THE TWO TEENS arrived at the top of the stairs where there was a door. The door was closed, so Finney reached to open it. He slowly and carefully turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.

The door was now open wide and it revealed the Grabber sitting on a chair, wearing a mask and his belt still in hand, just like he was before, except this time he was asleep. He had been waiting for them. Waiting to beat them up. Avery's breath hitched from the view infront of her. The Grabber snored loudly, making the two kids back away from the man. They stayed still and silent for a few seconds, not moving an inch, acting like statues, just so they wouldn't wake him up. When the Grabber quieted down and made no more noise, the two teens relaxed. They held each other's hands tightly, feeling comfort within each other's touch. Right now, unfortunately, this was their only way of feeling safe.

They started walking forward, getting closer to The Grabber each step they took. Avery was holding her breath, she didn't want to make any sound, she didn't want to get caught, she wanted to escape and finally get back to her family, get back to her life, she wanted to get out, she couldn't continue living in this basement. And she knew that if she stayed there, it wouldn't take much longer for the Grabber to kill her. Kill both of them, her and Finney.

Avery and Finney were now very close to the man, and the both of the them just stood next to him, and looked at him. Emotions filled Finney Blake, negative emotions. He was angry at the man, and he wanted to make him suffer because of what he did to them and all those other innocent kids. Avery felt as if her heart was going to pop off her chest at any moment, she felt nauseous. As if she was going to throw up at any moment because of how scared she felt. Avery pulled Finney's hand, gesturing them to continue walking and continue their escape, and so they did.

Finney and Avery continued walking quietly and they got to a living room. In the living room there was another door, the exit door, a door to the outside World, a door to the way out. The door had a lock on it, which they assumed was the lock Griffin was talking about, the lock he had on his bike. Finney let go of Avery's hand, making the girl frown and instantly feel as if she was missing something, missing his touch. But she quickly stopped herself when she realized what her mind was focused on. Her eyes had widened at her action and thought. She had no idea why she frowned, or why the missing feeling of Finney's hand touching her's made her feel this way. She shook her head, dismissing her thoughts since she had to focus on a much bigger and more important topic.

Finney tried the first of the many options of the combination, he pulled the lock down, trying to open it, but it didn't work. Avery looked back to where they had been a few seconds ago, where the Grabber was sleeping, making sure he was still asleep. When she made sure that he was still deep asleep, she looked back towards Finney who was putting in another combination order. He pulled on the lock again, trying to open it, but once again, it was the wrong combination. Avery grew more and more anxious by the second. She was scared to death. Scared that the Grabber would wake up before they had a chance to escape and punish them, that they were going to be beaten up, but most importantly, scared that they weren't going to make it out this hell hole. Finney tried once again another combination, and when he went to pull the lock, it opened. But when it opened, it made a loud sound, which caused a dog locked in the room next to them to bark. Avery and Finney didn't even have any time to think before the dog started barking loudly, Avery's breathe began to increase in speed as the dog only began barking louder. The two teens both hurriedly pushed the door open and started running out of the the house. But the loud noise of the dog barking woke up The Grabber. The Grabber opened his eyes and stood up from the chair he was sat at. He looked to his side, where the noise of the barking dog was coming from and he took off the top part of his mask. He slowly walked towards the living room, and when he noticed that the door was open, his eyes widened in despair. The man quickly rushed to his van, getting ready to prevent the two kids from escaping from his grasp.

Finney and Avery weren't runners, but at this moment, they were running for their life. They had never ran this fast in their entire life, it was a matter of life and death, literally. Avery felt adrenaline course through her veins, her feet struggled to carry her the entire way, the only thing she cared about right now, was getting her and Finney away from that awful place. However, they soon heard an engine starting, and a vehicle moving. Avery made a big mistake of turning her head to look back at where the sound was coming from. She saw that same black van that had kidnapped her a few days ago, leaving the garage from the house. It was the Grabber.

She turned her head back to face her front and noticed she was a bit behind Finney. The girl cursed herself for this as she did her best to force her legs move faster, but it wasn't something that simple. Avery and Finney continued running as fast as they could, trying to get away from the speeding van, but it was no use, the van was faster than both of them, and it was no longer a few feet away, it was next to the two runaway teens. Suddenly, without any of the teens seeing it, the van parked infront of them, making both of them run into the van, hitting their faces harshly onto the side of the vehicle. The impact of the hit made both of them fall to the ground, giving The Grabber enough time to run out of the van, desperately trying to catch the running two. But the teens weren't going to give up that easily. They quickly stood up and started running again, but the man was on their tail. Avery's tail to be precise. Avery wasn't as fast as Finney, which left her behind, and closer to The Grabber, but not close enough for him to grab her. Avery was losing hope in running, she had come to the agreement that the Grabber was bound to grab her at any minute and there was no way of stopping it. She was a little girl running against a full grown man. But then she sparked an idea. She began yelling, hoping that the neighbours around would hear and get out of their house and see what was happening, and save them, save her before the Grabber had the chance to hurt her or do anything else to her.

"HELP!" She yelled repeatedly while she continued running for her life.

"THE GRABBER," Before Avery could finish her sentence, she was thrown to the ground by someone behind her.

The only way the man thought of shutting the girl up was by throwing himself onto her to make her fall into the ground, and so that was exactly what he did. Both of them fell hard onto the ground. The Grabber quickly grabbed the girl and covered her mouth, preventing her from screaming any longer. Avery kicked and moved every part of her body everywhere, trying to escape from the man's grip, but it was no use, the man was double her size and obviously stronger than her. The two were rolling around the floor due to Avery moving so much, although she knew it was hard for her to win, she still fought hard against the man. She felt her kick the man in various places, but even though she did, the man wasn't letting go, it was as if he barely even felt the harm she was doing to him.

Finney soon noticed that he couldn't hear any more screaming from the girl that had been running with him, so he turned his head to look back at where the girl usually was but he didn't see anyone. What he did see, was two figures on the floor, one figure grabbing the other figure, and the other moving around, kicking it's legs. Finney quickly linked the dots and realised that the two on the floor were Avery and the Grabber. Finn stopped in his tracks as his eyes widened and his breath got caught in his throat. Finney didn't know what to do, he didn't know if he should keep running or help her. If he left her, she would probably get hurt or worse, but he would be able to call for help, but he knew that even if he did manage ti call for help, there was a high chance of it being too late, too late to rescue his crush and he couldn't risk having that possibility happen. He can't risk the chance of having to lose Avery, he just couldn't. He thought about the promise he had made to himself. He was going to protect Avery at all costs. He knew there was only one right answer, so the boy ran to where the girl was, fighting for her life. While he was running, the lights from the houses on the neighbourhood began turning on, Finney looked around, seeing the houses turning on their porch lights. He was now a few steps away from where Avery was, and he was about to start yelling for help when he noticed the Grabber grabbing something from his pocket. Finn squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look at what the man holding his crush had in his hand, and when he noticed what it was, his eyes widened in fear. It was a knife. The Grabber had gotten a knife and put it close to Avery's neck.

"You say one fucking word, and I will gut you like a pig, right here in this street. I will strangle you with your own intestines." The grabber whispered into Avery's ear. Avery's chest was going up and down, panting. The adrenaline she was feeling before was still coursing through her veins. But the feeling of the cold, metal of the knife on her throat made everything ten times worse. She shut her mouth, not saying a word, just like The Grabber had instructed. She couldn't focus on anything else apart from the knife pressed onto her neck, pressed so tightly that even the slightest movement would make a cut. She was so scared. The truth was, she didn't want to die, not yet. She finally felt The Grabber's body against her's and this made her want to throw up in fear. She couldn't believe she had been caught. At this moment, Avery thought about her entire life. She thought about her friends and her family and the life she had before all this had happened. She thought about how she didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to the people important to her and tell them how much they meant to her. Donna, her mom, her dad. And Finney. She thought about Finney escaping, and for a  split second, a smile came onto her face. But she also thought about how she actually felt about him. She remembered the way he looked at her, the way he cared about her and the way he was smart and kind. Wait, did she actually catch feelings for him? She had feelings for him and she couldn't believe herself. She had caught feelings for the school's biggest dork and she had just realised it now, when she was probably about to die, but she couldn't help it. In her eyes, he was perfect, Finney Blake was perfect to her. Avery had hoped that he had escaped. That he ran away from this place, that he was now miles away. Avery hoped she had managed to save the boy. If she couldn't save herself, at least she was glad to have saved Finney. She thought about the way she lived her life, was it really the way she wanted it to be? She was so young, she had so much life ahead of her, and here she was with a knife around her neck. She felt tears fill her eyes, so she closed them and silently let the tears roll down her face. The cold metal knife was against her throat, threatening her and she didn't dare move because she knew that if she did, she wouldn't live another second. Suddenly, a figure fell infront of her and she opened her eyes and there he was, the boy that was occupying her mind for what felt like always, the boy that when she woke up he was the first thing he saw for the past few days, Finney Blake. When Avery opened her eyes he saw his face infront of her's. The girl's eyes widened. What the hell was he doing here? Why hadn't he escaped? And then it hit her. He came back for her, he came back to save her.

Avery didn't know how she should feel. Tears threatened to fall once more as she realized he had come back for her, as she blamed herself for him coming back, she blamed herself, just like she always did when something bad happened. "It was my fault, my fault." she kept repeating to herself as she stared at the boy infront of hurt, a look of pain in his eyes. He should've escaped, not come back for her. Finney deserved to escape, he needs to go back to his family. But he wasn't with his family, he was here, with her. Avery felt more tears fill her eyes. The guilt becoming too much to handle as it filled her. Even though it wasn't her fault, she felt as if it was. The boy shouldn't have been here, he could have escaped, and he could have lived to see another day, but instead, he was here, saving her.

Finney sat up and went to grab the Grabber's weapon that was touching Avery's neck but The Grabber simply dodged his arm, bringing Avery with him.

"Move another inch or make a single sound, and pretty girl is dead." The Grabber spoke whispering, pressing the knife harder on the girl's kneck and tightening his hold on the girl. Finney could see the tears in the girl's eyes and at that moment, he knew that he was willing to do anything to protect her, even if it meant he had to stay in that awful place with that awful man, he would still do it. He didn't really believe that The Grabber would murder the girl right here. In public. But little did he know, that the man definetly would.

"You wouldn't do that." The boy whispered back, challenging the man. Avery knew he would, he knew he would gut her in a matter of seconds and she shut her eyes to what she expected would happen next.

"Oh, really?" The Grabber moved the knife from the girl's neck to her arm, pressing the knife hard into her skin, making a small, but very visible cut. Avery felt the cold, sharp knife cutting through her skin, pain feeling the spot the man was causing the damage, and she felt the blood from her cut start dripping down her arm. Avery bit her bottom lip, preventing herself from making any sound because of the pain. She closed her eyes tight and a few tears began to roll down her cheeks, the girl didn't want to cry, but she couldn't help it, she had never been cut on purpose on her arm, and it hurt. Avery opened her eyes and looked at the boy infront of her, he had a regretful and worried look on his face. Avery remembered he was there, and she wished he wasn't. She wished the boy had escaped and ran away. She looked deep into the boy's eyes, she was trying to tell him to leave, trying to tell him to run away and save himself and get out of here, even if it meant leaving her here. She didn't blame him for what the Grabber had just did to her, she knew the Grabber was unpredictable and it wasn't Finn's fault. She just blamed him for coming back to her.

Finney felt so guilty. He shouldn't have dared the man, The Grabber obviously would cut her throat, the man literally had kidnapped them and killed other kids, he would definetly, without a doubt, kill another one. Finney promised to protect Avery, but everytime it just seemed like he hurt her more. He wanted to hold Avery and apologize to the girl infront of him, and take care of her, actually take care of her. The sad look in her eyes hurt the boy, it was as if the girl was asking for help through her eyes, she was in pain. But the girl was also telling the boy to run and leave, and Finney caught on to that, but he wasn't going to leave her, no way. He loved her, he cared about her so much and he was going to get her out. And that's when he actually realised that he didn't just like her, she wasn't just his school crush that would go away with time, he loved her, he actually loved her. In this circumstances, in this awful moment, he finally understood that he loved the girl, and he would always try to protect her. He doesn't know what love feels like, but if Finn had to guess, he would say it was what he felt for Avery, because he never felt the way he felt for her with anyone else, it was her, just her. He loved her.

Finney stood still and so did Avery and the Grabber, all that was heard was their slow but desperate breathing. The lights on the porches of the houses started turning off, and when all the houses' lights were turned off the man let go off Avery. When Avery was set free, she got as far away from the man as possible as she began breathing rapidly, as if she was gathering all the air that she didn't have before due to The Grabber holding her and having a knife on her neck. She then touched the cut on her arm and looked at her hand, feeling the blood of her wound now on her fingers. The blood kept running down her arm, but Avery didn't bother cleaning it up, there were bigger things to worry about. She stared in fear as the Grabber began to sit up from his position, now sitting right infront of her.

"Nighty-night naughty kids." And with that, he punched the two teens, knocking them out hard.

...

Avery and Finney were back in the basement. They had been asleep until now, afterall, they had been knocked out pretty hard by The Grabber. Both of their noses were bleeding from the impact. The two sat on the bed, not knowing what to do or what to say. Avery felt pain all over her body after being thrown around by the Grabber, but she felt pain especially in her arm. She went to touch the area where she had been cut and flinched as she did so, due to the stinging sensation. The blood was dry, but the wound still hadn't fully gotten healed, it was still an open wound. There wasn't anything in the basement that could help her clean her wound or cover it, so she just had to leave it as it was, there was nothing she could do if it got infected. Finney's nose hurt like hell. He went to touch it to make sure it wasn't broken, but when he saw his hand, he saw blood and anger filled inside him.

"Son of a bitch." He cursed.

Finney turned to look at Avery, and that's when he remembered everything that had happened that night. The way she got hurt, because of him. He quickly rushed to her side.

"Aves, are you okay? Your neck it's-" But before he could finish his sentence, Avery interrupted him.

"Bleeding? Yeah, well, I did just get cut with a knife on my arm." The girl answered, avoiding Finn's gaze. She wasn't angry at Finney, just dissapointed and confused. She couldn't understand why he would come back for her. He had a perfect chance of escaping this shitty place, but he didn't. He could've saved himself. The girl just felt guilt, and she let the guilt control her feelings, she didn't want to be mad at Finn, but she blamed herself. So, the anger she felt at herself, she was discounting it on Finney. Avery didn't care that she was going to be in this place alone, at least it would have saved him, and that's all she wanted. Finn thought she was mad at him for letting The Grabber hurt her, but she wasn't. At all.

"Avery, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to let him hurt you."

"Finney I don't care about that! I don't care that he hurt me!" The girl shouted, looking at him deep in his eyes, tears in her eyes. The minute her eyes met his, she averted his eyes once again, she didn't want to look at him, because that would just remind her that he was here because of her. Finney stayed quiet, he didn't know what to say.

"Then why are you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you, Finney!" Finney's heart broke as the girl used his name and not his nickname, but he ignored that and began getting less patient with the girl. If she wasn't mad at him than why was she yelling at him, it didn't make