Lifeline

"Audrey," Emma's voice beckons Audrey from her dream. "Audrey, wake up."

Audrey's eyes open to see Emma laying on the other the side of the bed. Emma's arm was slung over Audrey's torso, and Audrey felt her face get warm. She didn't remember cuddling so closely. She remembered calling to tell her dad she was staying at Emma's house, after falling asleep on the other girl's shoulder on the couch. She remembered Emma pulling down the blankets on her bed for the two of them, and she remembered falling asleep with her head almost on Emma's pillow. She remembered being close, but she didn't remember Emma holding onto her like that.

"Hey, we need to go to school. You slept through my alarm I had set," Emma said quietly.

"O...kay, I'm . . . alright," Audrey replied. She could hardly keep her eyes open, but she knew she should make herself get up out of the bed. Emma's bed was so . . . warm . . . and soft . . . and comfortable . . . and she hadn't moved her arm yet, and Audrey was somehow okay with that. She didn't mind it . . . at all, actually. It was really nice, and Emma's skin was really soft. Audrey was almost back asleep when Emma pulled her arm away and said sharply.

"Audrey, you have to wake up."

"Yes, I know, I'm awake," Audrey said, her voice groggy from sleep. She slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes. Emma shifted so that her feet were over the other side of the bed, and she went around to help Audrey up.

"Come on," she said, hauling the shorter girl up by both arms. She led Audrey over to her closet and opened the door.

"I still have one of your shirts in here somewhere," the blonde muttered while flipping through the clothes there. She was right, of course. Audrey actually saw several of her shirts in there, some of which she had been wondering where they were for a while. She took the shirt Emma offered her, and then sat down on the bed again.

"I don't really want to get dressed," Audrey said quietly.

"Well, you have to, or else I'll drag you to school in the same clothes you wore yesterday." Emma said. She had pulled an outfit out of her closet, and proceeded to start pulling off her shirt. Audrey's eyes snapped to Emma's torso without her thinking about it. Immediately she looked at the floor, scolding herself in her head for looking at her in that way. You have a girlfriend, for one, and how dare you look at anyone that way when there's no reason to? she thought. She didn't expect Emma to just start stripping right in front of her . . .

"Okay, you have to change or I really will take you in those clothes." Emma told her. Audrey nodded. She got up and went into Emma's bathroom, not wanting to take off her shirt in front of the other girl. After they were both finished getting ready, they walked downstairs together and said good morning to Emma's mother. Maggie was sitting at the table drinking coffee, and she smiled when she saw the two girls walk into the kitchen.

"Good morning girls," she said, and Audrey smiled back, replying with a "Good morning" that was only a little bit groggy. She knew that her voice was hoarse in the mornings, and sometimes her father laughed at her for it. He would tell her, "Good morning my little bear," and Audrey would just laugh.

Emma drove them both to school, and Audrey sleepily made it through class. Thank god, Noah brought her coffee. There was nothing Audrey was more thankful for that morning. The rest of the day went well, except for that one point in fourth period when Audrey swore she saw someone wearing that hellish mask, and she almost had a panic attack right there. She did a double take, and they were gone, but she could've sworn there was somebody outside the classroom window. Thank god, she was just imagining it. It's not like the person stalking them was going to show themselves right in front of everyone.

She was almost completely focused throughout the rest of the day. Almost. The one thing she couldn't force herself to pay attention to was her history class. It didn't exactly help that they were in the most boring part of their curriculum so far, and she allowed herself to seek refuge from complete boredom in her phone.

The first thing she saw on the screen was a text from Gina. She smiled a little, swiping the message to the side to reply

Gina: Hey.

Audrey: Hey gorgeous (: There wasn't an immediate response, so Audrey unlocked her phone to check on anything that would distract her from American history. Anything. Coincidentally, she got a text from an unknown number as soon as she opened her messages.

Unknown: Hello, Audrey.

Audrey's heart jumped to her throat. This couldn't be them, could it? The person who was taunting them this time? She glanced around. She didn't see anyone else on their phone. What was happening? Who was this? It almost had to be the person who killed Kieran. Audrey swallowed hard, and typed out a response.

Audrey: Who are you? And what the hell do you want?

Unknown: Oh, don't worry. You'll find out. Just wait. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I can see you. Watch out.

Audrey: What does that mean???

Audrey: What are you talking about?

Audrey: I will find out who you are.

_________________________________________________

The first thing she did after class was show Noah the texts, of course.

"Why didn't you tell me about any of this before?" Was his immediate response.

"I didn't want you to worry, for one, and two, you have a book to write!! I didn't think this was gonna get this extreme again- not really. Emma and I got rid of the You-Know-What and I thought we were safe." Audrey said. She didn't really believe that they were safe, but it was a nice lie to tell herself.

"Well, either way you should have told me. This is kind of a big deal. Who knows who this could be- how this could all play out now?"

"Noah, this is not the time. I told you because I felt like it could go downhill. It's going downhill, actually, and I wanted you to know before it got worse than it already is."

"Okay, alright."

Audrey had expected something else to happen, but she hoped that it wouldn't. There was no escaping this, apparently. This was her fate- reliving the same things over and over. Losing friends, family, watching people being murdered . . . being blamed for it all. There was no escape. She showed Emma next, and then Brooke. She assumed Stavo would be told by either Noah or Brooke, and there it was. They were all dragged into this hell again. There was no escape.

That night, Audrey got home from work and told her dad goodnight. She didn't want to talk tonight. She didn't feel like she could without crying about something. She was tired, and stressed out, and terrified. She needed sleep, but knew she wouldn't end up getting any. She knew she would stay up all night, staring out her bedroom window waiting for that creep in the mask to show up again, and finally end this. Finally take her away from this.

She stopped herself right there. She didn't want to die, did she? No, she didn't. She hadn't for a while. She didn't. She turned on Netflix, pressing play on the first thing on her recently watched. She just wanted those thoughts out of her head. She had pressed play on Bones, which was fine, she just needed something to keep her mind away from itself. The noise was all she really needed- something to drown out her thoughts. She had almost drifted off to sleep when her phone rang beside her. The caller ID read "Unknown". Shit, really? Her heart rate went up immediately. What could it be now? She pressed the green button to answer- she knew better than to decline anything from someone like this.

"Hello?" She tried not to show that she was scared.

"Hello, Audrey."

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you- to tell you some things . . . and ask you something."

Audrey stayed silent.

"I wanted to say that maybe you should watch out more. You weren't very careful today. Maybe I wasn't clear when I sent you that knife- You need to watch yourself. This isn't a game you can win. It never was. From the very beginning, you've been losing."

"What the hell does that mean? Piper is dead. So is Kieran."

"You know that I'm the one responsible for Kieran's death. Do you not think that there was a reason for that? You have no idea, do you?" There was a chuckle on the other line. "Well, that's okay. You'll find out soon enough. That's not why I called you. I wanted to make sure you knew that I'm the one in control. That I'm the person with your fate in my hands. So you have to do whatever I say, if you value your freedom, and your friends' lives."

"Yeah, you've made that one pretty damn clear,"

"Not yet I haven't. You don't know pain . . . you don't know understand suffering. Not yet, anyway. Heh, not yet. Anyway, now that you know how trapped you really are, let's start the game. All the pieces are in place, right? So let's begin. I'm taking my turn first, since I set everything up, and because I can."

Audrey kept silent. Whatever was about to happen, it couldn't be good.

"Did Noah tell you what he found? He found it ages ago, so I'd certainly hope so. Especially since you showed him those texts."

"What? What do you mean? What did he find out? What are you talking about?"

"Tick Tock, Audrey . . . you're my little lab rat, and time's running out. You've got a head start now, so I'd start running."

The dial tone filled Audrey's ears. What did he mean? What did Noah find out? And how did he know she had shown Noah those messages? Her thoughts were all over the place, and she couldn't hardly concentrate. The only thing she knew was that she had to get to Noah and find out what he knew.