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I want to scream. This is insane. My period isn’t...
Late.
Except...
It is.
My face, my whole head, feels like it’s been dunked in cold water. My period is late, but I didn’t notice because my body hasn’t been under the usual stress, and the lack of junk food has probably helped, and there’s been a steady supply of high-calorie foods that are actually good for me.
And the fact I’ve been having a lot of sex, with a man who knows his way around a female body, and isn’t careful about how often or enthusiastically he fucks me.
"What’s going on, Ash? Having second thoughts? No matter what, this doesn’t end well for you. If it’s negative, you’re taking a swift exit from his life," she says, "and if it’s positive, we’ll be taking a little detour first to a street doc I know. Now pee on the damn stick."
I swallow, and the lump in my throat feels like a boulder. My vision is swimming.
"I thought you said you were closing your eyes," I say, and she lets out a huff, her eyes falling closed. I glare at the men behind her. They roll their eyes, but look away, closing their eyes as well. God. This is just... beyond.
I can’t be pregnant.
I’m not.
My hands are shaking.
I finish up, and the box tells me to wait for ten minutes. I clear my throat, hitching my pajama pants back up.
"Good," Dani says, opening her eyes, the two goons doing the same, all of them looking at me with intention.
"I’m just gonna go get… changed," I mutter, and brush past her as she eagerly surges into the bathroom, with more joy on her face at seeing my pee-stick than she has any right to.
The men let me pass by, but not without giving me appraising looks. Assholes. I go to the bedroom, and hurriedly pair out a pair of jeans, shucking my clothes and getting into a warm hoodie. I jam my feet into socks, and a pair of runners, trying to remember the distinct things about the apartment that are important.
Where is the escape route?
"You can come back out," Dani’s voice carries through the condo. "The results are in."
Fuck.
I can’t stay here. I can’t wait and find out what the verdict is. I feel like Dani’s detour is going to have me marching off the balcony?—
The balcony. There’s a ladder up to the roof there, normally locked, but not if...
The small red rectangle on the wall by the bedroom doors I didn’t notice the first time I was in here, but in a high-rise it makes sense. Not even criminal overlords are exempt from simple safety measures.
"Ashley?" Dani’s voice is closer, and I don’t even think twice. I yank the small tab on the wall down, and race toward the balcony doors. I’m half-way to them when the fire alarm starts to blare through the whole building, the emergency lights flashing and flaring in the room. Dani’s yell from the hallway is buried under the noise, and I yank open the balcony door, sliding it shut behind me. My feet clang on the ladder, my breath hot in my throat as I heave my body upwards, up onto the flat roof. It’s graveled, tiny rocks spitting up under my feet as I run to the other side, unencumbered by silly things like the walls and doors Dani and her goon-thugs will have to contend with downstairs. There’s a ceiling hatch, and my fingers snatch at it, lifting it up, praying that she hasn’t figured it out and isn’t waiting for me just inside. But there’s nothing, just an empty chute, and a landing below. My heart is screaming in my ears as I nearly tumble down it ten feet, and then my shoes hit the solid landing.
Run.
Run.
Run.
My thoughts race ahead of me as I take the stairs two and three at a time, bolting down them, the sharp turns dizzying, my whole body feeling like it wants to collapse at any moment.
Run, Ashley.
Run.
RUN.
