Hostage (a One Direction story)

Chapter Nineteen

Jae's P.O.V.

Would you look at that, ladies and gentlemen, just when you think she can't screw up her own life any more, she goes ahead and does it! She just kissed another member of the international boy band One Direction, and then she ran away! Could her life get any worse?

The sarcastic voice in the back of my head isn't helping. Mud splashes across my clothes as I cut through a flower bed. I sprint down the empty sidewalk, mildly thankful that the rain has driven everyone sane to stay inside. The muscles in my legs burn, but I revel in the pain. Something to distract me, I think grimly, wincing as a cramp forms in my side.

Finally, my breath is coming in enormous gasps and I can't run any longer. I slow to a walk, taking a minute to look at my surroundings. I'm in an industrial-looking area. A huge brick building dominates the left side of the road, on to my right is a series of dinky little shops. I stop, twisting around. The same landscape stretches behind me for a good mile.

Shit. Now look what you've done! I scold myself. You're lost. Well and truly lost.

I groan and drop my head into my hands. Can this day get any worse?!

"Well would you look at this," sneers a voice nearby, and my heart stops.

Dear life,

That wasn't a challenge.

Shaking with the cold that I can suddenly feel, I turn to face the speaker. Dressed in black jeans and a grey sweatshirt, topped with a black beanie and shades...Nate.

"What do you want, Nate?" I spit, pleased that my voice isn't betraying the terror I feel.

"'What do you want, Nate?'" he imitates in a girly, high-pitched voice, chuckling. "I want what I've wanted since that day in Balitmore. I want you."

FUCK. MEGA-FUCK. "I...You won't get away with this," I stammer, backing away slowly. "I've got...I've got friends now, and they'll come looking for me! They'll find you and you'll go to jail!" I threaten weakly.

Nate laughs, taking a step forward and making me scramble backwards frantically. "Oh, I know. You're best buddies with 1D, aren't you, love?" he says it like a disease. "All the more reason for them to pay a fortune for you. But of course," he adds, taking another step towards me. "Marc isn't around nowadays...Nobody to stop me from getting my way with you before I kill those little gits and get their cash."

Have you ever been afraid? Seen a spider on your arm, or maybe almost fallen down the stairs, or gone on a rollercoaster when you're afraid of heights? I'm sure you have. I used to think I knew what fear was. Until now.

Fear isn't a breathless feeling, where you're scared for a second before everything is okay. Fear is a heart-pounding, gasping for air, crushing feeling in your heart. The sensation that someone just poured icewater into your veins, or stabbed you with a thousand blunt needles. You, sitting at home, can't imagine it. But me, standing in the pouring rain while someone threatens me and my friends, I'm experiencing it to the max.

And I'm having trouble coping.

"You...y-you can't! You won't! I won't...they can't - I - I - please!" I blubber fearfully as he approaches.

Nate only laughs cruelly as I back away. My back hits a brick wall and I gasp, my hands flying to my mouth. He has a knife in his hand now, a dagger the length of his forearm with a sickly sharp blade. Fear is everywhere, now. Coursing through my blood like ice, beating at a hundred miles an hour with my heart, swirling through my panicked brain, pulsing in my temples, everywhere.

He takes another step forward, the knife held out, and I scream. A long, loud, bloodcurdling screech that echoes, keening, from building to building.

"Fuck," curses Nate, and lunges at me.

I scream again, louder, and dodge to the side. "HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!! HE'S TRYING TO KI-" a hand closes across my throat, cutting my cry short.

I choke as Nate drags me, flailing wildly, closer to him. He bends down, putting his lips next to my ear.

"One more scream," he whispers menacingly, "And I'll cut off a finger." He waggles the knife before my face.

Eyes wide, I nod. Suddenly, something in my head clicks, and my panic dissolves. An eerie sense of calm washes over me and my vision and hearing jump into focus. I can almost count the tiny raindrops falling in front of me. Nate is pulling me somewhere, his hand still around my throat. Just one more step and he'll be in the perfect place, I think.

Almost in slow-motion, Nate takes a step forward. My foot swings up, kicking him in the balls as hard as I can.

"Motherfucker--" Nate hisses, and his grip around my neck slacks just enough for me to punch his arm away from me, twist out of his hold and run for it.

My feet pound against the pavement, sending little splatters of water up around me. I won't be able to run for long, I realize. My muscles are still sore from my earlier sprint, and the cramp in my side is resurfacing.

Déja vú. A grim smile flits across my lips as I hear Nate chase after me, my mind returning to when I had originally escaped from his clutches. I veer right, sprinting down an alleyway, hoping for a doorway or something that I can dart into.

Nope. Nothing. Smooth, brick walls on both sides, close enough for me to reach out and touch. And -

FUCK. A dead end.

I skid to a stop, backing into a corner, my wary eyes on Nate as he swaggers towards me, smirking.

"Look's like I've cornered the hissing kitten," he teases, twirling the knife.

I flinch away, but there is nowhere to go. My frightened blue eyes slowly look up to meet his triumphant brown ones.

I'm trapped.