CHAPTER 1 — THE WALK INTO THE STORM (PART 2)
The rain did not fall anymore.
It attacked.
Camila tightened her grip on Ellie’s hand as the wind cut through Dorchester Avenue like something alive and angry. Every streetlight they passed flickered slightly—just enough to make the shadows beneath them feel like they were breathing.
Ellie walked too steadily for a child.
No hesitation. No wandering. No fear.
Only direction.
Camila noticed it first when they passed St. Mark’s pharmacy. The child didn’t look at it once.
Not even when a man stepped out of the corner store across the street and stood still.
Watching.
Camila slowed her pace.
“Ellie,” she said softly, “we need to go back to the store.”
“No,” the girl answered immediately.
That single word carried weight. Not childish refusal—decision.
Camila stopped walking.
The rain kept going without them.
“Sweetheart,” Camila said, lowering her voice, “someone is following us.”
Ellie finally looked up at her.
And for the first time, her calm cracked—not into fear, but into urgency.
“I know.”
That was worse.
Camila’s chest tightened. “You know?”
Ellie nodded once. “They’ve been behind us since the store.”
Camila slowly turned her head.
At first she saw nothing but rain and empty sidewalk.
Then—
A reflection in a shop window.
A man in a dark coat standing too still. Too patient. Not pretending to be anything else anymore.
Camila’s pulse spiked.
“Ellie,” she whispered, “why would someone follow you?”
The girl didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she pulled something from her backpack.
A small black object.
A phone.
But not a normal one.
No apps. No screen glow. Just a locked interface with a single blinking red light.
Camila stared at it. “Is that yours?”
Ellie shook her head. “It’s his.”
“Whose?”
Before the child could answer, the streetlight above them went out.
Not flickered.
Not dimmed.
Died.
Complete darkness swallowed the street.
Camila instinctively pulled Ellie behind her.
And that was when the footsteps started.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Coming from both ends of the street.
“Run,” Camila whispered.
But Ellie didn’t move.
“Ellie!” Camila hissed.
The girl’s voice came quiet and sharp. “If we run, they’ll split us.”
Camila froze.
“How do you know that?”
Ellie looked up at her again.
And this time, her voice changed.
Not a child anymore.
A warning.
“Because they were trained by my father.”
Silence hit harder than thunder.
Camila felt it in her bones before she understood it in her mind.
“Your father…” she repeated slowly.
Ellie nodded toward the end of the street.
And then the first man stepped into view.
Tall. Black gloves. No face visible under the hood.
Then another.
Then another.
Three.
No rush. No noise.
Professional.
Camila’s instincts screamed at her to run, but Ellie’s hand tightened around hers with surprising strength.
“Don’t,” Ellie said.
“Why?”
“Because if you run, they won’t bring you to him.”
Camila’s blood ran cold. “To who?”
Ellie looked straight ahead.
“To the man who is dying because I left his house.”
That was when Camila finally understood.
This wasn’t a missing child.
This was an extraction.
And she had just walked into the middle of it.
One of the men raised his hand slightly.
Not a weapon.
A signal.
The others spread out instantly, cutting off every exit.
Camila whispered, “Ellie… what did you do?”
The girl’s answer was barely audible.
“I tried to escape.”
A pause.
“And now they’ve come to finish what I started.”
The rain suddenly stopped feeling like weather.
It felt like cover.
Like preparation.
Like the world holding its breath.
Camila backed up one step.
Then another.
But behind her—
Another figure emerged.
Closer.
Too close.
Ellie didn’t look back.
“Camila,” she said softly, using her name like she had known it all along, “you can still leave.”
Camila blinked. “How do you know my name?”
Ellie finally turned her head.
And for the first time, fear flickered behind her eyes.
Not for herself.
For Camila.
“I asked the store cameras to scan your license plate when you walked out with me.”
Camila’s stomach dropped.
“You hacked my store’s system?”
Ellie didn’t answer.
Because the men were now only ten meters away.
One of them spoke for the first time.
His voice was calm.
“Miss Reyes. Step away from the child.”
Camila’s entire body went rigid.
They knew her name too.
Ellie exhaled slowly.
And said the words that changed everything:
“Don’t listen to them.”
A pause.
“They’re not here to take me home.”
A beat.
“They’re here to make sure my father dies alone.”
And in that moment—
Camila realized the worst part.
Whatever mansion they were heading toward…
was not a rescue destination.
May you like
It was a battlefield.
And she was already inside it.
