Captive || Michael Clifford FanFic

Chapter 13|| Into the darkness

"Where are we going, Michael?" I asked, keeping a tight grip on his hand as he lead me into the darkness of the woods. I had assumed he was taking me back to the log cabin but we where heading out in the complete opposite direction. 

"Just trust me, okay? I want it to be just the two of us" he replied, avoiding any form of eye contact with me. He had been quiet for the whole journey and it was starting to worry me slightly but I did trust Michael and I would follow him to wherever he wanted to go. I was slightly relieved to see a small cave in the side of some rocks; Michael looked down at me and smiled again. 

"Now this is my secret hideaway, nobody knows about this place" he lead me inside and pulled out his phone to light it up. "We have to get a fire started though. You wait here and I'll get some wood, okay?"

"I'm not a fan of the dark, Michael. I don't want to stay here on my own" I insisted, staring round at the cave and shuddering. It was pretty cold outside tonight but Michael handed his plaid jacket over to me and wrapped it round my shoulders.

"I'll be back in a couple of minutes, I promise" he whispered, giving me a quick kiss and vanishing off into the darkness, leaving me standing alone. I reached into my pocket for my phone and lit up the surrounding area with the built in torch, there was a couple of blankets on the floor and it made me wonder if maybe this was where Michael would come to hide away from his dad after he hit him. I tried not to picture Michael wrapped up in those blankets on the cold, hard ground feeling so alone but the image etched into my mind. I sat myself down on the ground and waited, but after five minutes I started to get a little bit anxious. Why wasn't he back yet? There was twigs and leaves just outside the cave so he didn't need to go far. I got back up to my feet and wandered outside, trying to look out into the darkness. The silence was consuming me and I was starting to freak out a little bit.

"Michael?" I called out, stepping out of the cave and glancing around to see if I could find him. "Michael, where are you?"

A force took me by surprise and tackled me to the ground, I smacked my head against the floor and spun around in the hopes of seeing Michael on top of me. My eyes glued on to a masked man pinning my arms up above my head. 

"What the hell? Get off me! MICHAEL!" I screamed out into the silence and then he clasped his hand across my mouth. I flicked my knee up into the man's crotch and he released me from his grip. I scrambled to my feet and started to run into the trees, still calling out Michael's name in the hopes I would bump into him. Another man jumped out from behind a tree and grabbed hold of me around the waist, lifting me into the air. 

"GET OFF! MICHAEL! HELP!" My heart was thumping against my chest as I tried to wrestle the man off me, he tightened his arms around my waist and then slammed me onto the ground.

"Over here!" he called out, signalling to someone else in the distance. I swung my arm around towards his face but he caught hold of my wrist and laughed, forcing it back onto the ground and holding my arm down. The other masked man strolled across to us, staring down at me from underneath his mask. His dark eyes burned into mine as he leaned down into my face.

"Hello Autumn. You're a fiesty little thing, huh?" he chuckled, stroking his cold hands against my face. I turned away from him in disgust, continuing to struggle against the other guys grip. Where the hell was Michael? And how did these guys know who I was? 

(Michael's POV)

I watched them grab her from a distance, angry with myself for putting her through all of this. I regretted it the instant they tackled her to the ground; I couldn't stand watching them be so rough with her. She was so delicate and gentle; this was so wrong. I wanted to go and stop them but it was too late now, I had to stay out of this otherwise my dad would beat the living daylights out of me. This had been his plan all along; he had sent me out there to get close to Autumn and gain her trust so I could lead her out here and they could take her hostage. My dad believed they would be able to get a tonne of money from her dad, enough to pay off all of his debts and get them out of this town. Of course I had agreed at first; I didn't know Autumn Travis and I was too selfish to even think about the seriousness of what it was I was agreeing to but as more time passed I realised I didn't want to go through with this, I wanted it all to end but there was no going back. There never was with my dad.