The first thing Ana feels when she starts to come to consciousness is pain.

Ana is familiar with pain.

She's been in labor before.

And there's no comparison to being in labor, but goddamn.

This hurts.

A lot.

The pain is mainly coming from her legs but her chest is burning as well and her head is throbbing.

Ana groans a little in pain, willing her eyes to open.

Finally her eyes lids obey, but she can't see anything.

Ana panics only for a second, before pushing herself off of the wooden floor she's laying on so she's sitting up.

Her legs scream in pain when she tries to put any pressure on them so Ana quickly puts all of her weight on the wall behind her, leaning heavily on it and using her arms to keep her in an upright sitting position.

Ana tries opening her eyes again, expecting it to take a few seconds for her eyes to become acclimated to the dark room, but to no avail.

Her immediate thought is she's becoming hysterical in this situation.

So she shuts her eyes again.

After a few minutes, during which she smells distant burning but also wet wood, she opens her eyes again.

But this time, she counts.

One.

Two.

Three.

Blackness.

Four.

Five.

Six.

[Timeskip]

Forty Nine.

Fifty.

Fifty One.

Blackness.

Fifty Two.

Fifty Three.

Fifty Four.

Blackness.

[Time Skip]

Ninety Eight.

Ninety Nine.

One Hundred.

Blackness.

"breathe, breathe" Ana whispers, her temporary blindness causing her mind to panic.

"okay, okay, okay" Ana exhales, shakily.

She shuts her eyes again, a doomed attempt to make it seem like she can see and her eyes are simply closed and she therefore can't.

Ana feels around for anything. Without the ability to see or move her legs she's basically trapped in place.

"Fire is the most primitive human technology" A chilling voice says.

Ana looks around to try and pin point the voice but it feels like it's coming from everywhere.

"And yet it can still cause the most dangerous of chemical reactions" The chilling voice continues.

Ana stays quiet, remembering how Jessica Russo once said to let the kidnapper speak their whole piece before trying to reason with them.

"For example, if I simply light a match..." Ana hears the small noise of a match being rubbed and alighting.

"And apply it to your skin..." Ana flinches when suddenly the burning match is pressed onto her skin.

Her arm is now screaming in pain, but she can't move away from the pain.

"I can tell Tim Bradford" A single letter is spelled onto her arm and Ana whimpers in pain.

There's the noise of the match being alit again before it's pressed onto her skin again.

"I can tell Lucy Chen" A second letter is burned onto her arm before the match is alit again.

"I can tell Angela Lopez"

"I can tell Oscar Hutchinson"

"I can tell Wesley Evers"

"I can tell Tamara Colins"

"I can tell Elijah Stone"

"Your body will be a scroll in which my message will be engraved" The voice decides, finishing the message on her skin.

"I can't imagine how you're feeling right now" Ana starts but the voice ignores her and starts to roughly wrap her arm in fire proof wrap.

Ana whines in pain, trying to wriggle out of his grip but she can't move her legs and she can't see anything so it's very easy to pull her back.

"shut it, blind bitch" The voice says, slapping her across the face.

[Time Skip]

"Moose?" Tim asks, seeing Ana's dog come running up to him.

Tim dropped one of Elijah Stone's henchmen he was interrogating when the dog comes running over.

Moose barks at him.

"Where is she?" Lucy questions.

"how the hell would he know?" Tim asks Lucy.

"Moose and her cats were at the house when she was home but they disappeared into thin air when we got there" Lucy reasons.

Moose, meanwhile, bites down on Tim's pant leg, trying to pull him.

"damn it" Tim curses, wrestling his pant leg out of Moose's mouth. "take us to her"

Moose barks again, this time in excitement, and sprints off.

[Time Skip]

"kerosene, such a useful tool" The man hums as he dumps gallons of kerosene around whatever structure Ana is trapped in.

He has her gagged after she kept trying to reason with him.

"fire in of itself is gorgeous but kerosene plus fire, it's magnificent" The man says.

Ana has been scared before, but this fear is different.

She was scared for Lucy.

She was scared for the baby she was carrying.

But now?

She's not scared for anyone else.

Death is looking her right in the face and she's never been so sure that she's going to die.

There's the sound of a match being lit before it's dropped onto the floor. The kerosene makes the fire spread very quickly.

The man laughs before leaving the dilapidated wooden house he has her trapped in.

Ana tries to wiggle but her legs scream in pain when she tries to move them and she's stuck. She can't see, can't talk, can't move. She's trapped in a burning house.

She manages to spit out the gag, finally, but her ability to speak does little for her in this situation.

"I'm sorry" Ana whispers, starting to cry.

The fire is inching closer to her and she can feel the heat of the blaze and starts to cough on the smoke.

"I'm really sorry" Ana apologizes.

She's apologizing to Tim for not being able to wait long enough for them to be an official couple.

She's apologizing to Lucy for being her second friend to die in such a short frame of time.

She's apologizing to Harper for not having an aide anymore.

She's apologizing to Angela for only being her adopted daughter for a few months.

She's apologizing to Aaron for not being there to support him when everyone is judging him.

She's apologizing to her grandparents for being their last family member to die.

She's apologizing to everyone she's ever met and she's apologizing to herself.

"I'm sorry I wasn't enough" Ana cries.

[Time Skip]

"here" Elijah says, getting out of the car that was following Moose.

Elijah wasn't lying when he promised to protect Ana and he has begrudgingly partnered with the police to do so.

"gas masks" Bailey calls, throwing Tim a gas mask before he charges into the burning house.

Moose is barking, trying to enter the burning house but Grey holds him back while the rest of the team enters the burning house.

Harper is the one to hear Ana's coughing and it's Nolan who breaks down the door into the basement where Ana is being held.

"Tim! We got her!" Nolan calls while Harper enters the basement, ignoring the fire that starts to catch onto her clothing.

"Nugget" Harper exhales, shakily, when she reaches Ana.

"Harper?" Ana calls, crying and scared.

"yeah, I'm right here, let's get you out of here" Harper says.

Aaron rushes over to them.

"pick her up, she can't walk" Harper instructs and Aaron obeys in an instant, picking Ana up.

The stairs to the basement collapse but Tim and Lucy reach down.

Harper and Aaron lift Ana up first and Lucy takes her and rushes her out to an ambulance while Tim helps Harper and Aaron up.

"we're taking her to Shaw" The paramedic tells Lucy, quickly taking Ana from Lucy and placing her on a stretcher and into an ambulance.

Lucy can't say anything before the ambulance drives away.

"where are they taking her?" Tim asks, patting out the fire on his clothes.

"Shaw" Lucy whispers, starting to cry.

"let's get going then" Elijah decides.

[To Be Continued...]