by Sara Schoen
“Blocked number,” I answered with a shrug as I slid the phone back into the pocket of my jeans.
“Maybe it's a secret admirer!” Alex said jokingly. We were waiting in line in front of the school to get in so we could park. Luckily, there were assigned spaces and we would have one waiting for us when we got through the light, but first I would have to hear Alex talk about me having a secret admirer.
“I know nothing would make you happier, but I don't think that's happening. At least not from this area, it's too snooty and always will be,” I said with a sigh. We lived in a rich part of southern Virginia and no matter where you went, everyone thought they were more important than those around them and it showed. They were too good for a girl that lost her family and attempted suicide. They were too good for a family that was struggling to make ends meet. They were too good to say anything nice, instead they had to step on as many people as possible. They went to public school, for heaven’s sake. If they wanted to be so pretentious they should at least go to private school. I was thankful that the Rickers lived in a secluded neighborhood, because then I wouldn't have to see the kids from school. They rarely ventured out of the social meeting places in town, so I was saved from ridicule.
“It is always possible!”
“For some reason, I highly doubt that,” I responded with a smile, as he pulled into the school's parking lot and found our spot. With one last look at the clock, we hurriedly collected our stuff so we could rush to our lockers and into our respective classes. Alex shut off the car and told me to hurry or I'd get locked in as he popped the door open to get out.
“You never know, you could have a secret admirer!” Alex said as I got out of the car and met him to walk into the school together.
“Be careful, Alex, we may be in school, but I will hit you,” I said jokingly, as I made a fist at him, hoping my joke would change the topic. We laughed as we looked at the people around us who were staring like we were annoying and disrespectful little kids. Their faces were priceless because they didn't understand why we were laughing at such a dumb joke, like I said they were too 'high class' for us. Our humor was for commoners and peasants.
“Oh, I better run!” he said dramatically, as he pulled open the back entrance door and took off down the hall. I laughed to myself as Alex disappeared from view, causing others to turn back to look at me. I shrugged at them all, as if to ask, ‘What's it to you’, and walked off to my locker. I had a few minutes before the bell would ring, and my first block teacher was pretty lenient with me about being to class on time. As long as I got there before an administrator came to check on me, I was on time. I quickly stuffed some of the books I wouldn't need until later into the metal locker and slammed it shut without much thought, except when the door shut it showed Drake standing behind it.
“Oh look, it's my favorite person,” I said sarcastically, as I rolled my eyes and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I didn't wait for him to come back with a smart-ass response as I turned and left. I had gotten hurt by him enough already and I was sick of hearing the same argument over and over. I just wanted to be left alone, but unfortunately that didn't happen. I got about five steps before he grabbed my shoulder and whipped me around to face him. “Take your hand off of me,” I ordered forcefully as I tried to control my emotions.
“Or what?”
“Or this,” a voice said as a hand grabbed Drake's and spun his arm behind his back. A few seconds later he was pinned against a wall with Mark pressed against his back to hold him there. Drake tried to fight, but couldn't with his arm twisted behind his back and his face pressed against the wall. “Are you okay, Sara?” Mark asked curiously as he glanced over his shoulder to check on me. His gray eyes looked at me with concern, but I wasn't touched like others would have been for a friend helping them out in a tough situation.
“I'm fine, thanks, but I could have handled it myself, too.”
“Yeah, because that was going so well,” Mark said with a chuckle as he moved and shoved Drake out of the way. Mark turned his steel gaze to Drake, a glare that said he never wanted to see Drake around me ever again. Drake just huffed, running his fingers through his short black hair to straighten himself up a bit before walking off.
“I could have handled it,” I resaid, not letting the topic drop.
“Maybe if you were trained to do that, or took karate like your siblings had, but it seems the only thing you're good at is trouble and stealing,” Mark said as he pointed to my backpack. “I know you took Charlotte's Fallout Boy album yesterday. She may not have noticed, but I did.”
“How did you even see that? You were in the middle of making out with her,” I questioned as I felt my face scrunch up in confusion. I hadn't missed how he transitioned smoothly from talking about my siblings to a new topic so I wouldn't get upset, but now I was curious. There was no way he should have seen me take her CD, I was so careful that not even Charlotte felt it being lifted from her backpack pocket.
“I notice everything.”
“You didn't notice that time Alex and I took your car and-” I started to remind him until he put his hand over my mouth to stop me from talking.
“We don't talk about that day ever again!”
I shrugged as a response since he was still covering my mouth, but he didn't move his hand. He was glaring into my eyes and while his eyes searched for something in my light blue eyes I grew uncomfortable. I took one step back and glanced around to see who was watching, but everyone seemed to be rushing to class, or ignoring the world around them by burying their faces in their phones.
“Are you okay?” I asked curiously as he continued to blink as if to wake himself up.
“Yeah, I am. Oh, by the way Damon asked me to tell you that you're meeting him after school to go somewhere. I already told your brother so just meet up with Damon after school,” he said before he turned and walked down the hallway.
I laughed slightly to myself as he walked away. He really thought I was going to be here all day to go with Damon wherever he wanted. Damon should know better than to think I'd stay in school the whole day on the anniversary of the crash, or maybe he did know and was going to be waiting for me. I guess they both forgot how good I was at sneaking too, I thought as I went to my first block class just as the bell rang over my head. Great, I was late again.
I waited until third block had started before I tried to get out of the school. I had made it about halfway through the day before I realized that I just needed to leave and be with my family again. My actual family, not the Rickers. They were so nice to me and they took me in when I needed someone, but I didn't feel like I belonged with them. There just wasn't a connection between us, except for Alex and me. He was the only one I opened up to, besides crying in front of Mr. Ricker at the hospital, but now he was angry at me for trying to end my suffering.
He called it selfish and unforgivable. I don't know if he knew how much that hurt me, just to hear him call me all those horrible names as if I didn't have any feelings. But I knew it was also to make a point; he wanted me to feel like he did when he and Alex found me with my arm cut open. I was too scared, so I hadn't cut deep enough, but the loss of blood was tremendous and scary. I vowed to never do it again, because I realized I didn't want to die, but there was nothing I could do to change my life now. I was too far gone.
“You're touching your scar again. You shouldn't dwell on the past, Sara, it holds you back,” Damon said from behind me which caused me to jump slightly as his sudden presence.
“I thought I was the sneaky one here,” I said as I stepped back, but continued to cover my scar in shame. The scar took up most of my right forearm, about two finger widths away from my wrist almost to the crease of my elbow. Covering it with my hand didn't do much since it could still be seen, but it made me feel better.
“I'm sneakier than you. Let's go,” he said in his no messing around voice, as he put his arm around me and led me out of the school and into the parking lot.
&nb
sp; “How did you know I was thinking about that night?”
“You touch your scar when you think about it or get upset. It's just something I noticed being around you so long.” He led me toward a black Dodge that I had never seen before.
“Where are we going, Damon?”
“You will see when we get there. Well, actually you won't, sorry Sara,” he said just as a black bag was pulled over my head. There was a sudden darkness and I was lifted off the ground. I let out a terrified scream as I was thrown into the car. There was a set of hands patting me down before they tied my hands together. I tried to struggle against them, but it wasn't working.
“Damon!” I cried as the door slammed shut.
“Just trust us, Sara. This is for your own good, I can promise you that,” a new voice said from the front seat
“Mark?” I questioned as another door closed and the car revved to life. I knew it was Mark, but that didn’t calm me down. It made me fearful, why were they doing this to me? “Let me go guys! This isn't funny!”
“Roll up the window. I don't want to hear her screaming the whole time we drive,” Mark said, clearly annoyed by my panic attack.
“We can't do that. It may traumatize her,” Damon said in a concerned tone as the car suddenly started to move faster.
“It's either that or we chloroform her. What do you think is better?” Mark asked nonchalantly as the sound of a motor operated window hit my ears.
“Please don't do this guys. Where are you taking me? Just let me go if this is some kind of sick joke.” I cried as tears started to slip over my eyelashes. I was terrified; I didn't know what was going on or why they were doing this. This wasn't like them—they normally took extra gentle care of me. They took care of me better than I took care of myself most of the time… What had changed?
“We're sorry, Sara, but you're going to thank us,” Damon's voice said as a strong smell of acetone hit my nostrils and my head started to feel lighter than air. I was feeling woozy and dizzy as someone tried to talk to me, but I couldn't hear them clearly. I heard vague sounds until everything went black and soon I no longer heard anything.
Chapter 4
“What did you do to her?” a voice questioned, pulling me from my induced slumber. “I thought I made it clear that we had a no abduction policy. She was supposed to come willingly. Explain your reasoning for breaking the direct orders I gave you, both of you, right this second!” The angry male voice yelled as I stirred from my sleep. I tried to get a bearing on my senses and my location, but the sedation was having a bad effect on me. My vision was blurry and I didn’t feel as if I was in full control of my body as it jerked and tensed uncontrollably. I felt as if my limbs weren’t attached when I attempted to move because they reacted so late. They either moved without warning, or reacted late; there was no middle ground.
“She was becoming hysterical, sir. She saw that it wasn't Damon's car and started to panic. It only got worse once we were in the car, she isn't the biggest fan of them since the crash in the first place, but having her thrown into one wasn't the best idea,” a familiar voice said matter-of-factly.
I forced my eyes to shut tighter before I blinked repeatedly in an attempt to clear my vision. The fog started to clear as I was thrown into a world of blinding light pouring through my eyelashes. I blinked a few more times as I stretched to wake myself up and reconnect my limbs to my motions. The room slowly came into view as the image became one instead of doubling everything in my line of sight. I sat up slowly to control the pounding in my head a little better, but it didn't work. My head pounded harder in protest and the room started to spin rapidly as I moved. I braced myself against the wall so that I could see where I was and determine what the yelling was about.
As the room finally started to slow, I could see that there were three people across the room from me, but I couldn't see their faces clearly to understand who they were. I glanced around the room to notice I was on a couch near the exit in a big office. There were three long rectangular tables near me that were in the shape of a horseshoe and a large desk placed at the open end of the horseshoe. That's where the three people were arguing about me, a fair distance away from me, and they were so immersed in their argument that they hadn't noticed I woke up.
When the room stopped spinning, the light stopped hurting my eyes, and I decided to sneak out of the room. I got up slowly, to prevent the reactivation of the spinning, double vision or blurry vision. With light footsteps on the balls of my feet I was able to slip out of the slightly ajar doorway with ease. I didn't even have to open it due to my small frame managing to slide right through. I was home free until I heard a male voice behind me say, “I don't care how it looked! Your orders where to bring her here willingly. What's going to happen when she wakes up?”
There was a moment of silence on the other side of the door that had me panicking. They had probably seen that I wasn’t in the room anymore and were soon going to be after me. Fear ran cold in my veins, and when I heard their footsteps running toward the door, I sprinted. I didn't want to be caught again, and I had to avoid it until I figured out where I was. It couldn’t have been Mark and Damon that brought me here, they wouldn’t have shoved me in a car and sedated me. Would they? Although when I turned a corner and got my answer.
“Sara, what are you doing?” Damon asked as he suddenly appeared in front of me. His eyebrow was lifted curiously as he looked me over, but he looked calm whereas I was anything but. I had tried to make sense of Damon kidnapping me, but I couldn't. It didn’t make any sense, he knew that he could have just asked me to go with him. He didn’t have to sedate me. I didn’t know what to think, and the only thing I knew for sure is that I had to get away from him until I figured it out.
“N-n-nothing,” I stuttered as I backed up a few steps, until ran into someone standing close behind me. I turned around to see Mark with an annoyed grimace on his face. I let out an awkward chuckle as I tried to back away from him, but he grabbed me by the arm to hold me in place. I was out numbered, and suddenly uncomfortable with people I considered to be my friends.
“That was a good try, Sara,” Mark said as his hands landed lightly on my shoulders. “But you're not fast enough to escape like that yet. Especially when you're in this building when we know the layout and you don't,” he said as I tried to pull out of his hold. His steely gaze glared into me as I shied away from him. He let me go after a few moments, and as I backed away, I was able to see another man behind Mark.
He was easily six feet tall, with a muscular body and stone cold features that had a chill racing down my spine. The dark green eyes he was watching me with had me itching to run away as fast as I could, but they looked so familiar that a small part of me felt safe with him around. I would have felt better if I could've remembered him, but I couldn't place his face and that scared me even more. I was tempted to ask if I had seen him before, but I was too terrified of my surroundings to process my reaction.
“That's what you think, but I’ll show you,” I said in response to Mark's comment about not being able to escape. I may not be faster than these boys, but if there's one thing I could do, I could squeeze out of a tight situation.
They looked at me and then each other, confused at my words, while I prepared myself for moves I hadn't done in almost four years. I took a running start at Damon, since he didn't have anyone behind him like Mark did, and dove over him. My hands touched the floor behind him and I forced my back to arch over so I could land on my feet. I had been going too fast and stumbled slightly before I got my footing again and started running. I was suddenly pleased that my sister had taken the time to teach me cheerleading while I was growing up. While I didn't enjoy the sport, it came in handy right now, and it made me feel like Kim Possible.
I turned a corner, glancing behind me to see Mark in pursuit. I had no idea where I was going, and didn't have time to worry about it because my instinct was to run and find some way out of here. After racing around in a few hallways,
I found a set of stairs and followed them in hope of losing Mark. I pushed past people I had never seen before as I tried to get away, but I couldn't help but to ask myself questions as I raced by. Why weren't they trying to get out? Why were they looking at me as if I was insane? They stood by while others were taken and did nothing to help.
This is so strange, I thought to myself as I came off the flight of stairs and saw Damon waiting for me. His expression was no longer calm, his features were creased with annoyance and anger. Normally he was so patient with me; I had never seen him angry before and I didn't like it.
I turned around and sped down a different hallway. I took turn after turn through the maze of this building, but at everywhere I went, Damon was already there. When I tried to get away for the sixth time, I ran into Mark with Damon boxing me in from behind. Mark's features were contorted in complete aggravation as he approached me. I stood frozen for a second before I glanced a little further down the hall and saw another corridor that I could use to take me past Mark and Damon. I took a few steps back and acted as if I was going to jump over Mark as I had done to Damon, and when I started racing toward him he anticipated my jump and grabbed in the wrong direction. While I slid under his legs and rolled on the floor with the momentum, which carried me until I was back on my feet, Mark had been ready to grab me from the air if I leapt over him. I was able to make the transition much more smoothly than the first time, and was gone before Mark could turn around to grab me. But, my luck ran out as I raced into the hallway I had been thinking would be my escape. When I turned the corner I found the third man blocking my way and before I could run, he grabbed my bicep with his powerful grip.
