Already Dead (Laura Frost FBI)

Laura had made it in time – she was still breathing. Just unconscious. She quickly slipped a hand around the back of the blonde woman’s head to feel for any damage, but there seemed to be done. If he was staying true to his MO, she was probably drugged.

There was no candle on her chest, no sign of any attempt to harm her beyond the ropes. Laura figured the killer must have knocked her out at some point before and brought her here, then tied her up in case she awoke while he was gone. That meant she had time, maybe.

She had a chance to save her life.

Laura grabbed her cell phone out of her pocket, having to put the gun down on the floor to do so. She stood, hearing the plastic which also covered the floor of this room crinkle underfoot even more as she did so. Her heart was hammering in her own ears so wildly. She scrolled through the list to Detective Waters’s number, knowing that he would at least answer. She hoped he would answer. It was either that or she would need to go through 911.

The woman was so young, Laura couldn’t help but think as she found the Detective’s number in her contact list. So young. Maybe only her early twenties, just like the others. She didn’t deserve to die right now, while she still had her whole life ahead of her.

Laura found the number, taking a couple of crunching steps back to give the girl space as she did so, and –

All she was aware of for a moment was the sensation of falling. In that space of time, which could only have been a split second but felt like so much more, she realized two things. The first was that she was about to hit the floor, though she did not apparently have enough time for her synapses to fire to instruct her body to save herself.

The second was that something had hit her hard over the head.

There was no third thing, because by the time Laura had made these two realizations, she was already losing herself to darkness – her consciousness spiraling away from her at the same rate with which the floor came up to meet her.