voice so close to me and hope he hadn’t been able to notice that my body did that.

  “Night, Charlie. Thanks for letting me stay here.”

  “Anytime.”

  I close my eyes, feeling tired, and think to myself that I’ll give it an hour and then leave. I can always make up a story tomorrow about not being able to sleep and that’ll be the end of it.