Hostage

Chapter 1

Nathaniel had just arrived at school on a random Thursday. He woke up this morning with the usual dread of having to wake up early and being forced to attend classes for hours on end, but there was also this different kind of sensation he was experiencing. He couldn't quite name this feeling, but it almost felt like there was some kind of danger looming.

While Nathaniel has always hated attending school, he didn't really have any reason to. He has always been quite popular. Whether he was popular because of the fact the he came from money or because his piercing blue eyes, wavy dark brown hair and athletic build made him a walking beauty ideal, he could never really tell.

Upon entering the school building, Nathaniel immediately took off his jacket which had his full name embroidered on the neck of it. 'Nathaniel Matthew Lockwood' it read. With a name like that it would be hard to be shocked by the fact that his family was old money. When people asked him how his family made their fortune, he never really knew what to answer. He knew that his family created an entire empire consisting of several different brands. They were involved in the fashion industry, the jewellery industry, the cosmetic industry and much more. All he knew was that the name 'Lockwood' carried weight globally and because of this everyone instantly knew who he was, or at least they'd have a preconceived idea of who he should be.

While Nathaniel had been born rich, he never took it for granted. Other wealthy teens he knew would act like ungrateful brats to their parents and never be satisfied with whatever their parents would provide for them, but not Nathaniel. Nathaniel loved his family, especially his sister who he could always talk to and count on. His 17-year old sister Lauren is one year older than him and they have been best friends since Nathaniel was born. While Nathaniel is a perfect child in the eyes of his parents and he would never disrespect them, he acts completely different at school. It's almost like he's his true self at home but he somehow gets a kick of seeing how far he can push the limits at school. He has been so used to being popular and revered because of his family name that he would take advantage of the privileges that came with this popularity. Nathaniel knew he was the person that everyone wanted to be or wanted to hang around with, and he knew exactly how to use this to his benefit. I guess he did inherit some sort of business sense from his parents. He would charm people into doing his homework for him, not that he wasn't smart enough but why would he waste his time when people were waiting in line to even talk to him. He also got out of certain school-related responsibilities sometimes by mentioning that his parents were this school's biggest sponsor.

After another boring Thursday he went home and immediately went up to his sister's room to annoy her, in a playful way of course. He stood in her doorway waiting for her to notice him. 'Omg, you scared me. How long have you been standing there?' Lauren asked. 'Only a couple of seconds.' Nathaniel replied. 'Had another boring day at school, I'm assuming? You should be happy that you have the privilege of getting to learn.' Lauren has always been very involved in activism and was genuinely always fighting for people who couldn't fight for themselves, Nathaniel always admired her because of this. 'I know, Lauren. Maybe someday I'll see the light and start appreciating it like I should, but I might have graduated by then.' Lauren Rolled her eyes at him. 'Don't you have prom tomorrow? Which girl were you taking again?' Nathaniel didn't really want to go to prom but he had to in order to please his parents who wanted him to take one of his classmates, who was the daughter of one of their business associates. She was also very wealthy and almost as popular as him. 'I'm taking Aria, mom and dad made me.' Lauren asked him to tell her all about it tomorrow after prom before Nathaniel left and went to his own room.

After another boring day at school, Nathaniel went home to get ready for prom and then had his driver drive over to Aria's house in their limousine to pick her up. Nathaniel knocked on her door and Aria soon answered. She looked beautiful, but somehow Nathaniel didn't really care that much. Aria was gorgeous, kind, came from money and was clearly very into him but he couldn't see himself actually ever pursuing her and he had no idea why he couldn't. He did however tell her she looked absolutely wonderful before escorting her to the limousine and heading over to the prom together.

The prom was exactly how he imagined it would be, boring and cliché. He felt as if the evening lasted for ages but at the same time he was dissociating during the entire night. As the prom was coming to an end, the DJ played one last song, a typical romantic slow song. Aria asked him to dance and while he didn't really feel like it, he said yes because he didn't want Aria to feel bad. While they were dancing, he felt Aria building up the courage to kiss him. When she finally tried to make the move, Nathaniel denied her. Aria got visibly upset but tried to hide it. As the song stopped Aria told Nathaniel that she was going to stay over at her best friend's house tonight, so he didn't have to drop her off at her house. Aria also said that she had a lovely time and asked Nathaniel to call her soon. He was surprised that she still didn't seem to be giving up on pursuing him even though he just denied her kiss.

Nathaniel exited the venue and saw his limousine waiting for him in front of the building, just like they had planned. He got into the limousine and saw that the driver had his partition up, which wasn't usually the case. He and his driver were close and they would usually have chats while driving. Nathanial was too tired to read into it and just assumed his driver wasn't in a talkative mood. While they were driving home, Nathaniel was looking outside through the window. After a while Nathaniel did start to get a bit suspicious when they weren't taking their usual route home. "Excuse me, where are we going? You just missed our turn." Nathaniel asked his driver. The driver didn't reply at all and Nathaniel instantly knew what was going on. He started to freak out and tried to escape the car, but the doors were locked. Before he could scream, he felt someone from the seat behind holding a moist cloth to his mouth and nose and that's the last thing he saw before his vision turned black.

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A/N: Hey dear readers! I have been on a hiatus from this book for a very long time, but I finally felt like finishing it and rewriting the original chapters. I started writing this book 8 years ago when I was 16 and I wasn't a good writer yet. I am also not a native English speaker, so the original chapters have very bad sentence structure and grammar, which I'm really excited to be rewriting.

I will be unpublishing the other chapters until I have rewritten them and I will gradually be finishing this book. Let me know what you think of this rewritten chapter and if you're still excited to (finally) continue reading it.