Fearless

Chapter One

Everything was black and empty like I was consumed by a black hole. No light. No sound. Images began to come to my mind and the void was filled with my memories. My family, the handful of friends I have, my pet goldfish Sea Bass-tian... yes I have a goldfish called Sea Bass-tian. Don't judge me, you can't call your fish Sebastian without throwing a pun in or two. I laughed. How long has it been since I've laughed. Not once since... since the day that ruined my life. The reason I was running.

Like a giant cinema screen the darkness filled with that day. I was on my way home from shopping. I wasn't even going to go out, it was cold and drizzling outside, but I needed to get my dad a birthday present. I was on the pavement with my umbrella up and clutching to the Jean Paul Gaultier le mal which was to be the gift. I could never stand the smell of it after a bottle of it smashed in our suitcase one holiday, making our clothes stink of aftershave, but he still loves it so if it makes for a good birthday present. It was then that all hell broke loose.

I could hear the van a mile away. There was me just thinking some idiot decided that a 30 mph road was actually 50 mph but oh how I was wrong. This black Ford Transit came zooming past nearly taking out every other car on the road and did a half hearted donut. There was a screech as the breaks slammed on, I turned my head to see the sliding doors being thrown open from the inside. It all happened so quick, I never had a chance to react. A man wearing some kind of biker helmet appeared from the inside grabbed my arm, dragging me inside the van. As the door was closing the man held something over my face and everything was blank in a matter of seconds.

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I remember waking up with a horrible headache and opening my eyes to a small dirty cold room. There was nothing inside other than the harsh LED lights attached to the ceiling and a steal door. The floor was what I thought to be cream tiles however it was hard to tell by account of them being that dirty. It took me a couple of minutes to come round and get a grasp of the situation and as I went to get up my legs gave up on me plummeting me back to the gritty floor. How long had I been asleep? Where was I? My head pierced with pain and I remembered. I was kidnapped.

The door opened to reveal a large sadistic looking man. "STAND!" He bellowed with a thick foreign accent I had no idea what was. I tried however, my legs once again gave up. He walked over and grabbed me by my hair, lifting me from the floor. I screamed in pain. I had no way I could over power him, even if I was able to stand I couldn't. I thought for a second thinking how I could even possibly get out of this situation. I looked down to my hands. My nails. I slowly lifted my hands to his wrist and scratched as deep and hard as I could. As he let go on my hair, I then went to on bite his arm. This time he screamed in pain.

I scrambled towards the door to be stopped by a pair of men's black embossed shoes. I felt fear takeover my body. I knew it wasn't going to be that easy but I hoped to get further than this. The man behind me was still screaming foreign words. I looked up to see the person who the shoes were on. He was young, probably not much older than myself. His eyes seemed to light up at the sight of me.

They began talking in the strange language. It wasn't French or German. In fact I couldn't put an idea to it. I didn't even recognise a single word. The man behind me finally stopped cursing out of pain. I mean... I think he was cursing... most people do when in pain. He walked towards me and picked me up. I began struggling as much as I could. Kicking and screaming as hard and loud as possible. The man at the door seemed amused at my attempt to get away and even gave a small chuckle. I was pushed against the door, the large mans hand around my throat. This was it. I was going to die...

I could no longer hold back the tears, my body shaking from sheer fear. I took one last look at the young man before closing my eyes. I heard them talking once again. I opened my eyes out of curiosity. The young man gave a cunning smile before the large man covered my mouth with a cloth, like when I was first taken. The chemicals made my throats feel as if it was on fire as I drifted out of consciousness.

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I then woke up in a large bed. My head once again pounding in pain. I looked up to find myself in a huge luxurious room. It was dimly lit, the bed must have been super king sized as it was enormous however, it only filled a small space of the room. There was a large sofa, a small table and two chairs among various other things. I got up, my legs feeling much better and less heavy as they did. I opened a door to my left when facing the bed, a bathroom. I quickly went in as I definitely needed to go. How long had I been out? I looked in the bathroom mirror. I must have been cleaned up as I was most certainly dirty after being in that room earlier.

I was wearing a thin white night dress, my long brown hair was soft to touch as if I'd been to the hairdressers. My skin felt soft like I'd been covered in covered in some sort of body cream. But no matter how nice I looked I needed to get out of here. I found a door that looked like the way out however when I opened it two large guards stood either side. They were dressed smartly and had some kind of ear piece and a small microphone on their jacket. One of them whispered something into it. I imagined that they were telling someone I was awake. Now I really needed to get out of here.

I quickly closed the door behind me. My heartbeat bringing to race. My eyes once again surveyed the room... searching for an exit. The window! I opened it to see how far it opened. A freezing breeze flew past me realising how underdressed I actually was. It was a long way down and there was thick snow covering the world below but I couldn't lose this opportunity. I quickly looked around me to find some slippers and a big white fluffy dressing gown on the bed. That will have to do! I put them on and climbed out of the window, trying my best to grip onto the wall and the ledge.

I felt myself beginning to shake from the fear of falling. Come on Annabelle, you're a Guide leader and an adrenaline junkie! You can push through this... it's just like rock climbing. I shuffled to my left, two windows away from the open one so nobody could grab me and drag me back in. I crouched down and somehow managed to get myself down one window. Two more to go before I was on the ground. I crouched down once more but this time as I went down I scratched my right leg on the rough stone walls. I flinched in pain but I knew I had to keep going.

When I finally got myself to the ground I heard the commotion coming from the room I was in. This was it... I had to run. I ran and ran for what felt like forever. My whole body quickly going numb from the frosty cold. The snow fall was so thick I couldn't see the building any longer. I felt my legs begin to give but I knew I had to push on. Eventually my body finally gave up and I fell to the ground. I tried to push myself up but to no avail. My eyes began to grew heavy from the cold. My body beginning to cover in snow. If I wasn't going to die before I was now.

And that was how I ended up where I was. Surrounded in darkness. My life literally flashing in front of me like I was watching a movie about myself. However, even the flashbacks were disappearing until finally the darkness consumed me, leaving me with nothing. Leaving me empty until even my mind finally began to drift...