Katie Bug: New Prey

Not According to Plan

Katie felt movement in the dark. She noticed a smell, like heavy rubber and cold weather. Then she noticed how cold it was, goosebumps covered her body and she shook as a small icy breeze hit her skin. It shook her from the daze. She tried to cover her arms but found her hands were taped crudely together. With that she noticed her feet as well as her mouth had been taped. Blinking in the darkness her eyes started to adjust, metal and carpet? Katie turned and smacked her cheek into something solid. A tire? She was in a trunk, her trunk. Why am I in the trunk? Where is Xander? Her mind raced trying to figure this out. Xander kidnapped her? Was he the killer? No he had alibies, solid ones.

She didn't know how long they had been driving but it seemed like they drove for miles. When the car finally stopped she listened hard. The engine shut off and she heard the door open and close. Then footsteps on gravel coming straight for the trunk. When the trunk popped open she looked at him with confusion. Even though it was dark she could see Xander smiling down at her. "Hey there." He said smiling again. As he reached down to grab her, she shifted away from him in the trunk. Xander let out a deep irritated sigh as he roughly grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. "Would have been so much easier if you had just drank the damn beer Kate." He said slamming the trunk shut.

Katie tried to look around at her surroundings. She had no idea where she was. Dark trees and silhouettes of hills is all she could see in the distance. He was carrying her toward an old looking steel styled building. She started to thrash around, she didn't even care if he dropped her on the graveled ground. His grip tightened as he slapped her ass with the other hand. "Stop that!" He chastised her like a child. Knowing it was futile Katie did what any rational victim would do in this circumstance, she started to scream. The tape muffled most of it, causing Xander to chuckle. As he walked into the darkened building Xander whispered, "Hey Kate, I got a surprise for you."

He passed through several doorways before she could see yellow light pouring into the hallway. They entered the room and he flopped her hard onto a metal table, and leaned into her face. "I know you don't like surprises, but I think you'll like this one." He backed away from her letting her eyes fall in front of her. His blue eyes peered back at her, her heart raced up a little before starting to pound. It was Carter, he was alive, and in front of her. But he wasn't taped up like her, he wasn't even tied up. He was sitting in a chair, with his elbows on his knees and hands folded together studying her. "Hey." He said with a dry smile. "Carter." She said muffled through the tape. That was all he understood because she continued to try and talk but it was garbled.

He stood and walked towards her with his hand out. "Shh. Stop, I can't understand a damn thing you're saying. I'm guessing it's something like, 'what am I doing here?' or 'where have you been?' or even 'what's going on?'" He leaned down over her, bring his face inches from hers. "You couldn't even wait for me to be officially missing? Come on Katie, have some class!" He said accusingly, with a hint of disgust. It hit, realization hit her like a freight train. Carter smiled and turned to Xander, "Don't you love it when they figure it out?" He sounded so excited. Again Katie started speaking muffled. Victim brain was kicking in.

Carter smiled as he slowly pulled the heavy black tape from her mouth. It was painful as it pulled skin, hair and her lips. "What was that baby?" He asked. "My phone, it's in the room. It's going to ping me in the room that was booked by Xander." She blurted out, she had learned so much that fateful summer with Riley. Xander smiled as he walked over pulling her phone from his pocket. He tapped the screen. "It's going to ping you within a certain mileage, maybe. You're phones been really quiet huh?" He flipped the phone around putting it in front of her, he swiped his thumb up and the information scrolled. Every contact besides his was blocked. "It's amazing the features on one's cell phone. And I have to say all it took was those few minutes that you took to run Nixon her phone." Xander said with a cocky smile. "What the fuck?" She demanded. It made sense now, there was no way her dad would let her go a single day without some kind of communication.