Cole (Book 1)

I almost threw up. I have to get out of here. I can't stay in a room with a corpse. That is not on my bucket list. Neither is being kidnapped, but at least I can rely on Cole to find me. I trust him. I know he can do it. I walked across the room and sat down. I tried to get the image of the dead person under the bed, out of my head. It was too terrifying.

It started to get dark outside and the light in the room started to disappear. If I have to sleep in here, there was no way I was getting any closer to that thing. I don't know who it is and I honestly don't wanna know. I hope Cole hurries up. I can't deal with this much longer.

❈

I must've fallen asleep on the floor because, next thing I knew, it was light out. I was still in the same room, with the bloody corpse. I stood up and walked over to the door. I tried to open it one last time. Still locked. I didn't quite remember what state this building was in, but I'm almost positive it was in Kentucky. It only took a couple hours to drive from Indiana to Kentucky. He should be getting here any minute. I had faith in him. That could also mean any minute, Tylr would come in here and take me to the next location. When they took Cole, I had about 3 months to find him. Who knows if my time is as long.

Minutes later, Tylr came in the room.

"Hurry up and inhale this. We don't have much time." he said. Not much time left? You don't say.

I should take my time then, I thought. I took the cloth from his hands and looked at it as if I have never seen it before.

"I'm not kidding Charlotte. Get a move on." he said and took the gun out. Again? Come on! I rolled my eyes and inhaled the chemicals. This was getting old very quickly.

❈

When I woke up again, I was in the back of Tylr's truck under a blanket. Slowly I started to take the blanket off so I could breathe a little easier. My vision and hearing were terrible right now, something I was used to after waking up from a month long coma, and every time I breathed in those chemicals. I picked up my aching head and looked out the window. We were driving really fast on some interstate. I looked up front and Tylr was on the phone with somebody. I couldn't hear that well, so I couldn't understand what he was saying. All I could hear was mumbling. He took a glance back. I heard him yell something. He put the phone down. The truck was still moving fast, even faster than before. "Get back under the blanket!" he screamed. That pierced the veil over my sight and hearing. He threw something back and my world went black all over again.

❈

It was dark outside when my eyes flickered open again.

"Cole is taking longer than you did. He might not be able to save you in time," he said.

"You know he will be able to save me. He wouldn't give up on me. I know he won't." I said.

"My partner was telling me that he only picked up two of the notes so far. We are one the fourth location. When you were searching for him, you were always only one location behind us. You just might not make it out of here alive," Tylr said. Tylr could say anything he wanted, but I still have faith in Cole. He will get here on time. I know he will. Besides, from the way he was yelling on the road, Cole could possibly be on his way to us right now.

"We will be here for a while. The drive here was over nine hours long." Tylr said.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"The Keystone State. Pennsylvania. I found this huge abandoned apartment building. I couldn't pass it up." he explained.

"How much time does he have left?" I asked.

"A single week. Seven days. Not very much time." he replied. Cole could make it, I kept telling myself. I will be saved.

❈

The next day was the same as yesterday. I sat in the room by myself. Honestly, I didn't really mind. The walls were a nice shade of yellow, the floor was hardwood, there was a bed and there was actually nothing wrong with it. No blood and no skeleton. It was actually pretty nice. The sheets looked like they were just washed and the pillows were nice and fluffed. It was pretty cozy in here. It almost made me forget about... Cole.

Thinking about Cole made me look for something to contact him with. What I thought was a pointless effort turned out to be something good. Across the room was an old rotary phones. Tylr probably thought it would be disconnected since it was still in the room and plugged in. I picked it up and hoped that Tylr's assumption was wrong. When I heard the familiar buzzing of a connected line I almost screamed. I was so happy that I could try to talk to Cole. I dialed his cell number, which had been written on his mini-fridge while I stayed there.

"Hello?"

He picked up. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Cole," I breathed.

"Charlotte!" I heard him yell through the phone. I shushed him.

"I don't know how much time I have. I don't know where we are going next but right now we are at an abandoned hotel in Pennsylvania, right off of I-80," I said. "It's about a nine hour drive from Indiana. Please hurry!"

"Okay, I was headed into Kentucky anyway, I'll see you soon, hopefully." And the line went dead. I walked back over to the bed and laid down. Next, thing I knew, I was dreaming.