Hand In Hand

ONE

Hand In Hand - FIRST PUBLISHED: MAY 5, 2019

1.

So she's been kidnapped. Again. This would be the eleventh time now but her kidnappers this time, it seems, are human. It's an easy process of elimination since she didn't feel any of the weight she'd feel with magic, but the handcuffs and shackles around her ankles weren't much better. Still, humans are the only explanation since things have been going relatively well with the vampires, witches, and werewolves in the quarter.

Whoever these humans were, they were good, but not great. The one thing that would make their plan perfect is if they had the favorite Daughter of Klaus Mikaelson rather than the durable human. Someone he would miss would be much better.

Faith Mikaelson was nothing like her twin sister or her father. She didn't even look like her twin. Everything about her made her look like her moms carbon copy while Hope was a perfect blend of both her parents. Faith wasn't powerful like Hope and her father, she didn't have powers, she wasn't as bold, but she was pretty damn smart. Smart enough to have learned how to get out of handcuffs after the second time she got kidnapped. Faith was ten at that time. She always kept a bobby pin on her in the hopes one of her kidnappings would be of the non magical kind. This was her moment.

She got out of the cuffs no problem, although being in the trunk of a car that has a thing for potholes wasn't ideal. The shackles took longer than she'd like but she got them off eventually. Next was trying to get out of the trunk but she couldn't see anything and couldn't feel anything that she could maybe pull on to get the trunk open. So she'd have to go with plan b: fight like hell when the trunk opens.

Faith kept quiet the rest of the car ride. If they thought she was still knocked out they wouldn't be so vigilant as they opened the trunk, and sure enough when the car stopped and two sets of footsteps walked around the car towards the trunk Faith was ready.

As soon as the trunk opened Faith kicked one of the kidnappers and shoved the other as she escaped the trunk. They were parked in a deserted parking lot at a beach. The beach is polluted and as much as she'd love to stop and save the planet she had to save herself first. She broke into a sprint but didn't get too far as one of the kidnappers tased her and it was dark all over again.

When Faith awoke for a second time all she could hear were the faint sounds of seagulls and the mutterings of revenge. She couldn't hear very much because she was in a freaking box. A metal box. Houdini's Box adjacent, if you will.

Her kidnappers were always creative but keeping her in a little box without an oxygen tank or holes to keep her alive isn't usually what happens. Faith banged on the box and yelled.

"What are you doing? Let me out!" Outside the box she could hear the kidnappers speak.

"This will teach that father of yours what it means to lose." And suddenly the box began to move.

"Nonononono." Whispered Faith to herself, tears stinging her eyes. She remembered then to shut up and conserve her oxygen. In these terrifying moments she thought back to her other kidnappings. The kidnappers always wanted something from her father which was their motive for kidnapping her. They may have tried to kill her once her father wouldn't deliver or if she managed to escape before they could ransom, but as far as she could tell it had only been mere hours since she was snatched from her home.

When she had that moment of freedom before she could see the sun barely rising in the east which meant it'd be a day or two before they realize she's missing, maybe more since it's the weekend.

Tears fell from Faith's eyes as the sound of waves crashing got harsher. They were gonna push her into the ocean in this box. Asphyxiation or drowning would certainly do the trick. At the risk of wasting more oxygen, Faith pleaded.

"Please! I haven't done anything, please!" The box stopped moving and for one stupid moment Faith felt hopeful. It turns out she should've lived up to her name and had faith in whatever afterlife would suit her because with one last shove she was pushed over the dock and hit the water roughly. Her entire body hurt from the impact but especially her head.

She was sinking and fast and even with the pain she was in she had to focus. Feeling the sides of the box she tried to find the door. If she landed in the sand with the door on the bottom she would surely die because there wouldn't be anyone else to come and save her. She had to do it herself, like always.

The door wasn't on the bottom but on the side which meant Faith could, theoretically, kick it outwards, but if there were chains and stuff around this thing it definitely wouldn't work. Plus, with all the physical exertion she'd do the oxygen would be sucked in with every breath she'd take. Heavens she wished she had some super strength right about now.

Faith kicked and kicked with both her feet and as the box started opening the water started leaking in. At this point she knew she was gonna have ankle problems but those were better than death so she felt around the door feeling for two weak spots that would open up the box quick enough to not let the water leak in.

Finding the spots was easy and now for the hard part. "C'mon Faith just one big kick and you'll be breathing some sweet oxygen in no time." She coaxed herself. Taking in a deep breath and bracing herself, she kicked the door with both feet in the two weak spots and the water came rushing in.

Fighting the idea of a blissful sleep, Faith swam out of the box and headed toward the surface. The seawater burned her eyes but she assumed the blurriness was from the lack of oxygen to her brain. She surfaces underneath the bridge and tried not to take one big dramatic inhale. She failed in taking the big breath quietly but still tread the water in silence as she could see through some cracks that there were still two figures standing at the edge of the dock, watching the water.

"I see some bubbles...you think that means she's dead?" She heard one of them say.

"If we're lucky she hit her head on the way down and knocked herself out. She wouldn't have felt a thing. Poor kid, she was an asshole, but she shouldn't have gone out like this." Ignoring the fact that her kidnappers/murderers apparently pitied her, she swam back to the shore under the cover of the bridge.

Finally making it to the beach Faiths body trembled with trauma. All she wanted to do in that moment was be one with the litter on the ground. She was already unimportant, all she'd have to do to be one of them for sure is lay there, but if there was one thing she had in common with her family it was her stubbornness. Her parents and Hope usually survived through vampire blood, Faith just had shear strength of will. On that note, she had to keep moving.

Faith spotted the car her kidnappers brought her in and quickly thought out the beginnings of a plan. She had no idea where she was or where to go but she knew she needed to get out of here. With one quick look at the kidnappers who were standing at the end of the deserted dock and facing the ocean, Faith booked it to the car and was quite pleased to see that the doors were open.

She hopped in the driver's seat and leaned over to close the passengers door. If the kidnappers heard the doors closing they didn't show it. Instead they continued to watch the sun rise over the horizon.

"Thank God for beautiful sunrises," Faith muttered while turning the key in the ignition. With another deep breath and her heartbeat as the reminder that she was still alive, she drove off.

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