AMATEURS [Tenya Iida x OC]

Chapter 14 - The One with the Burner Phone

When Peri awoke next, it was suspiciously quiet.

Her mouth tasted like spoiled yogurt, and her head pounded in time with her heartbeat. It felt like her bones had been replaced with pointy rocks. Every inch of her hurt from the combined powers of Syncope and Daze, on top of her consuming anguish about Tenya, and her hand was infected - fiery and pus-filled - from the cut they'd insisted upon so that she could sign the ransom note with her own blood. Syncope tortured her while she was asleep, too; she'd pieced that together while eavesdropping. More mysterious cuts and burns and bruises covered her limbs, hidden under her torn clothes.

She pressed her fingers to the cold concrete and pushed herself up to sit, aching from sleeping on such a hard surface... When had she fallen asleep?

The bare bulb overhead was out, casting the room in shadow, save for a slash of light at the opposite end of the corridor. Trembling, Peri got to her knees, then to her feet, and shuffled over to investigate.

Someone had left the door at the top of the stairs cracked.

She shivered and dragged herself up toward the light, one grueling step at a time. At the top of the stairs, Peri waited, anxiety churning her empty stomach. All she could hear was the rush of the heater cycling on and off, hot air blowing out of a vent at her shin level every few minutes. With gentle fingers, Peri pressed the door open and snuck into the room at the top of the stairs.

It looked like the average living room. Medium pile gray carpet, dark couches with matching chairs centered around a flat screen TV. No pictures. Peri did recon as fast as she could, as best as she could, without her glasses. Every door she tried was locked, and the front and back doors were sealed somehow.

A flip phone sat on the kitchen counter, charging.

Peri snatched it up, frantically dialing the only number she had memorized in Japan.

"Hello?"

"Tsu, it's me." She heard crashing and screaming at the other end of the line, and Peri whispered, "Tsu, I don't know how long I have. I'm alive. Did you guys get the letter? Did they understand the code?"

"Yes, yes," Tsu gasped, wind whipping past her on the other end of the line. "Stay on the line as long as you can, I'm going to get Mr. Aizawa. I'm hoping someone can trace your call."

Peri chuckled, and it felt wrong. It twisted into a sob, and she covered her mouth, muffling her noises so she wouldn't be heard. "I'm so scared, Tsu," she confessed, turning slowly in the kitchen. "I don't know where I am, or what else I can do."

"Just stay here with me," Tsu said, the sound of a door slamming and her heavy breathing in the background. "Stay alive. Keep talking... Tell me what you see."

Peri paced around the kitchen, whispering into the phone. "No mail left out. No photos. The phone is probably prepaid, a burner, but I can't be sure. Someone left the door open, and I managed to get up here," she said.

"Up where?" Tsu asked. She was talking to someone else in the background, and Peri heard more shuffling and talking.

"I'm being held in an unfinished basement," Peri said, looking through the cupboards for some food, "I climbed the stairs and found a kitchen, living room, and a lot of doors I can't open. I'm pretty sure it's just a house somewhere."

Tsu sniffled into the phone. "They're tracing the phone now, Peri, keep talking," she said, her voice rough around the edges, "Just another minute and we can come and get you."

Peri found a box of crackers in a slim cupboard, and hastily shoved some into her mouth, sinking to the floor. She'd done it. She'd survived. "I found some food," she whispered, "They haven't fed me. I don't know how long I've-"