Ballerina with Blades

Chapter I

I have danced my whole life. Competitive Ice Dancing was my whole life. Until my world left me. She didn't show up for the most important part of my life long journey. I had even won a gold medal. The Olympics. I was the best there ever was. Broke and made new records, new tricks, performed the most dangerous moves with ease and familiarity.

I knew something was wrong. She never missed a show, because she knew I did it all for her too. Her dream was my dream too, her dream was taken from her. So...I did it for the both of us. When I couldn't find her in the stands, the crowd, the front row...I knew. Something had happened. Once I had the chance to check my phone, my heart stopped. Mom had been kidnapped.

I was running down the halls to get to my uber, still wearing my leotard she had made for me, the medal bouncing on my chest as I ran. My breathing was erratic, not from exhaustion but from fear. Fear gripping my heart like a vice and leaving me in tears. My ice skates making clinking sounds on the tiled floor. I will be in so much trouble for not only ruining the stadium's floor but also my skates.

I did not care about that right now. I needed to get home. To find out what happened or even how it happened. I made it to the car. The driver was stood next to it, smoking like nothing is amidst and all is well in the world but in reality my world was falling apart. My mother was missing and I had all but forgotten about my victory.

Once I am close enough to the driver I yell at him, "Stop smoking, we need to get to my house in a hurry." The man just nods while pulling the disgusting cigarette from his lips and putting it out with his boot. He clearly is in no hurry so I rap my knuckles on the window. "Hurry up!" He gives me an impassive look. It unnerves me to no end but the feeling is replaced by dread when I notice the man next to me.

He is tied up and his mouth taped. I can't tell if he is dead or unconscious, I am struggling to see through my tear filled eyes and the fear clouding my vision. He is bleeding from his nose and a few cuts over his face. He was beaten before he was put in the car. I read the shining name tag, Matthew. The real uber driver.

I look up and my eyes meet the stranger in front of me. Staring at me like I am a prize to him. "Your father is a selfish man. To let the infamous ice dancer, daughter of the Senator, be driven around with strangers. How thoughtless of him. And his poor unsuspecting wife." My eyes open wide in horror.

I scramble for the doorhandle but the man grabs a fistful of my ponytail and pulls me back with force that has my scalp hurting in seconds. I yelp, and I start to scream, but to no avail. No one can hear me, the car is sound proof. In my struggle I realise I am still wearing my skates. I use my flexibility to my advantage.

I lift my left foot, bend my knee to my head and lift my foot over my head with great force, cutting the man in the face, slicing through his right eye. He lets out a gutteral scream which leaves my stomach in knots and nauseated, feeling the bile rise up in my throat as the blood drips onto me rapidly.

I try for the door once more, but a searing hot pain shoots up my side and further into my back. The pain intensifies when I try to move away from it. It has me breathless and sweating. The man's face comes closer to mine and he whispers into my ear. "Change of plan. Looks like only one will be making it out alive."

His words spark a new sense of dread in me. I move my right hand down to my side and feel his hand on the hilt of a dagger. Blood rushing out of me and onto the leather seat. I look down and see the pool of my blood on the seat, joining that of the blood from Matthew. I now know that he too is dead and I will soon join him.

The man lets go of the dagger. He grabs hold of me and moves me around like a ragdoll. Placing my back to the seat. My bottom and thighs are covered in my blood and my breath is coming out labored. He turns to the front and starts the car. Leaving me to struggle with staying alive, he turns the radio on, listening to the news report. News of me and my mother's abduction had traveled quickly in the last hour.