In Times of War

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

“Rise and shine, ginger! Hey, I said open your eyes!” The harsh voice is accompanied with a hard slap on the cheek.

   I open my eyes and blink at the sudden bright light. I’m sitting in a chair with rope binding my arms to the arms of the chair and there’s a rough cloth gag tied around my mouth. My head is pounding from the sudden light and from the oxygen deprivation. The man standing in front of me has greasy blond hair slicked back over his head. His eyes are green, but not a beautiful emerald green like David’s; his are a pale, evil shade of green. His breath is so sour I turn my face away to avoid its stench, though I can’t imagine mine is much better. It’s the same man that pulled me into the car last night. At least, I think it was last night.

   “Rules are simple: don’t make us mad, don’t try to run away, and the most important one is: do exactly as we say. If you listen to those we won’t have a problem. Don’t listen to them and, well… let’s just say you and ol’ Tony won’t have many more moonlight strolls.” He chuckles lowly. “Do we understand each other?”

“Mpppphhhh! Waaaaa dooa waa wrroom we?!” I try to ask him a question, but all that comes out is garble.

“Oh, pardon me, where are my manners?” He says it like he just forgot to take my coat at the door.

“What do you want from me? Please, I didn’t do anything.”

“Ah, you didn’t do anything, but your boyfriend did. The little rat’s been dodging his payments recently.”

“But he already paid you back everything his father owed you. Why does he have to keep paying money he doesn’t owe you?” It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is Zacharias’s men.

“Ah, you see there, he does have some interest that he hasn’t paid back, and there’s the little matter of the money he stole the other night.”

“He wouldn’t do that. You’re lying.”

“Oh, you’re right. I must be mistaken. It must be someone else that looks just like him.” He mocks me.

“Don’t mock me. It isn’t polite.” I scold him like I would a small child. He punches me in the eye, his ring cutting the corner of my eye. “Don’t punch people, either.”

“Don’t tell me what to do. It makes me mad.” He punches my cheek, it doesn’t split the skin this time but the ring stings like heck. I feel a little blood trickle from the corner of my eye.

“Didn’t your mama ever teach you to never hit a lady?” I ask.

   “That’s it. Lee!” He calls for another man and pulls the gag back up into my mouth. He takes out a knife and I lean my head as far away from him as I can. He cuts a gash on my forehead and I scream in pain. The blood drips onto my red-orange curls and I whimper as the man cuts off the lock of hair so it looks like jagged bangs. He shoves the gag back in my mouth.

 The new man comes in with brown hair and brown eyes. “I can’t handle her anymore. Maybe you can get her to shut up.”

   “It would be my pleasure, Carl.” Lee says and Carl walks out. I look up at him, trying to swallow the fear building up in my throat. He walks over slowly and reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handkerchief. I flinch away but all he does is gently dab the blood from my forehead. I wince at the stinging it’s causing. He takes a step back and pulls up a chair from a table in the corner of the room. It’s the only other furniture on the room. I watch him warily and continue trying to get my hands out of the rope that binds them.

   “I’m very sorry this happened to you.” Well, talk about a plot twist. He takes the gag out of my mouth. “I know you have no reason to trust me, but I am- was- good friends with Tony. He’s a good guy, and he doesn’t deserve all this. And I’m sorry he drug you into all this mess, but I’m gonna help you get back to him.”

   “You’re right; I have no reason to trust you. So give me a reason and then maybe I’ll believe you.” He nods like it’s reasonable and then pulls out a knife. I flinch back without thinking. All he does is cut the rope from my arms. I rub my wrists out of instinct.

“I know that’s not much, but it’s about the best I can do. I wish I could do something about that cut on your head, but I can get you some food if you’re hungry or something.”

   “Food would be great, thanks.” I wasn’t really hungry, or at least that’s what I told myself, I just wanted him out of the room. I watch him walk out and immediately get out of the chair. I look around for any way out. A window, a loose board, anything I can break out to escape because I don’t trust that this Lee guy is going to stay true to his word. The blood from my forehead drips onto my white button-down blouse. I’m still in what I wore to the concert: a blouse, black skirt, but my black shoes with small heels are missing, so I’m barefoot.

   I was looking around so much I didn’t hear the footsteps approaching the door. I hear the door open and shut and footsteps inside the room. I whip around, suddenly feeling like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar for some reason. Lee chuckles like he’s amused and he sets the tray of food on the table.

“Go ahead; let me know if you find anything but I haven’t been able to find anything in five years. You can search later, eat now.” I sit down at the table but don’t touch the food.

“How do I know it’s not poisoned or something?” I ask, with one eye on the food and one eye on him. “You eat some first.”

   “Alright, if you insist.” He walks over and takes a bite of the ham sandwich on the plate. When he doesn’t keel over dead I assume it’s safe to eat. I wolf down the whole thing and the entire glass of water. I automatically feel guilty for eating it all and for eating it so fast. I should have saved some for later, but I couldn’t help myself. I push the tray across the table to signal that I’m done. I cross my arms and legs and glare at him. He might have given me food and taken my restraints off, but that didn’t mean I could trust him. He could just be acting to try and gain my trust.

“I don’t trust you, let’s just get that straight. I don’t like you either, but if you can get me out of here in one piece that would be fantastic.” I tell him in a very matter-of-fact way.

   “I will, I promise. Now, I hate to ask you to do this but I have to. I’m gonna need you to scream or shout or something like I’m hurting you, otherwise they’re gonna come in here and actually hurt you. And before I leave, I’m gonna have to tie you up again.” I can understand why he would have to do all this but it still doesn’t make me trust him. Nevertheless, I scream and fake beg for a few minutes. Then I sit back in the chair and let him retie the ropes, but much looser so I can slip my hands out if I really needed to.

   After a few hours of sitting there doing nothing I was hoping that Lee would hurry up with his plan, assuming he had one. Mama might be worried by now, the Howells probably didn’t know what had happened, that I’d been kidnapped. David was the one person that did know, and I had no clue what he would be doing. But if it didn’t involve keeping himself out of trouble I was going to be ticked off when I got out of here. If he was trying to find me, that wouldn’t be too bad either but I didn’t want him to be doing that if it meant that he would get hurt.

   It was weird for me to care about someone I wasn’t related to this much. I wanted him to be safe and happy all day, every day. I wanted to be with him as much as humanly possible. I wanted to always feel the little butterflies I got whenever he was near me; and the warm feeling when he touched me. I wanted to know why I felt all of these things and that was the moment I realized it. Tied to a chair, a gag in my mouth, kidnapped by crazy people, that’s when I realized I was in love.

And that terrified me more than anything else.

*~*~

Coming to that realization was one of the worst feelings I’d ever felt.

   It made me feel so vulnerable, so exposed, so open to injury. I didn’t feel the overwhelming happiness everyone says they feel when they realize they’re in love, all I felt was dread that I’d just opened myself up to get hurt again. I loved my dad and then he was killed right in front of me, I loved Uncle Ed and he was killed on the other side of the world from me. The people I loved the most were killed and I never wanted to feel that pain again. I didn’t want my family to feel that pain again. Love only leads to being hurt.

This is what happens when I get bored, I start thinking about sappy, philosophical stuff.