##Chapter 9: The Emergency

Elaine pressed the phone tighter to her ear, cupping her other ear with her hand to drown out the noise of the club.

"Grace!? Grace, what's wrong? What do you mean they're killing people? Who's killing people, sweetheart!?"

Crackling. Banging noises. Echoes of men's voices distorted and guttural.

"Don't…. know… men…."

Men!? Where were her guards? What were they doing? How did they find them?

Questions answered in due time. Right now, she had to keep Grace calm.

"Stay with me, Grace. Can you give me some idea of where you are?"

There were loud thuds. Popping sounds.

"They….hur…can'…..scared…"

The voice was getting fainter. Elaine swore and hefted herself onto the railing before hands pulled her down. She whirled on the bouncer, catching Frank's eyes over the swell of the crowd, pressing her hands to the receiver so she didn't scare Grace.

"Listen, there's a scared twelve-year-old on the phone who's in danger, and I need to hear her clearly. Is there any place my friends and I can go to get a better signal?"

The man regarded her skeptically until Hannah and Frank flashed their ID's. He walked them to the door behind the bar, unlocking it, and standing outside while they went in. Hannah and Frank were hovering, so she shooed them back, smiling softly as they huffed.

The static was less aggressive here. The sounds were still muffled, though. It was likely Grace was hiding inside something.

"Okay, Grace. Can you hear me? I don't sound like I'm in a fishbowl or anything?"

A gentle murmur of assent. Soft crying and whimpers.

"That's perfect. Do you think you can start from the beginning? Tell me everything that happened and is happening right now? Even if you think it's silly or unimportant, it can be a big help to me. I wanna help you, but I need your help to be able to."

The girl's voice was quivering, but words by word the story came.

***

They had spent time playing several games to pass the time. Exploring the warehouse, sorting out the contents of the boxes. They had even managed to practice being in the courtroom.

They had just settled in to eat dinner, a cache of cold army rations, when a loud banging sound made everyone jump. It repeated over and over again. There was lots of shouting. Screaming.

There was a bustle of activity. Mrs. Holiday leapt on top of her daughter, dragging her away from the door. The remaining guard (one had gone to eat at another location) ran outside, hefting his gun.

There were more gunshots. They seemed to be never ending. It was hard to tell where the bullets were coming from or how many people were involved in the shooting. No one moved. The Holidays were frozen to their places.

Neither of their guards returned.

The sounds of people talking reached the Holidays. The assailants appeared to be waiting in the offhand chance that other security measures had been taken.

The atmosphere was soaked by fear. There was a quick conversation between the Holiday family about where they should hide. What they should do to defend themselves if they were attacked directly.

They were checking their phones. They knew they needed to call someone to come help them. Luckily, Grace had just enough battery life to be able to phone someone.

The sounds of footsteps pushed them deeper into the warehouse. They took cover in the back of some shipping containers.

Mrs. Holiday started to call the police but hung up before the authorities could be reached.

She had realized that the police could not assist them. Neither she or her daughter knew the location of their safe house. It was then that Gina Holiday made a plan.

Telling her daughter to stay put, giving to her some parting words of comfort, she ran outside of the shipping containers. She intended to draw away the assailants' attention.

***

The voice on the other end burst into tears.

Elaine's voice was gentle as she cooed into the phone, trying to keep Grace from becoming hysterical. She rocked on her heels, feeling her stomach sink lower and lower.

The safe house had been ambushed. It felt like a dream. Maybe the drink at the bar had put her into a dream coma and was showing her all her worst fears rolled into one place so she could laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

Elaine slapped at her arm. She felt the touch clearly and did her best to hold back a soft sob.

This could not be happening right now. She knew it was but thought denying it might make the universe reconsider and reset things. Wished desperately for the power to do it herself.

She wasn't sure how to feel. She felt so many conflicting things at once.

She was terrified. Everything inside of her felt frozen. Her heart made skips in its beats that made her chest feel hollow. Her skin felt cool to the touch and numb in spots and places. She had to force herself to breathe. The effort it took to do so grew harder with every passing moment.

She felt helpless. She wanted nothing more than to tell Grace it would be alright, but these were promises she could not keep. Nothing about this situation was alright. No amount of comfort in the world could make things alright. Grace could be killed at any moment, and there was nothing she could do.

She was angry. No. Anger did not describe the emotion she was feeling right now. Under all the numbness, something was building. An intense desire to yell formed in the pit of her stomach. She latched onto it. Anger was more productive than fear right now.

This situation should not have come to pass. There should have been more safety measures in place. There should have been more time given to securing the known associates of Bobby Holiday before Gina and Grace were taken.

She knew. She knew putting them into witness protection was a bad idea. She knew that the Holidays would have been far safer out of the state. She had not done nearly enough to prevent this outcome from happening.

There had been many possibilities that could go wrong. This was the worst outcome of the bunch. She should have tried harder to tell Abigail why this was a terrible situation. She should have made it clearer that Grace and her mother needed a new life far away from all this drama.

She shouldn't have allowed herself to be so distracted by Abigail. The lawyer had…. If only Abigail hadn't pushed them into this. If only she hadn't come. If only….

God, she was an idiot! How could she have kissed someone like that!? How could she had wanted to build a relationship with her!?

Had she done nothing to make sure that Grace and Gina were cared for? Did she not think to check up on them at all since Elaine had called and expressed concern? How could she just leave them alone? How could she just bury herself in her work and act like things were fine!?

Abigail was the one who wanted this in the first place! It was her responsibility to make sure that everything went according to plan. She should have fought harder for her clients. She should have demanded them to be given the same treatment as other witnesses.

That she hadn't showed a blatant disregard for human life. It was horrifying, and she should be ashamed of herself. If she didn't feel any shame, Elaine would make sure she did, no matter how many confrontations it would take.

She would not get away with this. There had to be some legal action she could take against the attorney. Some board she could contact.

A small sniffle broke her tirade.

Right.

She could worry about Abigail and how much she would yell at her later. How much she would demand Abigail to fix this situation as much as she could and provide for Grace as much as she could.

Right now though, her being an over thinker, and an emotional one at that, wasn't helping Grace at all. There was still so much she needed to know. Grace had to know more than this. The situation could still be going on.

There was also the question of these men and who they were. Who they worked for and what their aim was in coming to the warehouse. It seemed obvious, but it could also be some kind of drug deal gone wrong. The police would need to know as much as possible.

She had to be reassuring and comforting now more than ever. Make sure that Grace knew she wasn't alone. That her feelings were valid things to feel and that any information she could muster would be important.

"Grace, I'm right here. I know this is hard, but you have to keep going, okay? What happened after your mom hid you? What did you hear? Think really hard about everything, okay? Nothing you say will be unimportant."