There was always a calm before a storm. It was that moment when a person could look up at the sky and see the dark clouds moving in. That brief second that mother nature gives as a mercy to take cover, it just mattered if you were fast enough. Perhaps that’s where Shakespeare got the inspiration for the quote in Hamlet, “Something wicked this way comes,” and Caroline hoped that this tiny bit of calm wasn’t short lived, but as she kept learning, hope is a bitch.

Caroline had to go to her office, even with protests from Abel and the security team, Caroline was determined to go. With the official news of Abel’s residency with The Bank and the way that she’d just forced him to let her at least help with styling him for it, she needed to go to her now closing and moving office to gather some things. “Let security go for you.” he suggested, but she quickly shot them down explaining that she needed to gather fabric and she couldn’t trust anyone else to do it. There just wasn’t much time for error, her office had sold, so they were moving into her new building, and Caroline and Abel were relocating to New York for the month.

She promised to take one of the dogs, and she was off. It was Tank’s turn, so she gathered his leash and her bag, and she was off. She looked out of the window as her driver drove her, her mind wandered to the different pieces she wanted to create for her boyfriend, a happy distraction to the things that had been going on in her life. Caroline felt most herself when she was designing and she felt even more herself with Abel, so combining the two had made a little sunshine in the almost cloudy sky that had been her mind.

They arrived rather quickly, Caroline and Tank were escorted up through the elevator to the top floor where her personal office was, and the room that was lined with all the fabrics that Xoline had created. She liked being hands on in every single aspect of her clothes, from the fabric to the buttons to how smooth zippers could be, Caroline was involved. She spent the new few hours gathering everything that she thought that she’d need, and finished up. She didn’t really like this space anymore, it wasn’t a safe haven of clothes, it was just another place that had been tainted by her not so friendly neighborhood stalker.

“Come on, Tanky, let’s go, baby.” she said softly, piling all the things she needed into boxes from security to bring home. It was a perk to have such a large team of strong men watching out for her. She waited by the door for security to meet her. The door flew open and a member of the team walked in. “Um, hi. I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met.” she said softly, introducing herself and not thinking anything of the addition to her team. He explained that he just started and showed her the security badge that came from the company that Abel worked with, or she assumed.

He spoke quickly, like he was excited, or maybe nervous. That was something that she was used to, sometimes people just got nervous around her from seeing her on the internet, and it didn’t help that Abel quite often put the fear of god in everyone who was supposed to protect her. “Could you sign this for me? For my little sister? She’s a huge fan.” He asked and she of course agreed, he handed her a rather large book as they walked that forced her to hand Tank's leash over to the man who walked behind her for a second. She signed as she walked, “all my love, xo, caroline mccook.” as she walked into the elevator. Just as she closed the book, the elevator doors closed even quicker than Tank and the other security behind.

The elevator stopped immediately, it was stuck between two floors and the lights flickered. “Did you like my song, Caroline?” the man spoke, causing Caroline to back up. “....excuse me? What?” she said softly, hoping more than anything that she was wrong. But her gut feeling that she ignored earlier that day was spot on, because the smile on the man's face caused her to feel like this was the end for her. He wore sunglasses, large ones, that she hadn’t thought anything of when he met her in the office. She just assumed it was due to the way that they were about to be outside in the bright sun.

“What do you even want from me?” she questioned, scared, her voice shaking to show that. He moved quickly, his hand found her throat and her head hit the back of the wall on the elevator. She whimpered, his hand cutting off all the airflow, hard enough to leave bruises all across her neck. She couldn’t breathe at all, attempting to wiggle from the grasp but it made it worse. “Stop moving or I’ll have to use other things to keep you still.” He said and she relented, feeling dizzy like she might pass out from the lack of air. The elevator started moving, “F***, your team is getting better. But I'm still one step ahead, Caroline. Remember that.” he said, his lips brushing against her cheek causing her to cry even more than she already was.

“Soon, I’m not ready for you yet, but soon.” he said as the doors opened, the timing was terrible. Or he was smarter, she didn’t know, because the elevator stopped on the second to the last floor, where no one was waiting and he slipped right through before sending the scared and bruised Caroline who was laying on the floor of the elevator trying to catch her breath to the bottom where security and Tank was waiting.