Secrets (Pretty Little Liars fan fic!!!!)

Chapter 7__The Homecoming Hangover

My head throbbed as I rolled it to the side, tilting it up and barely opening my eyes. I saw the brightest light I had seen, closing my eyes in a second.

I tried to pulled my arm up so I could put my head in my hands, but all I felt against my wrists were ropes. I opened my eyes again, against the blinding light and ignoring it as I looked around. I couldn't even see anything besides the light.

Where was I? How - ? What - ?

I didn't even remember last night until I looked down at my dress.

Homecoming dress.

I had been there with Aria, Emily, Spencer and Hanna, Toby and Maya and Alex and Sean and Mona and her date there too. I remembered Toby being Emily's date, and Aria, Spencer and Hanna hadn't been too thrilled about that, but I was cool with it. I remembered being a little mad at Hanna and walking into the hall where some guy that said he had "played a round with my dad", which basically meant that he had been there to get to me to get to my dad because he owed him money.

When he tried to hurt me, Toby had knocked him out, and had heard the whole thing, and I had left him in the hall to go outside.

Where I remembered being taken from.

A?

I tried to yell out for help, but all the sound that game was a muffled moaning, and that brough my attention to the sticky, silver band keeping my lips together. Duct tape.

"Ah," someone said. "She's awake."

I groaned and leaned my head back, and someone else said, "'Bout time."

Both were guys. One's voice I recognized from last night in the hall, the one that Toby had knocked out.

It wasn't A then.

Dad's gambling problems had seriously gone through the roof if I was sitting there with duct tape over my mouth and ropes tying my hands behind my back and a chair.

"I close my eyes as someone stepped in front of the light, coming closer to me, but all I saw was a black figure that was coming closer. "Hey, there, Dakota. You hanging in there all right?"

"She can't see, dumb ass," the other said - the one from last night. I heard footsteps but couldn't see him walking to wherever the light was coming from, turning it off.

I closed my eyes again as I waited for my eyes to adjust, blinking a few times to help it get done quicker, but it didn't work.

"Hang in there, girlie," the second one, the one in front of me, said. "It's gonna be a long day for you."

I groaned out, leaning my head back against the chair head rest, trying to pull free from the ropes, but they were strong and very, very secure. I wasn't gonna get out anytime soon. One of them laughed, but I didn't pay attention to who, and when the guy in front of me's hand touched my cheek, I jerked my head away.

"Huh," the second one said. "Fiesty little thing, huh?"

"Too bad she doesn't have her little guardian with her now," the one from last night said. I looked up toward him, knowing who he meant. Toby. "That kid's got some serious issues." I rolled my eyes, rolling my head to the side as I tried to pull out again. "Forget it, kid." i glared at him when he called me that, but kept on pulling. "You're not gonna get out."

"And before you mumble something about wanting to know why you're here," the second one said, "I think you already know." I didn't do anything. "Your dad, sweetheart. He's a magnet for trouble, isn't he?"

I swallowed and the one that I had seen Toby knock out last night said, "Though, he doesn't know exactly where you are right yet, or even that you're missing. No one does."

I mumbled something against the duct tape that they couldn't hear, and the one in front of me leaned his head forward tauntingly. "What was that?" I mumbled again, and he lifted his hand to the corner of the tape, starting to peel it away.

Once it was off, I said, "I said, my mom and friends'll find out before he ever does."

"Oh, I don't think so," the one from last night told me, holding something black up. My phone. He tossed it to the guy in front of me, who caught it, and turned it to face me, flipping through the texts.

From Spencer:

Hey, where are you?!  Are you okay?! Have you heard about Emily?! Call me now!

To Spencer:

I'm fine. Chill. everything's okay. I can't talk now.

From Aria:

Okay, where the hell are you??????

To Aria:

Home. My dad has to talk to me.

From Hanna:

Seriously??????????? After what happened to Em, you can't just DISAPPEAR like this.

To Hanna:

Didn't disappear. my dad needs to talk to me.

From Emily:

Don't trust Toby anymore. And why aren't you answering anybody's calls?

To Emily:

I'm fine. Just relax.

From Mom:

Where are you?

To Mom:

At a friends. Love you. 

I groaned, leaning my head back. "Uh-huh," the one in front of me said. "We got everything covered. Until your dad tried to get contact of you. That's when . . . " he started to back away, mimicking an explosion with his hands " . .. poof . . . . we get what we came for."

"'Cept they're gonna know something's wrong," I said.

"And why's that?"

"'Cause you made a mistake - well, closer to five, actually."

"What?"

"Well, 1, I would've asked - no demanded - Spencer and Hanna about what happened to Emily, and, 2,  I would've demanded Emily about the Toby thing, whatever she's talking about, and 3, I don't text in complete sentences."

The way I had said it was so simple and so bad-ass that it would have made me laugh if I had seen anyone else do it.

"Doesn't matter. We'll still gonna get what we want."

"Let me guess," I said, leaning my head up again. "It's got something to do with money. It's always something with you dumb-asses."

"Your dad's just like us. Are you calling him a dumb-ass too?"

"I'll call my dad a dumb ass any day of the week," I said. "But he's nothing like you. He wouldn't kidnap your daughter to get to you."

"Maybe not," the one from last night said, and with each word he said, he was stepping closer to me. "But we definitely, as clearly, you can see, we would." He leaned in closer to my face, his arm pulling at my hair, tilting my head to the side, and I let out a breath in pain, and he whispered in my ear, "Now shut up before you make this worse than it already is."

He let go of my head and it hit the back of the chair and I groaned at the pain, both of the guys turning and leaving me in there alone.

I had no idea where I was, but it looked like an abandoned factory of some kind - one from the movies where even when the victims scream, no one could find them.

Great. I was either gonna die in here or . . . I was gonna die in here.

Because if they wanted money, they were out of luck.

Because my parents were flat broke.