Without a Trace

Chapter Seven

TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT, ATTEMPTED RAPE

"What do you want?" I whisper as Zane pushes me towards a white van that's parked nearby that just screams "hey, I'm kidnapping somebody!"

"Just do what I say and I might decide not to kill you." I roll my eyes.  This is coming from the guy who stabbed me and almost killed me last week.  I'm shoved into the van and my wrists are tied behind my back.  Zane gets in the driver's seat, and I see the back of a man's head who is sitting in the passenger's seat.  Then, the car starts moving.  As Zane is driving, I try to keep track of the turns we take so that I could figure out where we're going, but I lose track after a minute.  The can is in motion for about ten minutes before it comes to a stop. Zane gets out of the van and opens the door to my left.  "Get up."

"You could ask nicely." I answer, even though I probably shouldn't antagonize him.  

"Fine." he says in a fake sweet voice. "Get up or I'll slit your throat." I finally decide to listen to him, knowing from what happened the last time I saw him that he isn't playing around.  I get out of the van and finally find out where they took me, an abandoned warehouse.  How stereotypical I think as I'm pushed towards the warehouse.  There's a chair in the center of it.  "Have a seat."  

"Gee thanks." I say sarcastically sitting down in the chair.  "Your hospitality amazes me."  I'm punished for that with a slap from the man that was in the passenger's seat of the van.  I hadn't even noticed that he came in here with us. "Ow!" I yell, glaring at him.  

"Here's how it's going to work." the man says as he ties me to the chair.  I already don't like him very much.  "You're going to listen to what we say, or we'll put you through much more pain than that.  You're going to tell us what we want to know either way, so you might as well make life easier for all of us."  I thought that Zane was bad, but this guy is saying he'll torture me.  I mentally prepare myself for whatever they're going to put me through, because I'm not telling them anything.

"Where did your sister go?" Zane asks.  I stubbornly remain silent, and the other guy slaps me again.  

"Go screw yourself." is all my answer is.  Then the man reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a knife.  My eyes widen in fear.  My mind flashes back to that day in the cemetery, where I almost died because of Zane's knife.  The man stabs my thigh with the knife, and twists.  I scream, my eyes starting to fill with tears from pain.  

"Now will you tell us what we want to know?"  Zane asks. 

"Go to hell."  My stubbornness gets me into so much trouble sometimes.  It goes on like this, them finding new places to cut into.  Sometimes they use the knife, sometimes they use their fists.  After twenty minutes, I feel like I'm about to pass out from pain.  I close my eyes, barely able to keep them open.  As soon as I do,  Zane grabs my chin and crouches in front of me, his face inches from mine.  

"This can all be over." he says in a soothing voice, stroking my hair.  "Just tell us where she is."  I'm in so much pain I can't even think straight.  I can tell him, and this could all end.  I would get to sleep.  All I want to do is fall asleep right now.  But I can't tell them where Emma is.  This time, nobody's life is in danger but my own, so I'm fine with whatever they do to me, because they have nobody else to hurt.  When I still remain silent, he sighs.  "Well, at least we can do the fun part now."  What else can they do to me?  The other guy goes outside and comes back a minutes later with a large metal bucket.  He starts putting pieces of wood from around the warehouse and paper in it.  Then, he takes out matches, lights one, and drops it into the bucket.  After a minute there's a small fire.  Then I notice that Zane has a crowbar, and is heating up one end of it over the fire.  

"Please, no." I whisper, when I realize what they're going to do.  I start sobbing, which is something I was determined not to do at the beginning of this torture session.  

"Just tell us." Zane says as he walks back over to where I'm sitting.  "This is your last chance."  After I don't say anything, he touches my arm with the heated end of the crowbar.  I scream.

"Stop please."  I start sobbing.  "Please just stop it."  I feel a burn on my thigh and scream again.  Zane looks at me, expecting me to tell him what he wants to know.  I shake my head, and he starts untying me.  "What...?" I ask, my voice shaking.  

"I'm gonna have tons of fun with this."  He smirks as he yanks me up roughly by the arms and throws me to the ground.  I cry out in pain.  He walks over to me on the ground and kneels down.  He moves me onto my back and straddles me, one knee on either side of my body.  "You are very pretty." he says , stroking my hair.  "I can have a lot of fun with you."  I struggles underneath him, terrified.  This is not something that I had prepared myself for.  He slaps me, and then moves my hair to one side.  He starts kissing my neck.  

"No!" I start screaming. "Stop!"  I'm hyperventilating now, I can barely breath.  I can feel his hot breath on my neck.  Then he reaches for the bottom of my shirt and starts pulling it up.  "I'll tell you!" He immediately stops and roughly grabs my chin.  

"Where is she?" 

"California." I whisper, knowing that I'm betraying my sister, but I can't go through this.  

"We don't need her anymore."  Zane says.  "Light the place up.  We'll leave her here."  

"No!" I struggle to get up, but I'm too weak.  Zane kicks me in the stomach.

"It was nice knowing you kid."  They walk out, and after a few minutes I smell smoke.  I try to stand up again, this time actually managing to for a second, but then collapsing again.  I start to crawl towards the exit, but then see that there's wood blocking it now.  They must have put it there to prevent me from escaping.   I can see smoke everywhere and I can't breath.  I'm about to pass out from a combination of my injuries and oxygen deprivation.  

I'm sorry Emma.