Despair, darkness and desire

Backhand blow

The light flooding in from whatever is out there and the "brighter than the sun" flashlights being shone in our faces makes it impossible to even see how many there are. There's more than two, maybe three or four. One of them yanks Parker away from me. 

"Hey, what..." Parker's protest is cut off by an oof and I realize they've hit him. I'm not a brave person, but my fight and flight response seems to find some anger in me.
"Let him go!" I try shaking off the hand having my upper arm in a vice grip. They just grab me tighter and shake me forcibly, making me squeak in pain.
"Shut up!" The voice is gruff and so full of anger. My body goes limp in fear. The backhand blow to my face has me nearly fainting. Stars dance before my eyes and I stumble. The only thing keeping me from collapsing is the hand digging into my arm and making bruises. Next thing I know, another person is right in front of me. Is that a camera? "This is what happens if you don't give us what we want, Baker!" I'm jostled about, still not recovered from the blow to my face. "Next time I'll slap her about even more." Then he shoves me, letting me collapse over the cardboard box I fell over not too long ago. They leave as abruptly as they arrived. The storage room falls into complete darkness. 

I close my eyes. The only sound is our labored breaths. My face hurts a lot. Gently I touch my right cheek with my fingers, but even the slightest touch has me wincing. I slide down from the box and lean my back on it.
"Isolde..." Parker groans. His voice is filled with pain. "Are you alright?"
"No." Talking hurts. My tongue finds a small wound in the corner of my mouth. The needle sharp pain makes me hiss. I poke my tongue at it again, the pain is clearing some of the fear out of my brain. "I know why I'm here now though." There's movement in the darkness and Parker soon scoots down to sit next to me. The whole episode seems to have made the whole Isolde is an idiot thing less of a thing. His nearness is calming. 

Parker doesn't say anything, but I know he wants me to explain. "My mom's a physicist professor at the university and my dad's a biological chemist... and yeah, he works for some government lab and that's all he's allowed to say." I shrug my shoulders. "I know it sounds like some crazy conspiracy theory, but I think this has something to do with what he does."
"Yeah. That does sound crazy." He says the words slowly. Then he fumbles after and takes my hand, squeezing it in his. "And yeah, I think I remember something about the kidnapping too. I was on my way home from laying some voice over tracks when I saw a couple of guys over by the alley behind the studio shove someone into a van." He pauses. "I think... I think what I reacted to, was them obviously being adults and the person they were handling was obviously not. I don't know why I shouted at them to stop. I mean, the smart thing to do would be to get the license plate number and call the cops." I feel him shaking his head. "Then I got this pain in my shoulder and then someone was right there next to me and then I woke up here." Parker shrugs.
It's my turn to squeeze his hand. "It makes no sense that they would kidnap you too. I mean they could just have left you there, or ignored you... or, I don't know." 

I start shivering. What if they had killed him? What if they're going to kill me? Are they going to keep beating me up or is there a time limit? Why would they keep Parker alive? Am I ever going to see my parents again? My friends? Hot tears run down my face and I can't keep a sob from wracking my body. Parker doesn't tell me to stop crying. Instead he shifts so that he can wrap his arms around me and pull me to him. I bury my face in his shoulder, crying my heart out.