Chasing Cities

Lost

~Third person POV~

The man saw it all happen.

He was on his way to a sports practice when he saw a tall girl with curly brown hair stomp angrily out of an alley. Suddenly, she was stopped in her tracks and grabbed by a large man, who proceeded to shove a cloth in her mouth when she screamed.

The witness gasped, silently following the man as he pulled the girl along. Just as the man shoved her into an abandoned building, he realized that he recognized the girl.

He tried to keep from panicking as he took a quick picture of the building where the other man brought his captive. Then he ran as fast as he could to the practice arena.

Patrice Bergeron ran through the doors of the arena, looking around frantically. As soon as he saw someone he knew, he dashed over to them.

"Brad!" Patrice exclaimed nervously, looking down at his friend and teammate. "We have to call Tuukka right now."

"Why?" Patrice asked. "Did you find Sinikka?"

Patrice nodded. "Yes, but she's in trouble. Brad, I saw somebody abduct her on the way here. I know where the building is. We should go there and call Tuukka to tell him what happened on the way there."

"Oh my God!" Brad yelled. "Let's go quick. I'll tell Coach that we're leaving."

"Go ahead," Patrice declared, and Brad rushed off. A minute later, he returned, and the two of them walked out the door.

Patrice quickly clicked on Tuukka's contact in his phone and called the number.

"Hello?" The goalie answered. He sounded quite nervous and high-strung.

"Tuukka, this is important," Patrice huffed. "You need to come to Tampa right now."

"Why?" The Finn questioned. "What happened?"

"Something terrible," Patrice informed him. "Tuukka, I saw Sinikka walking while I was on my way to practice. Someone grabbed her, and I saw—"

"WHAT?" Tuukka shrieked loudly, interrupting Patrice's rambling.

"I'm pretty sure I know where she is," Patrice declared. "I took a picture of the—"

"Are you saying that my daughter has been kidnapped?" Tuukka interrupted again. His voice was shaking, and Patrice could tell that he was starting to panic.

"Yes," Patrice stated firmly. "But, Tuukka, listen. I am pretty sure I know where she is. Brad and I are on our way back to the place where I saw her and her abductor go. You need to get to Tampa, and fast. I want you to be there when we find her."

"I never should have argued with her," Tuukka gasped, and at this point Patrice could tell that the goaltender had started to cry. "She's like me—she has a fiery temper. I knew she would do something like run off and ignore me if I angered her, and I still did it. Patrice, I might never see my daughter again, and it's all my fault..."

"Relax" Patrice told his friend. "Relax. We will make sure that you see her again. And it is not your fault that she was taken. Just come to Tampa and everything will be fine."

"I'll be there right away," Tuukka promised, then ended the call.

"I hope he goes to the right part of Tampa," Patrice told Brad, then nudged him. "Look, Brad. This is the place."

The two had stopped in front of a tattered building that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in several years. It was the same building in Patrice's photo.

They suddenly heard a loud curse in a voice they recognized from a few feet away.

"Sounds like Tuukka has arrived," Brad said, and Patrice ran over to the alley to check. Sure enough, the thin goalie followed him out. Tuukka looked even paler than he usually did, and he also looked like he was about to lose his lunch all over Patrice.

"Where is she?" Tuukka demanded, and Brad backed away.

"She's probably in here," the shorter man signaled to the building. "This is the last place I saw her. But we have to be careful, because whoever has her in a shady place like this is probably dangerous and doing something illegal. Who knows what they'll do to us if they catch us trying to get her out of there?"

"I don't care," Tuukka shoved Brad out of the way as he ran towards the door. "It can't be any worse than whatever those horrible people are doing to my daughter. Come on!"

The two other Bruins reluctantly followed their friend as he pulled at the heavy doors, managing to push one of them open with his shoulder. It crashed behind him, which startled him and his teammates.

"Shit, this place has a thousand rooms," Patrice observed. "It probably used to be a hospital or a school or something. Come on, she has to be in here somewhere. Let's look for her."

The group of Bruins walked into the first room they saw, and they all realized that it did used to be a hospital of some sort. There were two hospital beds in the room, and there was an empty medicine cabinet above one of them.

There was no sign of Sinikka, though, so the group looked in the next room. They started to lose hope of finding her after searching room after room without seeing anyone.

Finally, when they had almost reached the end of the hallway, Patrice looked into a room and nearly screamed. He threw a hand over his mouth just in time to stifle the sound, but Brad and Tuukka heard it anyway.

"She's in here!" Patrice pointed at a slouched figure in the corner of the room. "Look!"

The two other Bruins recognized the teenage girl in the corner as Sinikka Rask. Tuukka immediately ran over to her.

"Someone tied her up," Tuukka pointed at the ropes that bound Sinikka to the leg of a chair. "Some evil person thought about this and decided that it was right to tie my daughter up. And she doesn't seem to be awake. Sinikka? Sinikka, wake up! Wake up!"

"Don't shake her," Patrice gently pulled Tuukka's hands away. "You might hurt her. Let me make sure she's breathing."

Patrice checked the girl's pulse and then confirmed that she was indeed breathing.

"Then she's just knocked out," Brad noted. "Well, that's a relief. It will be easier to get her out of here without making too much noise."

"It's good that she's a lightweight," Tuukka commented as Patrice worked on untying the ropes that surrounded Sinikka. "I can carry her for miles without getting tired."

Patrice got the last of the knots undone, and the three Bruins tried to exit the room along with Sinikka.

Suddenly, they were stopped in their tracks by a man blocking the doorway.

"That girl is mine now," the man declared. "And you aren't leaving this room until you accept that."