The Colonel's Daughter

Chapter 2 : Captive

The night fell into a profound silence, plunging her prison into total darkness; her eyes struggled to adjust but could see nothing. Iriana attempted to free herself to no avail.

A multitude of questions raced through her mind: who were these people? What did they intend to do to her? Would she ever see her family again? She lamented the fact that her last encounter with them had been under such sorrowful circumstances.

Just hours earlier, she had resisted seeing her father, but now she would have given anything for him to be there, to rescue her as the hero he had always been to her. She longed for the innocent, yet endearing questions of her little sister. She craved the comforting presence of her mother... And above all, him.

Her secret love—what was he doing now? Did he worry for her? Did he miss her as much as she missed him? Tears streamed down her cheeks, followed by soft whimpering.

Long hours passed in darkness until she heard the sound of a group of people entering the adjacent room. They were undoubtedly her captors. She braced herself for the worst, but the door remained closed, sparing her from immediate dread.

She could only hear the voices of three or four men conversing crudely and vulgarly. Then, a sudden silence, followed by the abrupt opening of the door. She saw the silhouette of a large, elderly man holding a plate.

"Dinner time, Your Highness," he sneered, lighting a lamp that cast a dim yellow light. Nausea washed over her as the stench of cheap alcohol and sweat filled the air.

The gag was removed from her mouth, and she took a deep breath before asking, trembling, "What do you want from me?"

"Open your mouth; we haven't got all day," he retorted gruffly.

Iriana glanced at the meal her captor held—it was rice soup.

"I don't want to eat," she said.

"Oh, come on," her captor replied, forcefully inserting the spoon into her mouth.

Disgusted, Iriana spat it out. Enraged, the man slapped her hard across the cheek, causing her to cry out in pain. He grabbed her by the hair, drawing close to her face.

"Looks like the princess is being difficult! You know what? I've always wanted to have a princess like you one day... And I think this is the perfect opportunity."

Iriana was suffocated by his foul breath as he forcibly kissed her. She felt utterly filthy, trapped in a nightmare; even her secret love had never kissed her—it was a pure love. In a desperate move, she bit his lip so hard that blood flowed.

He suddenly released her, delivering an even harder slap.

"I'll make you regret that, you filthy..."

"STOP!" exclaimed another voice behind the vile man.

Iriana, in tears and with her face still lowered from the slap, didn't dare to look up. She only heard the footsteps of another man entering the room.

"You're supposed to feed her, not beat her, idiot!" the other man scolded.

"She provoked me!" the vile man asserted.

"We'll record the video now, you imbecile. She shouldn't have a scratch on her. Tell Bary to prepare the camera and the injection now!"

Without a word, the vile man obeyed and left the room. Iriana was alone with the other man and she could see his shoes.
Brand-name shoes! Out of curiosity, she slowly lifted her head to scrutinize the well-dressed man standing before her.

She could hardly believe it—he wore stylish, high-quality clothes, exuding elegance and fitness. She hoped to see his face, but like the other man, he too wore a mask.

Then, the vile man returned with a small tray, accompanied by a young man who, judging by his silhouette, was likely the youngest of them all. He held a camera in his hands.

Iriana was already suffering psychologically, wondering what torture she was about to endure. Suddenly, a sound of chains echoed from the other side.

The younger man turned his head, asking the vile man if he had properly secured the dog. The repulsive man nodded.

Dog? Iriana wondered. She feared it more than anything.

The burly man pulled Iriana's long hair and instructed the younger man to film. Iriana noticed that the younger man and the burly man wore similar expensive clothes. They were both well-dressed. She would never have believed they were criminals in different circumstances.

"Go ahead! Film!" the burly man commanded.

"Got it."

He then took a syringe containing a substance from the small tray held by the vile man. And he began to speak in front of the camera, with Iriana as his subject.

"Hello, dear Colonel! As you can see, we have your beloved daughter. But don't worry, we will soon return her to you safe and sound. But only under three conditions:
The first is simple—you must never pursue us.
The second is to deliver to us a precise sum of fifty million.
And the third and final condition is that..."

He gently raised his hand holding the syringe and promptly injected it into Iriana's neck vein. The young girl cried out in pain. Then he continued.

"You have two days, 48 hours, to gather all this money. I just injected a drug into your daughter today, and I will do it again tomorrow and the day after. This drug will slowly kill her if you fail to raise the money by the third day. To recap, if you don't deliver the sum after two days have passed, your beloved daughter will die on the third day."

"It's in the box," said the youngest of them.

"Now all that's left is to send her to the dear Colonel. Well done, little brother!"

Iriana began to feel dizzy from the injection. The last thing she heard was "little brother," realizing then that the youngest, whose name had been mentioned before as Bary, and the burly man were indeed brothers. Then she heard and saw nothing more.

Iriana didn't know how many hours she had been unconscious. A strong nocturnal hunger woke her up. She slowly opened her eyes, to her surprise, the door of the room where she was remained open even though there was no one else with her, and the lamp was already off. Yet something about 60 cm in height stood at the door; she had trouble recognizing it before she began to hear growling.

Her eyes widened when she realized what it was: a German shepherd stood before her.

She let out a deafening scream, then the dog, as if enraged, lunged at her, knocking her off her chair. Begging cries for help escaped her mouth as the dog bit her on the right thigh.