FRIENDLY FIRE: A 9-1-1 fanfiction

Part Twenty-Six: 24 Hours

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EMMA

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"Emma?" A soft voice floated into my ear, my head feeling heavy as my consciousness slowly returned to me. "Please wake up." 

A moment later, I felt something kick my foot and I forced my eyes open, taking in the room I was in.

It was dark, all the windows boarded up with cardboard but there was a single, red lightbulb hanging over my head. There was a table and a chair posted beside a doorway but there was nothing on it. All around the room there were space heaters, large and small, all burning red and filling the room with an unbearable heat.

"Are you awake?"

I turned my head very slowly, trying to swallow to soothe my dry mouth as I finally realised I wasn't the only one in the room.

Riley was looking at me, her face scratched up and tired, her hands bound behind her back, "Hi. I'm really glad you're alive because this would really suck if I was alone."

I groaned in response, shutting my eyes and leaning my head back. I hit a metal pipe behind myself and I flinched away from the heat of it, jerking my body forwards, the sound of metal registering in our ears.

We both looked at the rope around my wrists, held back against the pipe with the help of a metal chain that had been looped between the rope.

"Where are we?" I managed to croak out, turning away from the bindings and back to Riley.

She offered me a weak smile but her eyes darted around the room fearfully and her voice cracked when she spoke, "It's a family reunion?"

"Family..." I trailed off, frowning at her, waiting for some kind of explanation.

I didn't need one though, because a few seconds later, I heard a door open down the hall, a stream of light entering the building before the door slammed shut again.

"He's crazy, Emma, I mean it," Riley rushed out nervously, struggling against her ropes, "he's a total fucking nut-job."

"Who is?" I choked out, straining against my own binds, the metal clanging loudly behind me.

"He—"

"That's no way to speak to the man of the house," a voice cut off Riley and the puffy, red face of Larry Mains appeared in the doorway.

"Man of the house?!" Riley shrieked, her voice defiant but she shuffled closer towards me, like she was hoping I could do what I had done before and protect her from her father. "Are you high?! The fuck is wrong with you, you psycho—"

"Hey, kid," I hissed under my breath, cutting off her rant, keeping my eyes fixed on Larry Mains, "maybe don't piss off the crazy man?"

"He can't do anything!" Riley snapped but anyone could have seen she wasn't sure about that now.

"He already has done something," I muttered, shuffling back slightly as he stepped into the room fully, the sweat patches under his arms visible and gross. He looked nothing like the psycho I expected him to be though that was probably what made him so great at his hobby.

"You don't know him like I do!" Riley yelled, "He can't do anything! He's useless! He—"

"I demand r—respect!" Larry barked out before coughing as his voice cracked, reaching his hand up to his throat. "I demand respect!"

Riley scoffed in disbelief, shaking her head, "You're meant to be like some serious scary dude or something but you can't even do that right."

It didn't take a genius to see that Larry was only in this room, speaking to us because he knew we couldn't fight back. It didn't take a genius to figure out he had kidnapped Riley to prove a point. I had to assume he took me because I'd gotten involved, getting in the way of his initial plan.