"If you hang up you'll never see your family again."
"The police are already on the case. I don't have to participate in these stupid games to get what I want. I'm not getting involved in whatever you have to offer."
A dark chuckle made my...
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I lunged at my father, but the man holding me did not budge. With an outcry of frustration, I unsheathed my knife from my belt and stuck it into my captor's stomach.
He fell to the ground, and I lunged for my father. A pair of arms wrapped around my torso and lifted me off the floor. My knife sliced my palm as it slipped from my grasp.
"Jacklynn, stop this." My father demanded as he wrestled the blade out of my hand. With no weapons, I threw my head back and heard a satisfying crunch followed by a scream. I saw stars but refused to pass out.
Once I was released, I threw a punch at my father's face. He caught my hand, almost looking bored, as he turned me around and lowered me to the ground.
"I do not want to hurt you, but I will do it if need be."
"Let me go!" I demanded.
"Stop fighting me."
I looked over to see that Henry and Mike as disarmed as well.
I stopped fighting when I realized it was over.
We were not getting out of here any time soon.
Where was our backup?
"Since I am nothing but a good host, you three will be taken upstairs and made ready for dinner," Peter announced.
Henry, Mike, and I exchanged the same look.
"Dinner? What was this? A joke?"
To Peter, probably.
"Stooges, take these three upstairs to be prepared for dinner. These day clothes won't do."
One of the three men seized my arms and shoved me upstairs. Henry and Mike each had a man pushing them upstairs as well. We fought and kicked and screamed the entire time. But these men were made of stone. No matter how much we scraped, they remained steadfast in their assignment.
The man pushed me into a room that held four women and a guard tasked with getting me ready for dinner.
They looked scared and did not say a word.
The guard stripped me down to my underwear, losing his ability to breathe adequately in the process. He took my clothes and what little weapons I had left before the women began to get me ready.
I tried to run, but the guard was hot on my tail. He kept throwing me back into the room.
The women were timid as they wiped the visible streaks of dirt off my body and mended my wounds. They were just as scared as I was.
