Clara kept her eyes and ears open as she climbed the staircase up to the balcony. The most logical thing for her and Marshall to have done would have been to lock themselves in the room and call the police. The only problem with that is she'd realised that you could only get a single in the ballroom unless you had the password for the wifi, which she didn't. Her plan was to get up to the balcony and hope that she could get a signal and call the emergency number she had been given because they'd give her better advice than any normal policeman.

Clsra had made it halfway up the staircase when she heard footsteps coming back down the other way. Thinking fast Clara spotted a small alcove carved into the side of where she stood. Without a second thought, she squeezed herself into the gap. Instinctively she reached down to rest her right hand on the gun she had strapped to her thigh. As the footsteps got closer she became aware that it was two sets and they were talking to each other along with a distinctive crackle of a walkie-talkie told her they were with Samantha and Travis.

''So you're saying you had Eminem and some woman tied up in one of the rooms and now their not there,'' one voice spoke up, the deeper one out of the two spoke into the walkie-talkie. Unfortunately, the sound from the device was too quiet for Clara to hear so she had no idea what the response was.

''Are you sure it was Eminem I mean it could have just been a lookalike or something. As for the woman maybe she was just some random chick,'' the other person spoke, his voice was much higher in pitch, giving Clara a sense that he was much younger than his partner. Again the walkie-talkie crackled and even though they were now right next to Clara's hiding place, she still couldn't work out who was speaking or what was being said.

''We'll check everywhere don't worry. Although I wouldn't put it past them to have snuck out I mean if I'd taken one look at the ballroom as it is now I would have run as far as possible,'' the older of the two joked letting out a little laugh. Clara rolled her eyes as she watched both figures blindly walk straight past her and down the rest of the staircase.

Letting out a breath she'd held throughout the ordeal Clara peeled her away from the alcove and strained her ears for their voices. When she could no longer hear the mumbles coming from their conversation she continued her way up the rest of the staircase. She prayed as she climbed higher that Marshall would be ok and when the time came to hide he did.

°°°

Marshall lay on the bed staring up at the wooden top of the fourposter bed he was resting on. He had taken out his phone and tried to ring the police, but he couldn't get through. He'd cursed out and flung it across the room, it now lay in bits a the bottom of the bathroom door. He couldn't understand the point in having an emergency call function when it didn't even work.

He lay outstretched wondering what in the world Clara was doing. The more he came up with theories the more he realised how stupid he was being. The worst idea he'd come up with was that she was some sort of secret agent, he'd even laughed out loud when he'd come up with that one. His train of thought was stopped, however, when he heard voices coming from the other side of the door. Without thinking he got up and placed his ear to the door trying to figure out if they were going to help him or possibly kill him.

''What a story it would make though, Eminem runs away at the first sign of trouble. I mean he'd be branded a coward if we got him in the back of the head running from a fight,'' Marshall came to a swift conclusion that they were not going to help him whoever they were.

It was at that moment he realised he needed to find a place to hide. Although before he started to think he quickly picked up the remnants of his broken phone off of the floor and shoved it inside one of the many chests of draws located in the room. After he'd done that he didn't even have enough time to take another breath as he saw the handle of the door being turned from the outside. The door was locked he knew that, but he also knew that whoever was outside might have a spare key or something. So thinking as fast as he could he found the best hiding place he could.

Marshall lay flat on his front, his head as low down as he could get it. He tensed up as he heard the footsteps trample across the carpeted room. He held his breath as he heard two sets of people roam around the room, everytime he felt them close to him he tensed up even more. After a few minutes of silence, he finally heard one of them speak.

''Damn it I'd hoped they be hidden behind the shower curtain or even in their together,'' Marshall bit his lip stopping himself from cursing the man who had spoken and the other one that laughed at the lame joke.

''Come on nobody is in er, let's check the bathrooms or something,'' as soon as the men left and Marshall heard the door lock behind them, he breathed out a sigh of relief and sat up from his position glad he could finally breathe freely again.

Now all he had to do was work out how he was going to get down from the very top of the bed without making a racket or breaking his neck.

°°°

''Come on give me a signal,'' Clara whispered as she pushed open the door that led to the balcony and cautiously peeked around it. With the coast clear she slid out from behind the door and crouched down so she was concealed as best she could be behind the large concrete pillars that ran along the entirety of the balcony.

As she waited for her phone to try and connect and get a signal, she glanced through the gaps in the pillars to look down at the ballroom below. Her hand came straight up to her mouth as she tried not to scream down at the scene occurring under her. Samantha and Travis had created a hostage situation, which looked as if it was going to turn into some sort of sacrifice.

The laptop was sat in front of them and as people gave them their names they were moved into groups. It didn't take long for Clara to work out that the one containing Curtis was the one that needed to be worrying more than the other one. There weren't just two groups, which Clara had thought at first sight, but she realised there was in fact three and that the third was made up of one person, Rose. Clara put money on it being that like her Rose wasn't found on the system for some reason.

Her focus was drawn away from the scene below when her phone buzzed in her hands. It was some scam email from a bank she wasn't even with, but it told her that she had a signal. So taking the opportunity she'd been given, Clara called the emergency number that Miranda had given her.

''We have a huge hostage situation here, Curtis is in real trouble so is Rose. If Marshall has some sense he should be alright because I kinda locked him in a room, but what I really wanna know is that can you please call the police and can I take a shot these pricks?'' Clara rattled off, she had no idea how much time she had left before the scene below her turned into some sort of massacre.

''Whoa I'll get the police over to your location and explain what's happing, but who's in charge down there Clara?'' Miranda's voice was calming and it helped Clara to settle her nerves before she replied.

''Samantha Torez and Travis Clayton,'' there was silence on the other end, apart from the frantic tapping on a keyboard.

''If you really wanna take a shot and wound them before the police get there you can. The main word in that sentence being wound, Clara.''

''I got it don't worry. It's only a handgun I can't get any decent long distance aim with it anyway,'' Clara spat back as she pulled the gun from her thigh and knelt with it so it was just peaking above the balcony. First she aimed at Samantha and let the trigger go before then quickly pointing it in the place she hoped Travis would run to where Samantha would hopefully fall.

The moment the shots went off there were screams and people started to scatter. Thankfully seconds later the police arrived and as everyone else was preoccupied with trying to figure out where the shots had come from and realising they hadn't been the target, Clara snuck off running back down the stairs hoping Marshall was still where she'd left him.