“Yes, Sir.”
Smiling, she leant against the back of the seat as he started up his truck. The night had finally come. He had wanted it to happen for a very long time, and now that it had finally arrived, he hoped it went as planned and nothing, and he meant nothing, would ruin it for the both of them.
Tonight he was claiming her for all to see. She didn’t know it yet, and wouldn’t until he removed the blindfold once they were up on that stage, with her strapped to his favourite St Andrew’s Cross. He couldn’t wait to crack his whip that he had made especially for her and only her. It had never touched anyone’s skin, til’ tonight. He was breaking it in, and doing the same with her.
––––––––
S
kylar lost where she was as she was driving around. Nothing around her looked familiar at all. She knew she should not have taken that last turn off. The road was dark, there weren’t many houses on the street, and the lighting was poor—she could barely make out the road that was in front of her. If you could call it a road. Sugar cane grew on side, and there were houses on the other. From what she could make out, half of them looked like they had been abandoned, but she wasn’t going to stop and find out.
As she turned around the next corner, something ran out in front of her, making her scream and slam on the brakes. Her car pulled to a hard stop, dust covered the back end of her, and her seat belt pulled taut against her body. She should not have driven away from Nate’s place; it was stupid behavior on her part. But she needed to get away, just for a little while.
The last time she checked the time it was after 6p.m., and she had been gone for over three hours. Maybe it was time to turn around and head back home, where it was safe, compared to wherever she was now. Loosening the belt from around her, she reached over for her bag. As she did, her stomach pulled tight, and pain shot straight down the length of her back. Gasping, she held her stomach; it was getting tighter and tighter. She breathed through the pain, as she remembered from the anti-natal classes both her and Nate attended. Once the pain subsided, she reached for her bag again and pulled out her phone.
Looking at the screen of her phone, she saw there was only one bar of service, and her battery was almost empty. Noticing the time in the right hand corner, she couldn’t believe that it was after 9p.m. now. How could she have not known that she was out this late? She tried ringing Chantal’s number but it only went to voicemail.
Maybe it’s a good idea to go home now
, she thought.
She turned the key in the ignition. The car revved high and stopped. It never turned over. She tried again and got the same thing. Great, just what she needed. Stuck out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, with minimal service, and the car decided not to work. As she slammed her hand against the steering wheel, another sharp pain shot down her spine, and also across the front of her belly. “Oh God,” she moaned.
Panting through the pain, she clamped her thighs together, really hoping the baby wasn’t deciding to come at that moment. She needed to get out of where she was, immediately. She hit on Nate’s number and dialled.
One ring
...
two rings
...
three rings
...
four rings
. “Come on, Nate,” she pleaded.
Five rings
...
six rings
. “Shit.” She hung up before it went to his voicemail. She wasn’t going to leave a message for him; she needed to hear his voice, not a recording.
Undoing her belt, she opened her door and got out. Maybe she just needed to move around just a little. Leaving the door open, she stayed close to her car as she walked the length of it several times. There was a house across the road from her, no lights on. It didn’t exactly look safe enough to go over and ask for help, so she stuck it out and hopefully the car would start after a little bit. Leaning over, she turned the key again, and got the same result.
“Why me? Of all places, why did you have to stop working here?” she yelled into the wind. She wasn’t exactly dressed for night, wearing only a summer dress she had put on that morning; she didn’t think to grab a coat or something as she left. There wasn’t even a blanket in the back of her car, either. The only thing she could do was sit in the car, hoping the heater would stay on until she could get out of there.
She tried ringing both Craig and Alex’s phones, but neither of them answered. She needed one of them to answer their phone soon, or she was going to lose it. Dialling Nate’s number again, she counted every ringtone, ready to hang up again, and then he answered.
“Hello.”
“Nate,” she whispered his name.
“Jesus woman, I have been going out of my mind. You never answered any of my calls.”
“I’m sorry. I needed time to myself.”
“You can’t go off like you did, Skylar. What happens if something happened to you or our child? How do you think that is going to make me feel, when I caused you to drive off? God damn it Skylar,” he growled.
“I said I was sorry, Nate. What else do you want me to tell you?”
“Well, you shouldn’t have fucking left in the first place, Sky. You should have stayed here, at your place. Instead, you decided to drive away. Running away, yet again, from things that you should have stayed back to sort out. You always run, Skylar. You never just stay where you are and think things through.”
Well, he was pissed, but so was she. “Really? You want to argue right now? Is that it, Nate? You want me to feel bad for what I did to you. Well, I do, ok? I’m sorry I left, but I didn’t run this time. I was planning on coming back.”
“You did run, Skylar. Jesus. I’m so fucking pissed at you right now; it’s the understatement of the century. We are both supposed to work together, not individually. We are a team. You and I.”
“I know, Nate.”
“Well, you need to get it through your thick head that it isn’t just about you anymore, it’s about us.”
As she went to sit in the driver’s seat, the pain came back and worse than before. She doubled over and grabbed the door to steady herself against the pain shooting across her stomach.
“I know it’s about us, Nate,” she gritted through the pain. This one lasted longer than the others. If she could compare the feeling to anything, it was just like a cramp, but ten times worse.
“Do you believe it when you tell me that, Skylar? Because it’s a little hard on my part. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything at all to you, I know what I did was wrong, but I was only thinking of you and our child. I didn’t want you to stress over something that would sort itself out soon.”
She couldn’t do it anymore by herself; she needed him there with her.
“Nate.” She was scared. She didn’t know what was going on. It was way too early to go into labour. She still had two months left before the due date. It could not be happening yet.
“Skylar, where are you so I can come and get you and bring you home. Then, I’m going to spank the living shit out of your ass for running off,” he growled again.
“Nate. Stop, please. Shit.” She was on the verge of tears, she couldn’t help it. They could argue after, once she was home, not right at that point in time.
“What’s going on?” His tone changed from pissed off to worried within seconds.
“Something is wrong,” she said as she carefully sat beside the car.
“What do you mean, something is wrong?”
“I think I’m in labour, Nate.”
“You can’t be. You’re not due for another eight weeks, maybe its Braxton Hicks.”
“You read the books?”
“Of course I did, Sky. I didn’t want to miss out on anything.”
She smiled the best she could. “Well, the pain really doesn’t feel like Braxton Hicks to me, they’re really painful, Nate.”
“Ok. Where are you, and I’ll come and get you, baby. We’ll work through this together.”
“I don’t know where I am. I turned down a road several hours ago. Now, my car won’t start. I want to come home, Nate. I don’t want to be out here anymore,” she whimpered.
“Do you remember the last sign or street name you saw? Anything to help me find where you are?”
“I can’t remember.” Pain shot up her spine, making her curl up in the foetal position. “It really hurts, Nate,” she cried.
“Come on baby, breathe through it. Breathe in and out, steady.”
She tried, she really did. “I can’t.”
“I know you can. Do it with me. In. Now, out. In. Out. Deep breaths.”
Concentrating on his breathing, she did the same. It helped having him on the phone, talking it through with her.
“Better now, sweetheart?.”
“For now.”
“Since you don’t know where you are. On your phone, there is a little icon that looks like a racetrack. I want you to turn it on.”
Removing her phone from her ear, she found what he had said and turned it on.
“Ok, done. What is it?”
“It’s a cell tracker. I have the same on my phone. It will tell me exactly where you are.”
She was glad at this point that he put something like that on her phone; she wasn’t upset about it at all, although he had never told her about doing it in the first place.
“Jesus. You’re an hour away, baby. Didn’t you know how far you went?”
Damn! “No, I just kept driving. It was relaxing.”
“Ok. I know where you are now. I’m going to call everyone and see if any of them are closer to you, than I am.”
“Please, don’t hang up.”
“I won’t, Sky. I’m going to use the landline. I’ll be here the whole time, baby.”
She leaned back and rested her head against the side of her car, listening as Nate spoke to someone, other than her. She started to feel uncomfortable at the way she was sitting on the ground. Grabbing the handle of the door to help lift herself up, she moved her leg to stand fully, and the pain came back, tenfold.
“Shit,” she hissed.
“What is it?” Nate asked.
“Pain, God it hurts. I don’t think I can do this, Nate.”
“I know it hurts, baby, but you can do this. I need you to get in the backseat of your car, and lay down on your back. Can you do that, baby?”
Standing as best she could as the pain surrounded her belly, she closed the driver door and moved to the back door. “Ok,” she replied.
Opening the door, she held onto the headrest of the driver seat. She tried to lift herself up, but it didn’t work. “Nate, I really can’t,” she sobbed. The pain was intensifying.
“I know you can. Come on,” he encouraged her. She could just make out what he was saying to whoever he was talking to on the other end, and it wasn’t good.
Telling herself she could do it, she lifted up and into the backseat. Once she was there, she tried to lie on her back, but shot back up straight away. She couldn’t lie down like that. Moving onto her side, the best she could, she used her bag as a pillow as she lay down. Using her foot, she pulled the door closed, after hitting the remote in the middle console to lock the doors. She lay there as best as she could.
Nate was still talking to someone on his end. She was tired and needed sleep. Today had been a big day and she was finally over it. She was about to tell Nate that when her phone beeped, letting her know that her phone was dying.
Great
.
“Um, Nate.”
He continued talking, but not to her. “Nate!” she yelled into the phone. She knew she only had five, maybe ten minutes max left on her phone before it died completely.
“Everything alright, Sky?”
“Um, sort of.”
“Tell me, baby.”
“My phone is about to die.” She didn’t want to be completely left alone out there.
“Fuck. Ok. Let me think.”
She knew how he felt. She didn’t like the idea so much herself. Being stranded out here, with no phone, anything could happen, and apparently, it was going to happen.
“Nate.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Craig is with Alex over at his parent’s house, they are double the time away from you. But they are leaving now to get here. Dominic is over an hour away from you. I couldn’t get hold of him but I know where he is. Joey is on the phone now, his brother lives close by. He’s going to give him a call now and see if he can meet you were you are. Joey is going to head over now; he’s about twenty minutes away. The ambulance is on its way, too, they should arrive when I do, baby.”
“Ok,” she whispered. There was no way she would be able to stay on the phone the whole time until either Joey or his brother arrived.
“Everything is going to be fine, Sky. I’m heading your way now.”
The phone beeped in her ear again. “I only have five minutes left of my battery.”
“Damn it, Skylar. Shit. Do you have your car charger?”
“No. It’s in your truck.”
She lifted her phone away from her ear as Nate cursed, and kept doing exactly that. She lost count after the tenth ‘fuck’ she heard him yell.
“What am I going to do when my phone dies, Nate?”
“You’re going to stay in your car, until either Joey or his brother arrive. They know exactly where you are. Make sure you leave your headlights on so they know where you are. Jesus, I wish I were with you right now, baby. I hate the idea that you’re out there, alone.”
“I wish you were here, too. Nate. I’m so sorry for doing this. I didn’t mean to.”
“I know, Sky. I probably would have done the same damn thing.”
She could feel the pain tightening around her stomach again, God, she did not want to go through this pain without him. “The pain is coming back,” she gritted out.
“Breathe, baby. I know you can do it.”
Gritting her teeth, she gripped onto the front seat, her knuckles going white. She was close to ripping the headrest off completely.
“Breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth. You need to breathe properly, Sky.”
Her phone started beeping, the screen was flashing. No. She didn’t want him gone.
“How is the pain now?” he asked.
She couldn’t think of it, she was now more worried about sitting there alone.
“It’s gone for now. I love you so much, Nate. I’m sorry I didn’t have my charger in the car.”
“And I love you, baby. I will buy you an extra one.”