38,392 Words... Things are Progressing

Hey everyone, my writing has been progressing, as I said previously, I have a lot to fit in in the last week of writing but it hasn't been particularly fun or interesting. A lot of it is dark and kind of sad, or kind of boring. I haven't had any fun little excerpts, though I expect I will have some more in the future as there will be some surprising collaborations as the story nears its conclusion. Here is an excerpt showing I guess how emotionally invested Alice is in both Jake and her dog, Queenie. I'm trying to make someone, anyone care that something terrible is happening to them.

Queenie once again whined deep in the back of her throat, a low sound in the dark car. All of a sudden Alice was struck by a memory so vivid it took her very breath away.
She remembered the moment she had realized that she was in love with Jake. It had been at the office, and she had been hard at work at her cubicle, lost in the story she was pursing, its twists and turns having pulled her far away from the real world for a time. What pulled her back was the sound of laughter. She had looked over and had seen Jake at the office coffee maker, which as in many office spaces had become the unofficial gathering spot. Around Jake were three or four other reporters, Alice didn’t even notice who they were. Jake, as he always did, had them in thrall. He was recounting a story, she couldn’t hear the words and she didn’t know what he was saying, but she could hear the soft rise and fall of his voice, and she could see the way people listened to him. He just had a way about him that drew people in.
It was because she had been so far away that she was struck in that moment, her normal defenses lowered. Luckily for Alice, she couldn’t see what she looked like as she watched Jake, because she truly looked gormless, with her head tilted to the side, and a look of such love on her face; it was as wide open as she had ever been in life. At that moment Jake caught sight of her, and in that way he had, though he was across the room and talking to a group of people, he made her feel like she was the only person in the room that mattered. He smiled at her, a secret smile just for her. In that moment, Alice realized that she loved him. Giving in to that feeling was just about the easiest thing she had ever done in a life full of complications, but the force of the feeling and its implications overwhelmed her. It was such a bittersweet feeling, of happiness and love, heavily tinged with sadness and loss, for she knew she would have to leave one day. She knew that it could not last.
“Oh, Lord, what have I got myself into this time,” Alice had wondered aloud, and was surprised to find herself close to tears.
As the memory faded, Alice was struck by such a longing for Jake that it was almost physically painful. She saw that Queenie had rested her head on Jake’s t-shirt, and for the first time, Alice felt a rush of guilt for the life she had imposed on this beautiful, loving dog.
“There’s no going back, Queenie,” Alice said, her voice raw with emotion. “We can’t go back to Jake, not now.” Queenie looked at her, her eyes still sad. “But I promise you, that if we get out of this, that we will go back, and we will find him.” She realized as she said the words that she meant them. She realized how little she had ever thought beyond the moment, beyond the now, to consider what it was that she wanted. She was always driven by the impulse within her to go, to move, to keep running. She had not realized until that moment how much she had become a slave to it, how much she had sacrificed to her personal demons.
She continued to speak to her dog, who had been her only companion, and who in this moment was her only friend in the world. “But right now, we need to get out of this car, and we need to walk into that house and meet whatever is there. I need you to do this with me, Queenie, because I’m afraid and I don’t think I can do this alone. Will you come with me this one last time?” Queenie looked back at her with mild reproach as if to say ‘of course I will follow you. How could you even ask me that?” Alice knew in that moment that Queenie would follow her to the very gates of Hell and beyond, if she asked her to. Alice fervently hoped that that was not where she was leading her now.