Chapter 40

"What are you doing? Who are you? What do you want?" Karma has been asking the same question for the past three hours that they've been driving and not once did the abductor turn around to tell her anything. Right now, after having run away from most of the cars that were on their tail, they ended up somewhere, completely deserted, and unknown to Karma.

Karma looks at the back of the abductor, "Oh my God! I've been kidnapped!"

"Way to state the obvious." The person finally speaks up.

"Kidnapper, you won't receive a single dollar. You hear me! Not one penny."

The kidnapper finally takes off her cap and silky blond threads fall on shoulders and face mask reveal the abductor's identity. She turns around and grins widely at Karma who was too surprised to find her words.

"Hi!" she derisively grins then turns her attention back to the empty road.

Karma's eyes pop out in shock, "It's you!"

Amy turns around again and nods, "Yes, It's me."

"Oh. Crazy lady. You've gone too far this time. I should have known." Karma says, flabbergasted.

Amy turns about and laughs like a mad scientist at Karma.

"Stop!" Karma yells.

Amy turns around, "No."

"Stop the car!"

"No."

"Stop it you crazy! Don't you see that I am supposed to be married today?" Karma scowls.

"If you were marrying today, you wouldn't be in this car. That's for damn sure." Amy glances at Karma in the rearview mirror.

"You freaking moron! Stop the car! Go back!" Karma screams.

"No." She says.

"Go the fuck back!"

"Shut up and let me drive in peace!" Amy spat. She lifts her gaze up in the mirror again quickly, "Stop being an ingrate and appreciate my effort trying to save you from making the biggest mistake of your life."

"I'm an ingrate?"

"Yes you are. You should be grateful."

"What should I be grateful for? That you fucking took me away from Prince Charming?" just turned frog…Karma thinks.

"Prince Charming? Are you sure about that?" Amy scoffs.

"Crazy."

"If I am crazy, then you're straight up insane for wanting to marry Liam." Amy looks back then shifts her attention back to the road.

"That's my problem."

"Then my problem is to kidnap you." Amy grins in the mirror.

"Go back to the mansion!"

"Fuck no!"

"Go back!"

Amy ignores her and continues to drive the car in the middle of nowhere.

"Where the fuck are you taking me?"

Amy takes a glimpse back, "What do I know." She says.

"Great!" Karma drops back in the passenger seat.

She continues driving until she stops the car in front of a small abandoned chapel. They were in the middle of an empty street, like a deserted area with just sand and dried up trees and burning sun. Amy parks the car near the Chapel and gets out, opening Karma's passenger seat. Karma looks around but stays in the car. Amy gestures for her to come out but she stays in.

"Where are we?" Karma asks.

Amy looks around the deserted place, "I don't know. Somewhere in Texas."

"Let's get in and drive me back home!"

"I don't want to."

"You don't want to?" Karma makes a face.

Amy shrugs, "I don't want to."

"Find. Then give me the key."

"Do you even know where to go?"

"I'll keep on driving until I get on familiar territory."

"I'm not giving you the key."

"Give me the key!"

"No." Amy says.

"Give me the key Amy!"

"You want the key? Ok…" Amy walks away from the car and falsely throws the small key far away somewhere within the deserted sands. "Go get your key!"

Karma runs out of the car towards the place Amy had apparently just thrown off the key. It would be damn difficult to distinguish and find something so small in this vast empty land, "Amy! What is wrong with you?"

Amy grabs Karma's waist and pulls Karma to her, "I tell you that you are not getting married; you are not getting married. As of now Karma Ashcroft, you've been kidnapped." She smiles.

Karma groans and pushes Amy away, scurrying towards the odd-shaped Chapel that Amy parked in front of. The facts that this Chapel is even there is odd because, there's nothing else around or at least, not close. Amy calls out after her but she ignores her and takes long strides and enters the empty Chapel and sits in one of the benches in front.

She was pissed off.

"Karma, I need to talk to you." Amy's voice echoes in the emptiness of the room.

Karma ignores her.

Amy sighs, "are you going to give me the cold shoulder?"

She stays silent.

"Alright. Fine…but you'll listen to me." Amy takes a sit next to her on the bench, "I hope you understand why I had to steal you away Karma. The reason why I had to kidnap you is because I am…" she tilts her head and looks at Karma next to her, "…I am completely and madly in love with you. And I know that you are in love with me too. I couldn't let you marry Liam. You would have damned us both to a life of misery Karma, if I had let you. I had to kidnap you my love. Without you in my life, Karma, I'd die of love. Say that you believe me baby…" she turns to face Karma who doesn't seem to react. "Say something Karma…Say that you believe me." Amy asks.

Karma gets up from her seat and Amy immediately takes after her, "Stop! Where are you going?" Amy holds her from behind but Karma breaks away from her.

"Karma, what's going on?" Amy sulks.

Karma turns to face Amy with teary eyes.

"Baby, you're crying. Why?" Amy reaches to touch her face but she pushes Amy's hands away.

Karma pushes her off, hitting her chest. Amy fumbles back. Karma does it again repeatedly while sobbing and Amy lets her do so while trying to keep her heart from breaking anymore than it already did right now. Karma keeps hitting her chest and she lets her; she understands. She's been cruel and she won't be able to ever forgive herself.

Karma was crying loud now, "I hate you! I hate all of you! You keep breaking my heart and I don't want to go through it again. I hate you. I fucking hate you! I deserve better," she cries out as she beats further on Amy's chest, pushing her off, "I deserve happiness Amy. All of you keep using me. I deserve better. I do."

Amy tries to stop her hitting but she couldn't and ended up breaking down in front of Karma instead.

As Amy kneels in front of Karma and embraces her waist while burying her head by the side of her hip. She holds Karma tight and loudly cries her own pleas, her tears drenching the fabric of Karmas wedding dress, "I know that you do. I know. Don't you think I know that? And it scares me. It scares me to know that I am what's worst for you but…" Amy sobs loudly, "… you are what's best for me Karma. I am too sure about you being what's best for me. I need you alright. I need you. And I wouldn't have been able to live knowing that you would be sleeping next to someone else at night and not next to me – where you should be. I couldn't let you marry Prince Charming. I just couldn't."

Karma doesn't say anything and just listen to Amy's cries, "I am sorry Karma. I am sorry. I am sorry for everything that I put you through. You have no idea how sorry I am. I know the damage is irreparable because what's done is done and there's no need to explain. All you need to know is that everything happened because of my own cowardice. I know you deserve better Karma. And I know I don't deserve you. I don't. Because, I've never done anything right and when I do try, something happens. Right has never been a word in my vocabulary; I told you that. And it is because I am selfish that I am offering myself to you and expect you to take me because that's all I have to give along with my selfish heart." She sobs even more, "I know, not the best of gifts because you can do better. But please, take me and stay with me. I'll do my best to love you for the rest of my life."

Karma's tears double with every words that Amy told her, "How do I know that you are being truthful?"

"Because I am saying all of this to you with my bleeding heart in hand…" Amy sobs, "I love you."

"I can't do this Amy…" Karma was about to push Amy away but Amy tightens her grip.

"Yes you can and you will. I know I have been horrible to you and I'll never forgive myself. But I know that I love you. And I'll keep on loving you until I do it right."

"You will hurt me."

Amy nods, "I know. I can't guarantee that I won't. Life is surprising that way Karma because no love is perfect. And because we're humans. You will hurt me too."

"We will suffer."

"I know and I am ready to suffer with you."

"Love doesn't always last Amy."

"For me it will, and I am hoping it will last for you too. Because if I am doing my best to love you right and true until my last breath, then I want you to do just the same."

Karma holds her head in her hands, crying even more, "You're crazy."

"Baby, only you make me this insane." Amy lifts her red, teary eyes and look up at Karma. She releases her then wipes the tears away, "So, what do you say?" Amy gets up on her feet and takes out the red box out of her scrubs pocket and takes out the moon ring which she offers Karma, "Be mine again."

Karma's eyes water even more as she looks away. "I need to think." She then leaves Amy standing at the altar as she walks away, exiting the Chapel.

A few hours later, Amy appears from behind Karma and gapes at her back. Her raven hair waving through the seamless trains of the silent breeze as the sun settles down in the empty deserted horizon. She places her hands in her pockets and advances towards from the back, "Karma…"

Karma turns around and then faces the deserted area again.

"Karma…" Amy calls again, "Karma…" Amy then strides in front of her so that she could face Karma, "Karma…are you still not talking to me?"

"Don't talk to me!" Karma faces away from Amy.

"Come on Karma…"

Karma turns on her heels and starts heading back towards the Chapel. Amy intercepts her and grabs her arms, "Karma, stop!"

Karma pulls her arm away, as she holds the skirt of her dress so that her steps do not get in the way, "Don't touch me! I'm not talking to you." then she walks back in leaving a distraught Amy.

Amy looks at her sauntering back inside, "You will talk to me baby. You will talk to me." She strode along after her.

Karma scurries inside the Chapel ignoring Amy's calls after her. She really did not want to talk to her right now. She needs to think a bit more. Amy hurts her too much. After choosing Reagan over her, and writing her that letter letting her go to Liam; breaking up with her like it was nothing and saying that it's over. And now, kidnapping her and telling her that she's in love with her? What does Amy expect her to do? She can't just come running back like that. She just can't. She's scared. Amy has too much power over her and she's just too weak to face Amy even if she wants to. Her will always welter too quickly. She finds the confessing booth next to the altar and gets in there and closes it. Amy tries to open it but she locks it.

"Come on Karma…you know that I am telling the truth." Amy pleads as she stands on the other side of the confessing booth.

"I can't do it Amy." Karma says.

"You can't do what?"

"Be with you. Every time that I am with you; I get hurt."

Amy closes her eyes, "I know baby and I am sorry. Forgive me."

Karma sits down inside the booth and listens to Amy's voice. "Karma, I'll never get tired of calling your name. Of all the things I've worded out of my mouth, this is by far the sweetest. Your name is the sweetest word that ever left my mouth. And each time that I say I love you; I say it with so much devotion that it consumes me wholly. That's the truest feeling that I've ever felt Karma. I feel it so much that I want to die of it." Amy brings her hand up and touches the door that Karma stood behind and closes her eyes, "I…love…you Karma Ashcroft."

Karma starts crying again. Why the fuck do I keep on crying? She thinks to herself as she wipes her eyes of the tears.

"Baby answer me…"Amy pleads, "Talk to me…"

Karma says nothing.

"If you don't talk then I'll talk until the night falls." Amy breathes.

Karma sighs, "Amy listen…"

"You're talking to me."

"Only because it'll get you to shut up…" Karma drawls, "Amy…I want to tell you that I am scared. I am because I don't know what to expect with you. I never know. And then there's your mother and Reagan…"

"Reagan is not my girl."

"…and then you chose her over me…"

"I was stupid."

"You sent me a letter in Germany."

"That was my fiend of a mother. I had written that letter a while back and I did plan on sending it to you. I gave it to Nick but when I changed my mind and try to recuperate the letter, he told me that he had already forwarded it. I didn't know that my mother had it and sent it to you while you were in Germany. I swear I had plans to clear up any misunderstanding with you after I got back from China but the accident happened and the whole thing with my memory…" Amy explains.

Karma didn't know about any accident, "What accident are you talking about?"

"On our way to a meeting at the headquarters, my mom almost fell off the stairs and would have tripped if I hadn't grabbed her and pull her back up. But I ended up losing balance and I fell off fifty steps of the stairs, hitting my head several times. My memory got jacked up in a way where it fabricated an alternate factionary tale where I switched the people involved in my memory. I got you confused with Reagan." Amy explicates, "I am sorry I broke up with you that day."

That day, Karma thought that she would die. "Oh. Amy, I didn't know."

"I know."

"Amy, things haven't been easy for me. When we first started faking, I didn't expect liking you or even falling in love with you. I try to look away and ignoring the pain of seeing you with those girls but I always failed sealing my tears for you. And then there was your mother and then Reagan again. Things just got complicated." Karma says while Amy walks around the booth and finds a curtain at the side. She stood there as Karma speaks facing the door and not noticing the curtain.

"But do you want to know if I love you?" Karma asks as she leans her forehead against the door and breathes out, feeling her heart's broken pieces tearing up in their own little pieces, "Of course I love you my love. I love you…"

Amy slides the curtains aside as Karma jumps, not comprehending how Amy got there. Amy steps inside the booth and pulls Karma to her, "I love you too." Then she crushes Karma's lips on hers and caressed her true. She splits her mouth open, not requesting but demanding Karma to let her though, and Karma does. They kiss passionately and truly adoring each other with each twists of the tongue and competing to prove to each other who loved who more in between the chasteness and honesty of the kiss. The kiss was pure and true and passionate that it just felt wrong to even want to put an end to it. They had missed each other's lips for so long. They were not ready to let go – ever.

As the sun settles to leave place to the moon, Karma was within Amy's arms as they sat on top of the back of the car parked in the desert in the middle of nowhere in front of an abandoned Chapel. Karma leans back against Amy's chest and tilts her back so that their lips can touch and interweave within each other, connecting just right the missing pieces. The night was still and silent as the moon resided above their heads, blessing them both of the amazing night and feeling. Amy runs her fingers within the strands of Karma's crimson hair. Karma detaches her lips from Amy's and clashes their foreheads together.

"You want to know something…" Karma breathes on her Amy's lips, "I don't want to go back."

Amy stays silent for a minute then answers, "Then let's not go back. Let's not go back."

Karma lifts up her head and looks at Amy who had the most serious facial expression on her face, "Really?"

Amy nods, "Yes, let's not go back." She keeps her fingers lost within her hair, "I love you."

"What did you say?" Karma asks.

"That I love you." Amy repeats.

Karma looks at the moon reflected within Amy's eyes, "Can you say that again? I don't think I heard you right."

Amy laughs, "Are you serious?"

"Say it again slowly…" Karma bites her lips.

"I…love…you…Karma." Amy says. "I love you…way more than I ever thought possible my love." Amy gapes at Karma's lighten tone skin, the fainting light of the moon protruding from within her skin. "You're beautiful."

"I love you." Karma whispers then leans her head to grasp Amy's lips within her own and kisses her passionately. Then she breaks away, "Are you serious about not going back?"

"Yes I am baby." Amy says.

"You wouldn't mind leaving your life behind for me?"

Amy shakes her head, "I'm willing to leave anything for you. And all I am asking of you is for you to love me." Amy admits, "Karma, if we go back then it'll all get eve more difficult 'cause mom won't rest. But, I'll protect you. And if she keeps on pestering me, I'll leave my world and leap into yours. No hesitation. I'll do anything you ask me to do."

"Is it really possible?" Karma asks.

Amy simply nods, "Just say, 'Amy, I don't want to go back,' and I swear we'll keep moving forward without looking back."

"Without seeing anyone ever again?"

"Without seeing anyone ever again." Amy kisses her once more and then releases her to kiss her neck, "why do you not want to see anyone?"

"I just don't want to go back and mess up that happiness. I don't want something bad to happen again and separate us." Karma says.

"Then say it."

"Say what?"

"Say 'Amy, I don't want to go back.'" Amy gazes with her eyes.

"But we have nothing."

"We have love and that is always something."

"I'm in a wedding dress and you are in scrubs…what will people say?" Karma says.

"They'll just take you for a runaway bride."

"I did not run away; you kidnap me."

"One of the wisest choice that I've ever taken in my life."

Karma seems doubtful. Her parents. She doesn't want to leave her parents. "I don't know. I don't want to leave my parents behind."

Amy seems sad but she understood. She's ready to fulfill her girl's wishes no matter what the decision, "I understand. But, whatever you decide, I'll be fine with it."

"We can still runaway…for a while."

Amy's face lightens up, "OK, how long do you want us to disappear? Ten days?"

Karma shakes her head, "nope."

"Twenty?"

"Nope."

Amy squints her eyes, "Forty?"

"Nope. Think big Amy Raudenfeld."

"Alright, ninety days."

"A hundred."

"A hundred days…" Amy ponders, "I'm fine with a hundred."

Karma squeals, "Alright, we'll run away for a hundred days and then come back."

"Karma Ashcroft, I'm honored to run away with you for a hundred days."

"So am I Amy Raudenfeld." She grins, "But where are we going to go?"

Amy hums the she shrugs, "I don't know. Where do you want go?"

"I don't know." Karma shrugs.

"Fine, we'll just drive and buy us some few necessities along the way." Amy kisses Karma, "We'll do sightseeing of places that we've never been before."

Then they hear a phone ringing. Karma frowns, "A phone? You have a phone on you?"

Amy shakes her head, "Nope. I don't remember bringing one."

Karma looks at the car, "Maybe it is coming from the car." Karma gets off Amy and jumps down from the car and walks around. Amy follows her and opens the door with the key.

"I thought you threw away the key." Karma says.

Amy grins, "Psych!" She opens the door and finds the telephone of the car ringing. She picks up, "Hello?"

"Can we even get reception around here?" Karma says in the background.

"Amy? Karma? Who is speaking?" Lauren speaks up at the end of the line.

Amy frowns, "Lauren? It's me Amy."

"Oh good! Girl, our mom is onto you. She has sent her men in search for you. I just had to let you know."

"How did you reach me on that phone?"

"Long story. We had to beat it out of Liam."

"Who's we?"

"Me and Shane and Reagan." Lauren admits, "That's not important right now. I had to let you know about mom. She's posted flyers about how you look like right now so that people can recognize you. And Karma can't go unnoticed. I'm sure she is still wearing her wedding dress."

"Thanks Lauren."

"Don't forget. No matter what you need. Call and let me know and I'll help."

"I won't forget." Amy hangs up. She gets out of the car and faces Karma, "So, we're running away. Feeling like playing hide and seek with my mother for a hundred days?"

"Why?" Karma frowns.

"She's onto us. She's got people after me."

"So, we're going to be on the run?"

Amy nods.

"Oh. Fuck it. What the hell!" Karma grabs the key from Amy's hand, "Get in the car! I'll drive."

Amy laughs, "You are the right girl for me Ashcroft."