The Wallflower and the Prankster

Chapter Eight: Caught Between a Gun and a Girl

Alazne

I huddled in the corner between the stall and the wall. The two culprits were circling Josh. Annoyance flashed inside me when I noticed Josh’s smug face, his whole face glowed. Naïve to the situation.

          “How the mighty has fallen,” the man with the eye patch said, his gun brushed the hair out of Josh’s eyes. “Not to big now are you, kid? What no tricks up your sleeve?”

          “You two must be really intimidated by me.” Josh smirked dumbly.

          “Is that really what you think, kid? “

          “Must be since I’m not dead yet.” Josh chuckled. “So how much are you asking ‘em? A buck? A hundred? Thousand? Just hurry up and ring the damn phone.”  My jaws flexed, Josh was a real idiot. Can he not tell our lives were endangered? Of course he didn’t. To him everything was a joke.  I angrily played with a loose strand of thread on my jeans. Whatever. He’s on his own.

          “Nah. We have a better idea for you, Grey,” the big nosed man said. “You see, Grey. Your damn family did a lot of crap to us.”

          “Tell me something I don’t know,” Josh muttered.

          “You’d like that wouldn’t you, Grey?” He nudged his partner with his elbow. “Grab the kids and go. The more time we spend here, the bigger chance that you’d screw something up.”

          “You got it, boss,” the eye patch guy spun on his heels and in one swift position he grabbed my arm and tossed my onto his shoulders. My stomach collided with his bony shoulder, and a yelp escaped my lips. The man is really wry, I grimaced, as I felt his arms tighten around my waist. I began to punch his back, hoping it would do some damage.

          “Let go of me,” I screamed repeatedly. “Let go.”

          My world shifted when something pinched my skin.  My arms ached and little by little they became numb. I muttered something unintelligible as my vision swarmed in with black fuzzes. Please…no….they had drugged me.

         

When I awaken, the ground sped from under me. Blinking a couple times to get the daze feeling away, I curled my fingers. Metal tickled my hand and sent shivers throughout me.

The shapes of boxes had become more visible to me, shifting upwards; I pulled myself in a sitting position. The rope around my wrist was really loose, I bet if I wanted to, I would have torn my hands away. However, timing mattered in this situation.

My parents were law enforcers and had lectured me in survival methods. If it wasn’t for my father, I wouldn’t have learned karate or be able to lift a weights and run survive the 12-minute run in gym.

“Josh?” My voice was quiet, so I wouldn’t alarm the drivers.

Someone grunted as if it was an answer.

“You okay?”

“I don’t know. I’m hung-over and two old men kidnapped us. Is that normal?”

I rolled my eyes; Josh was really getting on my nerves. Couldn’t he be serious? I mean, we might die.  “You tell me, Josh, is this normal?” My brows arched downward, I could make out his body figure in the darkness. The ground bumped me upward, and a box fell in front of me.

“Not anymore.” A shudder escaped from his lips, and he sucked his breath.

“Josh? Are you okay?” I asked, startled when the vague shape of his shoulders tremble. “Josh?” My heart pounded in my chest, thinking of the worst. Is he sick? Is it alcohol poisoning—is he leaving me here with the creepy perverts?