One Half of a Whole

Chapter 8: Stuck

Kamara

"Well, well, well, looks like the little princess is awake."

That voice sends shivers up my spine. I study the people as they walk down the stairs. The man in the middle looks about 19 with short wavy brown hair slicked back. He is dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a plain white t-shirt that fits tightly on his body. The girl on the right has long black hair braided over her shoulder. She wears a tight red crop top with black leggings. Her boots click as she walks down the stairs. She also is chewing gum loudly. Finally, there is the other guy following the girl. He wears a grin on his face and a leather jacket. Just from this first glance, I can tell who is in charge.

I glare at them as they approach. I have to get out of here. But I don't know where here is. I bet they have already put a ransom message out. How much are they asking for? My family would pay but what will they do with me once they pay? Will they kill me?

Oh my gosh, I could die.

"Anything you want to say darlin'." Says the man in the leather jacket. I stay silent and just look at them.

"Damn Z. How much did you give her?" The girl says with a pop from her gum.

"I swear I didn't give her that much." Z, the man in the leather jacket, retorts.

"Shut up." Says the man in the white tee. He steps a few steps closer to me and leans over the bed I am in. I stare up at him. I see the movement out of my peripheral vision too late.

Slap!

Pain stings the side of my face as he hits me. My hand moves up to the side of my face to protect me from another blow. My eyes start to water. I don't want to cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.

"Speak when we talk to you." The man says. My breathing gets heavier. I feel my heart rate start to increase as my fear escalates. I have to get this under control. I don't have my PAC. I need it to live.

"Hit her again, Lee. Maybe then she will listen." Z says.

"No," I respond softly.

"Louder," Lee says.

"No," I repeat. I lift my head to look at him.

"There we go," Lee says.

"What do you want with me?"

"We want what's in your head." I stare at them blankly, as if I don't know what they are talking about. But they know. They know about my work with my brother. They know about everything. If I act dumb enough maybe they will believe me.

"What?" I ask, trying to sound confused.

"Haha. Good one. Nice try sweet pea but you can't fool us." The girl says with another pop of her gum.

"C." Lee retorts in a controlling tone. He looks back down at me before he begins. "Listen here, we can do this two ways. The easy way or the hard way. Whatever way you decide we will get the information you know about Xenia. Tomorrow you better be ready to talk. And if you aren't then you have chosen your fate. Until then you stay down here. You don't try to get out because you can't. You don't scream and yell for help because no one will hear you but for us. You will do what we say, you are not 'princess' anymore, you are never getting out of here." With that, he turns on his heel and walks away. Z follows suit and C waves at me with a cute smile on her face before heading to the wooden stairs. The door closes with a slam and I hear the lock click.

"Ooooh, nice tough-guy attitude." I hear from the door. C. As the only girl I have seen that must have come from her.

"Shut up. I just want to scare her. We need the knowledge she has. Or else this plan won't work." That came from Lee.

"Yah know, we could just kill her." Z.

"Do you know how much trouble we will be in? They have been planning this for years. We can't screw this up. Contact the boss we got her." Lee says. Their voices grow quieter until I can no longer hear them. Questions run through my brain. Who are "they"? Who is the boss? Are they Xenian? Where am I?

I force myself to take a deep breath. Panicking will get you nowhere, I remind myself. I need to get out of here. I need to contact the castle and tell them where I am. Until I can do that, I need to figure out what the hell they are going to do with me.

I push myself to stand up off of the bed, ignoring the pain in my side. This pain means nothing if I die, which is why I need to find a way out of here. I first bend over to look under the bed for anything I can use as a weapon. Getting out of here will be hard if I don't have something to fight with. Unfortunately, unless I can fight with dried-up dirt specs it looks like that idea is out the window. I limp around the room, clutching my side. I walk up the wooden steps and attempt to turn the handle, locked. I'm stuck here.