“Babe?’
There was no noise. No delicious smells from the kitchen. Her coat was hanging from her hallway peg.
She was home.
But why wasn't she answering?
I reached into my purse and pulled out my hidden pocket knife and flipped it from its protective covering.
Did something happen?
“Beth?”
Plastic rustled just around the corner. I gripped my knife tighter.
“Bre?”
My body relaxed when I heard her voice. I lowered my knife as I turned the corner and asked:
“Baby, why didn't you answer the first time?”
“Bre, don't.”
There wasn't enough time before there was a rough rope trapping my throat. I felt arms across my back as the rope grew tighter. My eyes scanned the area for anything I could get my hands on to free myself.
There was nothing.
My hands reached to grip the rope, inevitably scratching my throat in the process, leaving angry cuts down the skin.
My eyes scanned the living room desperately before my gaze rested on one of the kitchen chairs in the middle of the room. There was the same rough rope wrapped around her waist. Her arms were dragged back behind her and, inevitably, her wrists were tied.
I couldn't help but search what I could for any sign that they'd hurt her. My eyes scanned up from her socked feet, the dress falling to just above her knees: her legs were crossed, which I was thankful for. They couldn't get to her that way.
My nails digging at my throat further, willing the rope to give way as my eyes followed her slim waist up over her stomach. This morning, she picked a business casual dress under her trenchcoat. She looks stunning in everything she wears, but today was especially different.
We had plans to use the fireplace and watch Christmas movies on a blanket. Whether events took a... sexier approach was to be determined, but being tangled with her was enough.
What led us here?
The fire was behind her, casting an eerie glow. I felt the man lead me to the couch and push me down. While I was examining Beth, the man tied my hands with the same rope wrapped around my throat. Every time I pulled at the rope around my wrist, the grip around my throat pulled tighter.
I tried to gulp, but it only hurt more.
“She's here, now what do you want from us?”
I turned to look at Beth, just barely noticing her shoulder length hair was messed up: rather than the sleeked back ponytail with extensions or the braid that fell down her shoulder with the smallest tail possible, her natural brown locks resembled my hair after pulling myself out of a depressive state.
They hurt her.
I struggled against the rope around my wrists, gasping as a new wave of pressure ran through my bloodstream, reminding me that I couldn't move.
I couldn't move.
I couldn't save her.
Tears started to form and my heart began to beat harder and clench at the same time. It hurt.
All of it hurt.
I watched the man standing in front of us, his arms settling into his chest.
“Now we wait.”
“For what?!” She yelled. “You kidnapped me before i even got to work, refused to let me tell my wife what was going on, and then told me that I had to lure her in when she's got better reflexes and senses?!”
My gaze fluttered to her, watching her as she pulled against the single rope at her wrists. The rope resting against her wrists was tinted red.
She was bleeding.
They made her bleed.
Again, I tried to pull at the rope, only for a whimper to uncontrollably slip between my lips.
Her head snapped over at me, making me instantly regret doing anything.
“Bre...”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “As heartwarming as this all is, we don't have much time.”
“Well, as long as you keep playing these games, they've got all the time in the world.”
My head snapped to Beth. I wanted to tell her not to antagonize him. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and demand that this man, whomever he is, leave. We had nothing of value. We didn't have extra money in a savings account in a different state.
We didn't make that much to be comfortable.
Fuck, we haven’t even obtained proper passports for any vacations. We've only got passport cards, which is only valid in the states.
I was pulled back into my surroundings at the sound of skin hitting skin and a shriek. My eyes focused on the scene in front of me while the edges of my vision began going blurry.
Beth’s head was angled towards me, a drop of a deep red liquid spilling from a small cut on her temple.
“Hey!” I croaked out. “Don't hurt-”
“Oh, now you have a voice?!” The guy shouted as he moved closer to me. I tried to shift in my seat, only for the rope to pull at my throat again, constricting my vocal cords.
“Take... me...”
The guy’s face twisted, his raised brow swinging all the way to his receding hairline.
My breaths were coming out in pants as the rope dug into my throat.
“Leave... her...”
“Bre, you don't have to-”
“Take me.”
My voice came out stronger. More confident.
A gruff chuckle erupted out of the man in front of me.
“Well, look at what we've got here. We’ve got a warrior here, huh?” He looked over his shoulder as another man walked into our apartment and shut the door behind him. The first man stepped back as the second one turned the corner.
The second man had tattoos and was a few inches taller than me. The tattoos peeking out from his shirt sleeve taunted me.
In another life, he would have been my type.
Beth was my type in this life. And I will do anything to keep her safe.
Even if it meant sacrificing myself.
I struggled to push myself into a seated position on the couch, feeling a liquid trickle down from the rope around my throat.
“If it...” I choked out. I tried to clear my throat, but it only made the pain worse. “If you must pick...” I gulped. “Take me.”
“Bre, please.”
“No, Beth.” I took my eyes off the men and looked at my wife. I allowed my eyes to scan over her body from the different vantage point.
Looking between the new man in front of us and the woman I chose to spend the rest of my life with, it's obvious which was the better path. Beth loves me, and I know that. The men I kept around before her were all placeholders. If I was in this situation with them, Id let them die. I’d let them go with these men trying to harm us and I would never see them again. I would be okay with that.
But Beth. Elizabeth. My life partner.
I couldn't imagine her brown hair staying at the same length for the rest of eternity with skin as thin and white as a cotton sheet. I couldn't imagine her crying out every time these men did whatever they were going to do to her. I don't want to imagine her pinned down on a dirty old mattress with no sheets...
I shook my head, feeling the numbness swarm my throat. The feeling of the rope started to be my new normal.
I took my gaze off her and looked back at the two men in front of me.
“Take me.”
“Noble, really.” The tattoo guy studied me. He seemed to be asking me a silent question about why. That was none of his business.
“If you're sure that's what you want to do.”
The next thing I knew, i was being pulled from the living room by my wrist restraints as Elizabeth cried from down the hall.
I opened my mouth to comfort her, but i knew there was no escape.
I told them to take me.
I've got to accept my fate.
I was roughly thrown onto the bed, my head hitting the headboard, hard, as the room went dark.
