The Code Name Diaries-Chapter Twelve

My heart was beating loudly. I could barely hear myself think. Hector sped through traffic, with no regards to the traffic laws whatsoever. I wished that a police officer would pull him over, but there were none in sight. I dared a look back at Heidi, who had utter fear written all over her face.1

We pulled into the parking lot of an old apartment building. Hector climbed out of the car and came over to the passenger door. Before I had a chance to do anything, he pulled open the door and yanked me out of the car. 2

“ Please stop,” I begged, as he shoved me into the back seat with Heidi. She grabbed my hand, her whole body shaking with fear.3

Hector completely ignored my plea. He held the gun right in front of us. I flinched. Every time I even saw the gun, I felt it burning on my temple, like it had all those months ago. “ Both of you get out the car and go to apartment 12A. Don’t even think about running. I’ll catch you. Go…now!”4

Heidi and I tumbled out of the car and made our way into the apartment building. Apartment 12A was on the third floor, down a long corridor with dull, scary lights. Hector was not far behind us, making sure we didn’t run away. He shoved us into the apartment and we were surprised to see three people, a woman and two other men. I grabbed Heidi’s hand and squeezed tightly.5

“ Let me guess…Tara, right?” the woman, who was thin and wore too much lip liner, said. She stared at me through narrowed eyes, a cigarette dangling out of the corner of her mouth. “ Who is the other little brat?”6

Hector rolled his eyes. “ Her friend…she was with Tara,” he said, coming into the room.7

The woman shrugged. “ Put them in the back room.”8

Hector reached out and grabbed my arms violently. One of the other men grabbed Heidi, who did not fight him at all and let him take her to the back room. I felt disgusting with his hands all over me. I kicked and fought him, until he picked me up and swung me over his shoulder and carried me into the room. Before I knew it, he flung me on a small mattress lying on the ground and stalked out of the room. I heard the lock click as he shut us in. I got up and banged my fists on the door.9

“ We’re going to die, aren’t we?” Heidi whispered, cowering in the corner. I could barely see her in the darkness.10

I fumbled around for a light until I noticed there weren’t any bulbs in the lamps. “We are not going to die,” I told her. “ We are not!” I turned and started to bang on the door again. 11

“ Stop it! Stop it, Katy!” Heidi shrieked. “ They are not going to let you out!”12

“ Shut up, Heidi! You’re completely hysterical!” I said, back to her. “Hector! Let me out! Hector!”13

“ Stop it!” Heidi repeated, as she came next to me. She tried to grab my fists. “We’re not getting out of here, Katy! Stop it!” Her screams echoed through the room as she fought to keep me from making noise.14

“Heidi, stop! Heidi!” I cried. Heidi was completely bonkers, tears running down her cheeks. I grabbed her arms and pushed her against the wall. “ Stop it now!” I slapped her across the face. She fell onto the mattress, sobbing.15

“ I’m sorry, Katy,” she said. “ I am so scared.”16

“ I know, Heidi, I know,” I said, sitting next to her. “ But getting all hysterical is not going to help us get out of here.” I looked around the room. “Do you have your cell phone?”17

She shook her head. “ It’s my purse…in the car.”18

“ Damn,” I said. “ We have to escape, Heidi.”19

“Katy, how? There are four of them…with guns, most likely, and two of us,” she pointed out.20

“ I didn’t say I had a plan,” I retorted. “ I just said we had to escape! Think…we need to think of a plan.”21

We leaned against the wall, in the darkness, silent. Heidi’s head rested lightly on my shoulder, my hand held tightly in hers.22

I didn’t even know I had fallen asleep until a loud pounding on the door woke me up. I looked around, my eyesight a little fuzzy. Heidi was spread around right next to me. Someone was fumbling at the door. I shook Heidi until she woke up.23

“ What?” she groaned.24

The door opened before I even had the chance to say anything. I stood up, afraid to find out what was going to happen next. Hector came barging in, holding Sean by the neck. He threw him in the room.25

“ Say goodbye to your boyfriend, Tara,” Hector said, standing in the doorway. He had a grin on his face, clearly enjoying this operation of torture. I couldn’t handle it, him standing there, enjoying all of my pain.26

I raced across the room and helped Sean up. He was in a terrible condition. I knew Sean; he had definitely put up a fight. His clothes were torn and his gun was gone. There was a deep cut above his right eye and a bruise on his cheek. I kissed him quickly even though he had a bloody lip. Hector had gone too far. He had hurt my best friend and now he was hurting the most important person to me. 27

“Katy.” He managed a small smile. “ Are you okay?”28

“ Yeah, I’m fine, Sean, I’m fine,” I assured him. “Are you okay?”29

He winced. “ Yeah, I’m okay. Heidi?”30

She looked up. “ I’ll let you know.”31

“ Get up, Tara,” Hector demanded, sick of this reunion. “ Now, let’s go!”32

“ No,” I answered, holding onto Sean. 33

Sean looked down at me. “Katy …just go! It’ll be fine,” he hissed. 34

My heart was beating wildly in my chest. This was it. This had to be the end. “ Please, Hector, no…”35

“ Hector…?” Sean muttered.36

“ Now, Tara! Let’s go!” Hector demanded. He held his gun up and aimed at Sean. “ Now!”37

“ Okay!” I said, holding up my hands.  “ Fine! You win!” I took a deep breath. “ Just leave them alone, please.” This was even worse than the gun being pointed at me. 38

Hector grabbed my arm and pulled me over to him before I had time to react. My body was pressed tight against his, as I fought the urge to pull away. Sean took a useless step forward. “ You too… Heidi. Come on!”39

Heidi didn’t stop to even think about protesting. Her eyes met mine and I could see how hard she was trying not to cry. I made up my mind that if anyone got out of this, it would be Heidi. She didn’t deserve this, any of this. She had no part in it whatsoever. Hector started to pull me out of the room and the first thought that entered my mind was that this might be the last time I ever saw Sean. I pulled away from Hector as much as I could, hoping to catch one more glimpse of him. “ I love you, Sean!”40

There was no reply and I was afraid to find out why. Hector took us to another room, just as dark as the other except for the small window by the closet. It smelled of old gym socks and other things that I didn’t even want to think about. The door slammed behind us, followed by the click of the lock. I turned around and started to bang on the door again. “ Sean! Sean!” This situation was hard for me to grasp. I felt lost and confused. In all the things that had happened to me in the last year and a half, Sean was always there to save me. This time, however, he could not rescue me.41

Heidi came right next to me, her arms folded across her chest, surprisingly calm. She stood there watching as I slid to the ground, my face buried in my hands. “ Don’t start this now, Katy. Don’t give up,” she protested. My only reply was to groan. “ What are you doing?”42

I looked up at her. “Heidi, I thought we were going to get out of here because of Sean, but it doesn’t look like Sean is going to rescue us anytime soon, does it?” I yelled at her bitterly, a drop of sarcasm in my voice. 43

She knelt in front of me, taking a deep breath and trying to remain calm. “ Look, Katy, I am totally into the whole Sean being your handsome prince set out to rescue you. However, this time, it’s not going to happen. This time, we have to save ourselves. Now, come on! We have to get out of here!”44

“ How, Heidi? How? I can’t even think of anything…” I trailed off suddenly. “ The window! We can climb out the window!”45

Heidi looked at me as if I were crazy. “Katy, we’re in a three-story building…on the third floor,” she explained slowly, as if I were a small child.46

I gave her an irritated look in return. “Heidi Anders, do you want to get out of here or not?” 47

She shrugged and we both moved over to the window. It was a tiny window, with just enough room for a small person to squeeze through. Luckily for both of us, we were short and skinny enough to fit. We pried it open as quietly as it was possible, holding in our breath and praying to God that Hector would not walk in as we were doing this. I shot a look back every few seconds, at every little noise that I heard. 48

When the window was finally open, we both peered out to see how far we’d have to climb down. There was a ledge right outside the window, about two feet wide. Looking down past that, there was another ledge by the second floor windows and yet another one lined up with the first floor windows. 49

We pulled our heads back in and looked at each other. “ We can climb down the ledges,” I decided. “ It’s going to be hard, but it’s the best we’ve got.”50

Heidi bit her lip. “ God, I hate heights…especially in the dark.”51

“ You can do it, Heidi,” I reassured her. “ Besides, it’s not like you have much of a choice do you?”52

She shook her head, peering out the window again. “So…” she started. “Who squeezes out the window first?” 53

A blank look took over my determined face. I hadn’t given a second thought about it. “ I don’t know…does it matter?” 54

She shrugged. “ I don’t know… first one safely out?” She paused. “ You go first. You’re in more danger.”55

I shook my head. “ Exactly. I’m in more danger. That’s the solid reason why you should. If you were to get out and Hector walks in, at least you’re out and he still has me. I’m what they want.” She opened her mouth to protest. “No, Heidi, no arguments…just go!”56

She sighed, but nonetheless, moved towards the window. She stuck her head through and then started to wiggle her torso through. As soon as she got her upper half out the window, she started to squeeze her hips in. I winced knowing that would be difficult as she was very curvy. When she managed to pull them through, she easily slid her legs out. “ Oh god,” she said. “ We’re so high up…and this ledge is TINY!”57

“ Just move to the side a little okay? I’m coming now,” I said out the window to her. I stuck my head out the window and looked at Heidi standing on the ledge, clutching the wall with her hands tightly, her knees knocking together from fright. I twisted my top half through, with much struggled due to my top heaviness and then pulled me legs through without trouble. I stood up slowly, holding on to the wall. It really was high up and the two-foot ledge seemed tiny with all the space around us. 58

“ Um Katy?” Heidi asked.59

“ Yeah?” I said.60

“ What now?”61

I looked down, despite the fear of heights that had suddenly overcome my entire brain, and realized how far down the second ledge was. I continued to look around. This particular wall of the building was made of brick and it was crumbling apart, making plenty of footholds. Then I noticed a pipe running along the side of the wall. “ We’re going to climb down, using that pipe.”62

It was about five feet away and Heidi eyed it nervously. “ Okay,” she agreed. We both started to scoot over to it, slowly, taking our steps very carefully, our bodies pressed up against the wall. We got to the pipe and immediately Heidi started to get scared. “ I can’t do it, Katy. Climb down a pipe? That’s crazy!”63

Her face was red and her eyes were wide with fright. She had a death grip on the wall. “ I’ll go first and then you follow me okay?” I said. I scooted around her, my feet so close to the edge. I got down slowly, reaching my legs out for the pipe. My foot, instead, found a foothold in the brick, comfortably. I grabbed onto the pipe and started to shimmy my way down. “ Come on, Heidi, it’s okay. You can do it!” She slowly moved to the pipe and grabbed onto it with all her strength. We both moved slowly, but as fast as we could, down the pipe to the next ledge. 64

We stopped at the second floor ledge, taking a minute to take a breath. We both knew it wasn’t long before Hector and the others discovered that we were gone, so we had to move fast. I was 100% sure that I did not want to stick around to find out how he’d react to us making an escape. We got up and started to shimmy down to the first floor ledge. Halfway down, Heidi slipped and started to slide towards me, only one hand gripping on. I took one hand off the pipe and used it to support her for the moment. “You’re lucky you’re light,” I said, running out of breath quickly. 65

“ I could have died right now, Katy!” she protested.66

I rolled my eyes, making my way down. “ We’re almost there!” we climbed onto the first floor ledge, relieved. It was about five feet off the ground so we jumped down onto the street. We landed in an alley, dark and scary in the late night. I grabbed her arm and we huddled together. “ Let’s get out of here!” I said, as we started to run away, with no look back. 67