Finale

The Retreat

Chapter 12

Sara ran as fast as she could toward the tree line. Her heart was pumping and her lungs were burning as she sped across the lawn. The gunshots and bullets whizzed past her ear, fueling her fear and urging her onward. She glanced back and watched Gail fall as another gunshot rang out. She screamed in terror as monstrous forms seemed to rise out of the ground around her.

Sara sat up with a yell, covered in sweat and panting as if she had been running. It was only a dream. The same dream she'd been having the last couple of days since she was brought to this safe house. Gail was gone she reminded herself as she flopped back down onto the bed. Shortly after, Karine opened the door and poked her head in, a look of worry etched across her face.

"Another dream?" she asked, coming fully into the room.

"Yeah," Sara replied with a sigh as she tried to calm herself down.

Karine wasn't just an FBI agent. She learned that when she was first brought here. Karine did work for the FBI but she was a trained psychologist. She specialized in kidnapping and abuse victims. Sara supposed technically she was a kidnapping victim, but she didn't like to think of herself as a victim at all. Her time at The Retreat could hardly be called abusive in her mind. She volunteered after all, and Gail was always there to help her.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Karine asked, sitting down in the rocking chair tucked away in the corner.

"It's the same dream I've had since we got here," Sara mumbled, still feeling the terror of it all,

"It never changes. I'm running and being shot at. I turn and see Gail..." she trailed off.

That image kept running through her mind even though she didn't actually see Gail fall. It all felt so real. She sighed and sat up in bed.

"I suppose I should probably get up. No chance of me falling back asleep. What time is it anyway?" she asked.

"6:32 am," Karine said with a little smile,

"You go get cleaned up and dressed. I'll go get some coffee on."

After Sara started the shower she stopped and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She looked tired. Her eyes looked haunted. Small wonder after all those dreams. She let out a long slow breath and finished getting undressed before jumping in the shower. Sara spent a few extra minutes just feeling the hot water on her skin after she had washed. It felt good and relaxing. It helped wash away the memories of those dreams.

When she had dressed and gone downstairs, she found Karine sitting at the table with two mugs full of coffee in front of her. Sara smiled in thanks as she sat down.

She is such a sweetheart

she thought as she sipped her coffee.

"Well, we got some news today about the raid. They got Leah, apparently, she was found fucking some dude in her office when they arrived, William, I believe was his name. I guess he tried to fight when they took Leah. Most of the serving staff there surrendered without issue, but a few..." Karine paused and stared into her coffee.

She took a deep breath before continuing,

"Some of them took their lives rather than be arrested," she said, sadness filling her voice and Sara noticed a tear stream down her face.

"Duncan?" Sara asked, fearing the worst.

Karine only nodded sadly.

He was such a sweet old man

Sara thought, remembering when he was her guide.

She didn't know him particularly well, but still, it was another sore blow to her. She wiped her eyes and took a drink of her coffee.

Karine cleared her throat and went on with her report,

"Dr. French was never found. We believed he was in the house at the time, but with such an old house like that, there were probably a dozen or more escape routes and secret passages hidden all over the place. But we did find thirty-seven Contractors, most of whom have so far refused to talk, but there are a couple who are willing to testify in court." She said, sounding a little more optimistic.

Sara didn't really know any of the others. Just Carl and Susan. She thought she might have met William at some point, but couldn't picture his face. She wanted to ask about Carl and Susan, but thought better of it. It might be better for her to just cut ties completely and move on.

Sara sat quietly and sipped her coffee while Karine filled her in with the latest developments, not really paying too much attention. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Gail. One thing that Karine did say caught her ear though. The toxicology report had come back, and it looked like the drug they had been given would wear off naturally in a couple of weeks. There weren't any side effects expected either. They still didn't know much about it, but that at least was encouraging. Even with all the stress and everything going on, Sara found herself thinking of Karine on more than one occasion but wasn't entirely sure if it was all due to that drug or not.

The next couple of days were slow and boring. Sara still had that nightmare, but it wasn't affecting her as much. She spent most of her time either talking to Karine, and trying to work out how she was feeling about all of this, or watching TV. Sometimes that could be difficult, especially if there was any sort of sexual content. It didn't even need to be very graphic, but it would turn Sara on. There were several times she had to excuse herself and practically ran upstairs to masturbate. That damn drug was proving to be more of an irritation outside of The Retreat, and she couldn't wait for it to be all out of her system.

Finally, the day came when Karine announced the all-clear. They were certain that she hadn't been followed, and that no one was looking for her or the others. Sara could finally go home.

Karine drove Sara to the airport later that afternoon. They didn't speak much on the way, Sara was too excited to finally be going home and Karine looked happy, but seemed sad. Sara studied her as they drove. She was going to miss Karine she realized. That thought seemed to take away from her excitement a little.

When they arrived, Karine handed Sara her card.

"Call me if you ever need anything," she said, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"I will," Sara promised, then gave Karine a tight hug, and a quick kiss on the cheek.

Karine's face turned red as she blushed, and raised her hand to her cheek where Sara had kissed her.

She clearly wasn't expecting that.

"Thank you for everything. You've been such a sweetheart," Sara said, feeling tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

"I'll call you as soon as I get home," Sara promised and climbed out of the car.

She looked back and waved to Karine as she drove off. Her heart sank a little after she had gone, and loneliness started to creep in. She wiped the tears from her eyes, took a deep breath, and walked into the airport. She was going home.

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Sara had been back home for almost a month now, and everything was far from normal. She had defaulted on her rent, and her landlord had everything thrown away and a new tenant had moved in.

She had quite a bit in savings, so she wasn't broke. She moved into a motel for the time being, until she could find another apartment.

She decided to try to go back to work and see if she still had her job. When she walked into the building, Janet at the reception desk nearly fainted. Apparently, they all had thought that she was dead. They even had an office memorial service for her. She was able to sit down with the upper management and HR, and she told them what had happened, feeling embarrassed by it all.

From their side, they got worried when she didn't call or show up for work for a few days, so they called the police to do a welfare check. The police only found her car parked at a bar, and no trace of her anywhere else. They weren't hopeful anything would turn up. Missing person cases like this typically didn't end well.

"You are certainly welcome to have your job back," Grant, the CEO, said.

"But since you've been reported as dead, there is some red tape we need to sort through. We'll get HR working on it right away. In the meantime, is there anything we can do for you? Do you have a place to stay? Anything you need at all? I will personally see that you are well taken care of."

To Sara that reminded her too much of what Leah had told her, and she politely declined. She assured them that she was fine and had a place to stay. The hugs, well wishes, and welcome backs made Sara begin to feel normal again. It did feel good to be home again.

Sara sat on her bed watching TV in her little hotel room. She felt restless and bored, and more than a little horny. Those drugs must certainly have gone out of her system by now. She was half tempted to go out to a bar and try to pick someone up, but after what happened last time she wasn't going to be doing that again. Instead, she decided to check out that little sex shop down the street, and maybe grab a bottle of wine. If she couldn't go out, she could at least have some fun by herself.

A little bell jingled as Sara opened the door to the sex shop. It wasn't a very large place, but every inch of space had been used. Dildos of all shapes and sizes sat neatly on shelves along one wall. Vibrators sat along another wall. Racks of all sorts of lingerie, and sexy role-playing costumes sat near one end. Several display tables held bottles of lubes and oils of various sizes. Sara was no stranger to these types of shops, but she always felt a bit awkward being in them. She was greeted by the cashier, a short girl with dyed green hair and several nose rings.

Sara smiled politely and strolled around the shop. Nothing immediately caught her eye though. She wasn't sure if she wanted a dildo or a vibrator, and looked through the selection of each. She finally settled on a vibrator. A blue thing about 6 inches long, with a raised pattern coiled around its length. It also had a little flap thing on the tip that boasted of clitoral stimulation. She picked up some extra batteries, and a small bottle of lube as well. With the drugs gone, she wasn't she if she would be able to get wet enough. When she finally paid for her items, the cashier placed them in a plain brown paper bag and gave Sara a knowing wink.

"Have fun," The girl said, with a chuckle.

Sara just smiled and hurried out of there. She thought about stopping and getting some wine but didn't feel comfortable carrying around a sex toy, despite it being in a brown paper bag. Instead, she went straight back to her motel room.

Sara bounced up on the bed and began looking through the channels to find some porn to watch while she played with herself. It didn't take long. It seemed about half the channels were porn. She settled on an actual porn movie, Fallen she thought it was called, and stripped down when the opening credits began to play.

She wanted to enjoy this and take her time. She tried not to rub her pussy as she watched, but the scenes were almost too much. Before she was 30 minutes into it, she was already rubbing her clit. She pulled out her new vibrator and turned it on during one particularly hot scene. She watched as the main character slowly rode some guy's cock, and moaned as she slipped the vibrator inside her. It didn't take long for her to cum after that. She tried to match the speed at which the girls were getting fucked with her vibrator as she slid it in and out of her pussy. She watched the movie till the end, fucking herself with her new toy all the while. Multiple orgasms swept through her the entire time. The orgasms she gave herself certainly did feel amazing, but nothing like what she remembered from The Retreat. She figured the drugs were finally all out of her system now. She turned off the TV, rolled herself into her blankets, and soon fell fast asleep

_____________________________________________________________________________

Sara awoke the next morning feeling pleasantly worn out and a satisfying ache in her vagina. She probably went a little too hard last night, but she needed it. Things hadn't been exactly sunshine and rainbows since she got back home. Her car was still in police impound as part of an "ongoing investigation", it had been a couple of days, and she hadn't heard back from her job yet. Her bank account was still open and active though, which was good, but she had to get a new debit card and a new ID. She had bought a new cell phone the first day she got back. All of her worldly possessions had been tossed out by her landlord. She felt like a homeless reject, despite having plenty of money in the bank.

She decided it was time to find a new apartment. She didn't want to go back to the place she had been living before. Maybe something a little closer to downtown. She called for an Uber to take her to the library and stepped outside her room to wait. As she closed the door, she spotted a postcard lying on the ground. She picked it up and looked at the picture, it was from Hollywood. The postcard reminded her of Gail and the notes she found under her door, of course, she didn't know it at the time, but still images of Gail danced in her head. Curious to see who it was from, she turned it over:

Greetings from The Retreat

The words struck her and she felt like she had been hit by a truck. She felt terror and panic rising in her belly. She looked around frantically to see if could spot who left the postcard at her door. She fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone to call Karine. She had to tell her about this.

Sara never felt the bullet enter her skull and burst out of the back of her head. She never heard the gunshot, nor the bullet whizzing through the air. She didn't see the red blood splatter across the door, nor feel herself crumble to the ground.

Greetings from The Retreat

was the last thing that passed through her mind before darkness engulfed her forever.

The End