Chapter 5 Trapped

The local magistrate office doesn't have any record of married registration named under Jules and Karl. What's even worse, Jules was stated as single, and Karl was recorded as legally married to Tasha. The name of the other woman. What does that make her? The third wheel?

Jules covered her face in desperation. Her life is in chaos, and just now, she just survived a life-threatening situation. The deafening noise of the blasting still numbed her right eardrum. She can’t hear anything but a long broken, pinching noise. It was dark, her body hit onto the cold wall & in relief, she slid down on the cold floor. She is not aware tears slip down to her open palm. Her hands are still trembling. She can’t explain what just happened. Everything went out so fast. A man called her name, grabbed her body and into the slit of an opening before a loud blast not far but a few feet from where she was hiding.  In seconds, the small slit closed as they entered. Everything went at the speed of light. 

“Are you alright?” Aeron asked the other woman. It was total darkness. He can’t even see what is going on with the woman. Suddenly, the sound of sobbing coming from her surprised him. “Don’t be scared, miss. I believe there will be someone there going to save us.”  He is aware that information is not adequate to comfort her. Aeron isn't sure how long they’ll be confined in this panic room. Normally, if there is no reinforcement, it will reopen itself in 15 hours or less. But as she sensed his fear, her cry continued and slowly became louder.

Aeron shuddered as she was sobbing for several more minutes. At first, he tried to ignore the slow sobbing. A sobbing of fear, insecurities. He checks the perimeter of the panic room. Not too big, but it was equipped with a small food pantry, simple toilet & amenities at the corner of the room, modern security surveillance, with hidden cameras all over inside out of the house & tv monitor. Unfortunately, the explosion had damaged the mic feeding near the entrance, and he can not hear anything from the trio’s conversation. Why are they looking for the evidence? The louder crying noise from her alerts him. This time it was not out of fear. More like deep sadness. Desperation. Sorrow. Her sobbing sounded desperation,  deep sadness and fear. He can’t explain but felt sorry for getting her into that kind of situation. He was so into work that he realised he just abandoned the victim. 

He became uneasy & frigid watching her under the low light coming from the monitor, sitting on the floor, with her shoulder shaking as she covered her face while crying out loudly. He never felt comfortable handling those crying women. Not directly. He always chooses to walk away from the scene and let the rest of the team calm the victim. Now he is confined alone with a crying woman, his mind racking hard for ideas on how to comfort crying women, but he can’t think of anything at all.  

Aeron walks hesitantly towards the woman. He took a seat beside her, listening to her sobbing for a few seconds before he hauled her body towards him and embraced her small body, comforting her. Only it was not light like a small child but a fully grown woman. The action makes a sudden surprise, and his lean, muscled body is pushed to the wall hard. It nearly knocked his breath out from his lung. He felt strange and unfamiliar with the touch, but he only saw his cousin do that to his eight-year-old daughter when she cried. 

As if that was the magic act, she stopped crying. She went rigid. She was about to pull away, but he shushed her and, thinking the method works, he started to rub & pat her back like coaxing a small child from crying. Jules feels her skin where their skin was in contact begin to flush & hot. She quietly unmoved at his awkward action. The remnant of her tears falls to his thin shirt, and as she starts to forget her awkward condition, she begins to tear up again in silence. Her cheek resting on his broad chest while the whole time, tears nonstop fall and soak his shirt.

Aeron heaves a sigh at her stubborn behaviour. He can’t understand women at all. What is the reason for her despair? Fear of the dark? He tightened his embrace around her waist. Her hands rested on his chest. He never felt comforting her makes him relax and warm at heart. He unconsciously laid his cheek on top of her head. Jules lets out a shocking surprise at the sudden touch. She waited for him to realise his mistake and begin to apologise or remove his head, but he didn’t. She takes it as he is trying to comfort her. She continues with her sobbing the whole time, and he continues patting her back until she falls asleep in his arms.  

Aeron looked down at the woman in his arms, relieved with her slow breathing. No more crying. 

He turned to see the monitor, and he let out a curse at it. The trio has not yet left the compound of the house. He struggles not to wake the woman up & pull out his phone. He waves his phone for any signal but nothing. Not even a bar gets through the panic room. Nobody knows about them but Dr Emily. If only he can contact the station about his whereabouts, they may start looking for him sooner. At the same time, he worried that Dr Emily might come home only to get hurt by the trio. He never personally handled international criminals before. His only hope for a miracle is for someone to notice him missing and start searching. 

She stirs in his arms. Aeron's awkward position begins to tire him out and makes his leg and arms numb. He gave another pat on her back to go back to sleep. The phone showed it was already ten o'clock at night. If his calculations were correct, the panic would only be open in another fifteen hours. One hour has just passed. It is expected to be open at noon tomorrow. She stirs for the second time. He realised the room had just turned colder than before. Did the blast damage the heater as well? He groaned irritatingly. “Are you kidding me?”

Aeron repositions her body as parts of his body start to numb with continued heavy pressure. Tonight, he is going to share his body heat with this woman to get through the night. In the dark, he gets a glimpse of a small makeshift bed at the corner of the room. He was relieved at the discovery. He detached himself away from the sleeping woman and unconsciously gave a kiss on her forehead. He turned away in surprise. ‘What the hell did I do that for?’ the woman smiled at his small touch on her skin, still in her sleeping state.

He arranges the makeshift bed, places her on the bed and pulls up the blanket over her small body. Satisfied with the look of it, he starts to monitor the rest of the hidden camera. By now, they must know the entrance of the panic room, and it looks like they take turns guarding the entrance while the rest prepare something from behind their car. He begins to wish hard that this panic room will stand until tomorrow. 

Another two hours passed, the coldness began to sip in, and the groaning noise from the woman worried him. His soak shirt with her tears didn't seem to get any dry sooner. He rubbed his stiff neck relieving his stress over multiple things happening at hand. He wouldn’t ever think that he would be sleeping outside from his usual home with some unknown woman some more. 

The makeshift bed was not that big and yet enough for tonight for a quick nap. He can’t be so relaxed while the criminals are still taking their sweet time trying to blast the panic room’s entrance. He lay beside the woman with one arm on his head, looking up at the ceiling and took a peek once in a while at the surveillance monitor. The coldness became unbearable that he was aware of her slight shaking body. Aeron moves closer to her trying to share some of his body heat. He can smell her sweet scent. He took a deep breath. Her scent is not like other women he accidentally sniffed before. He thinks he has become intoxicated by her scent. Soon, he falls to sleep while hugging her body.

The next morning, there’s no way for them to check what time it was as it has just turned dark pitch inside the room. The only hidden camera available was the one hidden high to the ceiling behind the light fixture, one on the garden’s deco sculpture and the drawing’s frame at the kitchen. Aeron woke up finding the other woman not on the bed. He never woke up so late, nor did he sleep so well before. 

“Good morning,” Jules greeted him shyly. She remembered what happened last night and made her deeply flustered. This morning, she woke up finding herself in an awkward position. She has never been with any man before besides her husband. 

“Good morning.” Aeron sat on the makeshift, trying to adjust his view into the dark. He pulled out his phone, and it showed eight O’clock in the morning. ‘Shit. I overslept.’ he hurriedly strides over to the surveillance monitor. “What happened? Where are they?”

“Not sure. I think they were sleeping.” 

Several tools were on the ground not far from the entrance of the panic room. It seemed that they got busied themselves the whole night, and it got them tired out. This is the time for them to escape, but without the password to open the entrance from within, it seems they still need to wait till help arrives.