Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 309: Brave

Chapter 309: Brave

For the record, Emily would like to state that she was not afraid of the dark. She practically lived in it after all. Often waking up in the middle of the night to her dark room, and then switching on her lights. Doing some embroidering while the rest of the apartment was bathed in darkness.

Her relationship with the lack of light was a good one.

But she also would like to have it noted that being in the darkness in a familiar environment, was completely different to being in a pitch black place that you were new to.

When the lights went out. Emily was not ashamed to say that she let out a little squeal before getting herself under control. But as the seconds began to tick by and there was still no light. Emily began to feel panic building up within her.

"Everything is fine," She told herself.

"All of the things that you saw when there was light are still there. It is just that now you cannot see them," She reassured herself.

But that was not helping at all. Emily was used to darkness when she was surrounded by four walls. She was used to hearing the sound of traffic, passing-by down below.

But in the small town there was no such thing. The darkness was absolute. No street lights anywhere. And to add to the foreignness of the place, there were also the unfamiliar sounds.

It was not the laughter of people passing by, and it was also not the honking of cars. Emily heard something that sounded like a growl. She straightened, gripping her shovel harder. And then something above in the trees began to hiss, an actual hiss like a snake, and Emily decided that she’d had enough.

She was all for bravery, facing her fears and all of that good stuff. But there was absolutely no way that she wanted to find out what in this world could be up a tree and hissing in the darkness.

People could call her a coward all they wanted, but she just was not, doing it.

Dropping the shovel onto the dirt, Emily began walking away at a brisk pace. Heading in the general direction of where the motel was. She kept on like that for a few seconds, walking quickly but keeping up the illusion of not being scared.

That lasted until something brushed against her ankle and then Emily was off, no time wasted whatsoever. She was not about to die in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Especially not because she had been trying to look cool.

Forget coolness, aliveness was more important.

Now Emily knew for a fact that she was not one of those fitness fanatics who made a game out of shaving time off their daily run, and also believed in things like pain is gain. But she had always been of the mind that even though she was not at the level to compete with professional athletes.

Should it ever be needed, her body would be able to get her out of harm’s way. She was glad to find that she had been right in her assessment. As she ran through the dark. Emily nearly tripped and fell many times, but she kept her footing. Staying upright as she continued to move forward. The more distance she put between herself, and the hissing thing up in the tree the safer she would be.

Even better, the sooner she reached the inside of the motel and found a source of light, the sooner she could get to her room, and lock the door.

But the longer Emily ran, the more the dream of getting indoors seemed to be something impossible to achieve. Had she gone the wrong way, but how? She had been certain that the entrance to the motel was in the direction that she was running in. Had she missed it?

Emily stared at the darkness of the building, trying to see if she could figure out the exact location of the motel door. But it was hard to do while she was running, and since Emily was not willing to let her pace falter. That made things even harder.

For the sake of doing something productive, and actually locating the door. Emily was seriously contemplating stopping when something brushed past her cheek, letting out a familiar hiss. Flying too fast for her to identify. All thoughts of either slowing down, or stopping were instantly abandoned.

Emily running at full speed, a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming. Of all the times for her to forget her phone. It just happened to be the one moment where there was a blackout. Hands falling to her sides, Emily’s mouth clicked shut, and she pumped more speed into her legs.

Was she going in circles? Where was the door? Those were the questions that ran through her mind as she continued what felt like an endless run. Exhaustion beginning to set in Emily was just about to give in, and let whatever it was that was out there just attack her when she saw a light in the distance. Finally! She thought, a rescue!

With the renewed energy that she’d not thought she had, Emily ran even faster.

On her way there, it occurred to her that instead of running away from danger she might have been running towards it.

What if the person holding the light was a serial killer? What if they were up to no good? All of that took a backseat when whatever it was that was flying outside with Emily, flew past her head once again. Eyes closed she ran the final few paces towards the light, not slowing down.

When Emily did come to a stop. It was not because she made a conscious decision to do so. Instead, she ran into what felt like a solid wall of muscle. A man then, her rescuer was definitely a man. Emily opened her eyes just in time to see the light that he was holding fall.

The man’s arms coming up to catch her, barely able to steady both of them so that they did not fall over. Emily’s own arms coming up to hold him tight.

Never in her life would Emily have thought that she would feel so at ease in a stranger’s arms. But the moment that the man held her, it felt as though everything would be all right.

He felt safe. . . familiar.