Famous In Battle, Chapter 1

February 18, 2008

Luisa was looking in room after room carrying the stuffed bear in her hands, searching for Kyle Spencer. She wanted to thank him for the ride and give him a gift for his new born daughter, Hana.

The white hallways were all identical, making her search go twice as difficult. She had asked what the room number was, but it had slipped her mind in her rush to find him. There wasn’t enough time to run down to the front desk again, she had to find him.

As she turned a corner, she ran into a tall man with shaggy hair. Something about him looked oddly familiar and she would have panicked if she didn’t notice the distant look on handsome face.

“Sorry,” he muttered with a smile, which she could only imagine was out of politeness. Then he looked at her and his eyes widened with realization, but she already started talking before he could ask questions.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I really should have watched where I was...” She trailed off as she looked into those familiar hazel eyes. “Do I know you?" She asked getting a better look at his face, as did he did to her.

“Luisa, right?” he asked, seeming to forget what he was looking for.

She was amazed that he remembered her name, but then again, she remembered his. The run in they had had less than a year ago, was still fresh in her memory.

"Yeah,” she nodded her head smiling. "Wow! Sam, I thought I would never see you again!" Luisa said with a laugh. "What are you doing here?"

"My cousin and brother are here actually."

Things started coming back from their conversation. It wasn’t hard for her to remember what they had talked about; he was the first person—besides her ex-boyfriend—that she had an actual conversation with in over two years. There was no time in her life to stop and make new friends, not since the accident.

"Oh, yeah! Wasn't your cousin having a hard time last year or something?"

She could tell that he was obviously shocked, by the expression on his face.

“Wow. You actually remembered that?" he asked.

"Yeah! I just remembered how sweet that was and hoped that everything was okay. I don't really meet a lot people now-a-days, especially cute, single guys that care." Luisa quickly realized what she said and changed the subject. "So, how is she?"

"She's fine...except she's here," Sam said trying to get his wording right. "So what are you in here for?"

"I was in a car accident." She held up her broken arm that was resting in a sling. "A guy gave me a ride and the weather was just awful, we hit a car head on."

Sam's eyes widened. "How's the guy?"

"He's fine, but he has a concussion," Luisa explained. "I was actually looking for him. I wanted to thank him for the ride, considering how it ended."

"I would help you out, but I'm actually looking for my cousin right now." Sam said as he scanned the hallway again. "You didn't see a woman carrying a baby..." He trailed off with a sigh, realizing that he was in a hospital where a woman walking around with a baby would be a common site. "Forget it."

Before Luisa could say another word, she saw a man that had similar features to Sam, come out of a room and start questioning him. She didn’t take much notice to what they were saying, because she was still caught up in the fact that she met Sam again. There was something about him that made her feel at ease.

She was brought out of her daze when she heard the other man ask for introductions.

"I'm Dean, the older brother." He smiled as he extended a hand for her to shake.

“Luisa. Hi.” She smiled back.

As Sam explained to Dean how they met, the brother’s started to get into a little disagreement. Dean was wondering why Sam wasn’t looking for their cousin, when a high pitched noise made her blood run cold.

The beep of her cell phone went off, letting her know that she had a text message. She quickly pulled the phone out of her pocket, with her left hand, which wasn’t broken. Sure enough, there was a message from her ex-boyfriend. The title of the text sent chills down her spin. The four threatening words that only made sense to her: I have your trail.

"Oh, no." She snapped the phone shut and looked in every direction, but he wasn’t there. Of course he wouldn’t be, she thought to herself as she shoved her phone back into her pocket.

"Is something wrong?" Sam noted the scared look on her face and started to get concerned.

"No! I mean, no. It's nothing, just a little family drama." What else was she supposed to say? She couldn’t tell him the truth; he would have her locked up in a mental institution. Even if she fabricated the truth to where her ex-boyfriend was trying to kill her, that still wouldn’t help her chances of survival. In the beginning she tried calling cops, but he just killed them off with his new friends. Her only chances were to run, and if the text was true, then she couldn’t waste anymore time.

"Listen, Sam. I don't mean to cut this short or anything, but I really have to get going."

"Luisa, are you sure everything is ok?" Sam started digging in his pockets for something.

"I'll be fine, really." Luisa confirmed with a lack of confidence.

"All right, here," Sam said as he handed her a piece of paper that he just wrote his number on.

"Call me if you ever need anything."

"Thanks."But I’d rather not drag you into this, Luisa thought as she pocketed the slip of paper and started to walk away. "Hey!" Luisa started walking back to them. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Uh, sure."

"If you by any chance you see a guy named Kyle, could you tell him I said thank you," Luisa asked, looking into Sam's eyes. "And give this to him?" She held out a small, brown teddy bear. "It's for his daughter, Hana."

Sam simply nodded his head in shock that she knew Kyle. "Sure."

"Thanks. Bye." She ran down the hall and found the elevator, frantically pushing the down button.

She made it out of the hospital and into the parking lot. Her car was already towed to the hospital and parked near the front. Once she got in and on the road, she never slowed down.

September 21, 2008
Sterling, Illinois

Seven months passed by with only one message from her ex-boyfriend.

“I will catch you. You’re only making the chase more thrilling and more tempting by running away.”

The only hope she had left was that she would see Sam again.

Now she was packing up her things in a room at the Baker Motel that she stayed in for one night. She was always in a hurry to leave that she often forgot something behind, but those things don’t matter anymore. Anything she lost, she could easily replace.

After she left she did leave something behind again, but this item was more important than all of the others. It was the only way she could know if she was in danger.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Woodstock, Illinois

The fall leaves started coming down around the few trees shadowing Erika Dennley’s new house. She bought the house a few weeks ago—it was run down and she loved a good challenge when it came to makeovers. Becoming a designer was her passion, and this house—besides her ex-boyfriend’s—was going to be her first project. There were two floors and a basement that all needed to be refinished and redesigned.

The sun was high in the sky as she was painting the walls to her future office. She was done with the wall surrounding the two windows, and once finished; she would get started on a load of laundry. She walked to her half finished room and started throwing a bunch of her clothes down the laundry chute—which was one of the main reasons why she bought the house, it saved her the trouble of carrying down a heavy basket. On her way to the stair case she picked up a new bottle of laundry detergent from the bathroom and placed it inside of the dumbwaiter next to the linen closet. She pulled the strings until she was sure that it was all the way in the basement.

“I love this house,” she squealed to herself. It was one of her childhood dreams to own a house with such features.

Once in the basement, Erika started throwing her whites into the washing machine, then she walked across the vast, empty basement to retrieve the laundry detergent. As she pulled the red bottle out of the dumbwaiter, she heard a creak above her head. She shrugged it off and pulled the rope, sending the waiter back up to the top floor then continued her laundry.

She was about to go back upstairs when she noticed a white sock sitting on top of her pile of clothes under the laundry chute.

“Huh. I thought I got all of the whites,” she muttered to herself. Just as she was about to pick up the sock, a knife fell out of the chute and pierced through her hand. She screamed in agony and frantically tried to pull the knife out, but it was no use. As she was painfully pulling at the knife, she heard a noise behind her.

The dumbwaiter was coming back down.

In fear, she ran towards the wooden staircase, only to have the door slam shut on her. When she reached the top, she tried to open the door, but it was locked tight. She slowly walked downstairs and looked around the dark basement that was lit up by a single light bulb above the washing machine. Over the noise of her clothes going through the rinse cycle, she could still hear the waiter being pulled down. When it finally stopped her heart started pounding a mile a minute.

With lack of better judgment, she cautiously walked over and looked inside. There was nothing there. She sighed in relief; not really knowing what she thought would be there—the waiter was too small to carry a person down. When she turned around she jumped and screamed at the top of her lungs.