Mess With Them, You Mess With Us (Chenford, Wopez ,Marper)

Part 1 - The Abductions

TW - abduction

It was a usual Thursday evening in LA, the bustling sounds of cars whizzing down the freeway, music playing from some of the bars as they started to liven up for the evening, and a comforting summer night's breeze. Everyone was making their way home from their respective workplaces and nothing was particularly out of the ordinary. That soon proved to be entirely wrong.

~

Lucy stepped out of the showers in the locker room, dried herself off, and got dressed. She put on a flowy orange satin maxi skirt, paired with a short sleeved white crop top (it was only ever so slightly cropped, she wasn't that adventurous), her long brunette curls tucked behind her ears, cascading down her back and some black platform sandals paired with a black bag and some gold jewellery. She had been trying to change up her style a bit since the breakup with the help of her fashion guru, Tamara. Hey, every girl needs some reinvention every once in a while, and this was temporarily making her feel better. She smiled at herself in the mirror, satisfied with her after-work look, snapped a quick mirror selfie which she sent to Tamara, and headed out. She wasn't actually planning on going anywhere, but she wanted to look nice anyway, just to please herself. She hopped in the drivers seat of her navy blue SUV and headed to the grocery store. Her and Celina had just about emptied the apartment of anything edible, so if she wanted to eat tonight, she would have to stop first. She parked her car in the parking lot behind the nearest grocery store to her apartment, and headed in. As she turned the corner to head into the store, three men wearing black masks appeared, as if out of thin air, whipped a bag over her head and shoved her into a car that was already prepared to drive next to them. One of them grabbed her bag which had her phone in, turned the phone off so GPS couldn't be used, and threw it back in the bag. The men had already disabled all the security cameras from the parking lot, by spraying them with spray paint, as soon as they saw Lucy pull in; this was a targeted attack. She felt herself start to panic, as she had been through this before, but quickly realised she needed to keep calm, to prevent further harm. Her cop-brain powered back up, and she repeated the last few things she remembered to herself in her head, any details of cars around her, the men's rough height etc, in case she might need them later. Lucy took a deep breath and mentally prepared as best she could for what might come next.

~

Nearby, Wesley was still hard at work at the DA's office. Chris Sanford appeared in his doorway, leaning up against the frame, with an expectant look on his face. "Are you leaving any time soon, Wes? I'm sure your wife will give you a beating if you aren't home soon, it's almost 9 already."

"Crap, good point" Wesley replied, glancing down at his shiny silver watch. "I'll put this away now and head home, and you're exactly right about my wife, so you'll know I'm buried under a patio somewhere if I don't show up for work tomorrow, night Chris" he chuckled. Oh, the irony. Chris smiled, then made his way out. Wesley had let time run away with him, again, and was much later than he meant to be. He shot Angela a quick text telling her he was leaving work and would see her soon, quickly stuffed the case files into his desk drawer, locked it, and headed out. He was jogging down the steps and around the corner to where his silver Mercedes was parked, looking down at his phone to see if his wife had texted back and not paying much attention to his surroundings, when someone grabbed him and he met the same fate as Lucy: bag over the head, and thrown into the back of a car which immediately started speeding off. His phone flew out of his hand at the impact, and was left lying in the middle of the road just outside the office. His first thought was that it had to be Elijah, the awful criminal who had it out for him and his family. He started to panic about Angela, had he taken her first? Was she already dead? Was he going to die? These thoughts plagued him and made his head spin, however he tried to keep himself calm, using some meditation techniques Lucy had taught him a while back, after he was stabbed. Wesley took a deep breath and thought to himself, WWAD: What Would Angela Do.

~

James was just finishing up his evening at the community centre, Nyla was on daycare pickup duty that day, so he didn't have to worry about running too late. Silas, the young autistic boy who took it upon himself to note down everything that needed doing in the neighbourhood, had given James his daily list of things to sort, and he was looking it over by himself after Silas had left to go home on his bike. Potholes, a broken street light, swings in the park getting rusty, nothing out of the ordinary for this neighbourhood, but he resolved to get them sorted anyway, as the whole point of him running this community centre was to try and improve this otherwise rough part of town. He then turned his attention to the events list he had made for the upcoming month; a smile crept across his face as he realised he was making a real difference to this neighbourhood, but he couldn't have done it without his contacts, wife and friends from the LAPD. He looked around, full of gratitude, and decided to conclude his night and go home to Nyla and Leah, his beautiful daughter. He usually left through the back entrance, as the area around the front entrance could be dangerous at times, especially at night. He headed to the front door to secure and lock it, when there was a knock. A puzzled expression formed on his face, as no one rarely approached the community centre at night, but he opened it anyway, as it could be a child needing help. That was when a fist swiftly hit his face, and blackened his vision. However, he did not feel his body hit the floor; he was instead carried into a vehicle which sped away. He opened his eyes and was met with complete darkness still; the assailants had placed a bag over his head, and he could no longer move his hands either, as they appeared to be zip-tied together. Dread filled his heart as he came to terms with what was happening to him. No one would be able to locate him, as all his belongings, including his phone, were still on the table in the community centre, and there were no security cameras near the front of the building. His eye throbbed in its socket; the punch had caused significant injury, and he could already feel it starting to swell shut. He did his best to keep his cool and anticipate where he might be going, or who would possibly want to harm him.

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