by Leela Ash
2.
The cab lurched forward and then slowed almost immediately. They had been stuck in traffic for almost twenty minutes and Eve was beginning to feel anxious. Up ahead, all she could see was the red glare of what could have been a thousand tail lights and the deafening sound of horns rang out on every side of her.
“Is there no other way around?” she asked the cab driver who just shrugged and shook his head.
She looked over her shoulder and at the line of cars mounting up behind them and knew that they were going nowhere fast. Whatever had happened up ahead, the traffic wasn’t moving and she was most certainly going to be late. She pulled out her cell and checked the GPS. With relief she realized that she was within walking distance if she braved it and went off the main road. She tapped the driver on the shoulder before thrusting twenty dollars into his palm.
She climbed out and slammed the door behind her before she trotted over to the sidewalk and looked down at her phone again. There was a network of side streets which went off the main street and it looked like if she took one of them she would come out in the middle of the industrial estate and right near the warehouse.
She looked around her and noted how busy it was… the lines of beeping cars, the crowds on the sidewalks and the buzz all around made her feel as if she would be safe stepping off the beaten track. She sucked in a big lungful of air as if she was about to go underwater, looked down at the map on her cellphone and darted off down a side street.
It was pitch black down there and she knew that she was being silly risking her safety by disappearing down a darkened alley in a part of the city she didn’t know, and one which was infamous for its crime rates, but she couldn’t miss out on this event. She knew that Cassandra could easily leave her and go inside to join her colleagues, she was already almost thirty minutes late.
Her heels clipped along the wet tarmac beneath her feet and she tried not to look into the dark corners of the alley as she weaved in and out of trash cans and heard the odd scuttle of what was no doubt rats in the drains. As she raced onwards she checked her cell again and could see that she was getting closer, she only had two more turns to take and she should be coming out directly opposite the warehouse. The alleys were becoming smaller and more remote, the buildings either side of her were growing taller and loomed up above her head, their windows smashed in and dark. She pulled her coat tightly around her and sucked in her breath again, almost too afraid to breathe in case she brought any more attention to herself should there be a homeless person, or worse, lurking in one of the shadowed corners.
Just when she could see the light up ahead and she began to feel as if she was home free she suddenly heard a loud crash to the left of her from another small alley and she stopped in her tracks before she hid back behind the wall, out of sight.
She peered down into the darkness and to her surprise and fright saw that there was a group of men standing down there, illuminated by the headlights of several motorcycles. She stopped still, she didn’t dare move. She could see that the men were clad in leather and chains and the group was surrounding one man in particular… and he looked afraid.
Eve ducked further into the shadows and peered around the corner, watching them. She didn’t dare run past the walkway for fear of them seeing her, and she didn’t dare turn back because she had already come too far. She looked ahead and could see the light of the main street up ahead. She knew the warehouse was there and she could hear the dull thump of music running deep along the ground. She was so close she could almost reach out and touch it, but she was stuck there… in the wet, dark alley, with a group of men clearly up to no good.
She swallowed hard and peered around the corner again. Tensions were high and one of the larger men with a long beard beat his clenched fist into his palm and circled the man in the center with a ferocious look on his face.
What is going on? Eve thought as she held her breath, too scared to make a sound.
“You fucked up,” a gruff voice echoed down the alley towards her and she peered around the corner to get a look at what was happening.
The larger bearded man was standing with a gang of what had to be bikers behind him, waiting to pounce if he needed help. He was smiling, clearly enjoying every second of being in control and he laughed as he swung a large baseball bat from one hand to the other.
“You fucked up and now I’m going to take great pleasure in teaching you a lesson,” he said. “This is a message to your club and we’ll make sure that none of them ever forget it.”
Eve gasped as she watched him swing the bat high above his head and brought it crashing down onto the head of the man in the center of the circle. He pummeled him over and over and Eve watched with horror as blood spurted out of his mouth and sprayed across the ground. The other men roared with cheers and upturned one of the bikes before they pulled out bats of their own and began to smash that up as well. The whole group was in an uproar of testosterone and violence and Eve’s eyes were wide with fright at the scene unfolding in front of her.
She wanted to scream, but her instincts just told her to run. Without missing a beat she kicked off her heels and scooped them up in her hands before she ran as fast as she could towards the end of the alley, leaving the horrific scene behind her.
As she burst out of the darkness and arrived in front of the warehouse, her hands were shaking. Cars circled her and limos pulled up as glittering people stepped out and photographer’s lights flashed.
Eve was bewildered. Had she really just seen it all? Or had the glass of wine she had sipped before she left her apartment gone to her head? She rubbed her eyes and breathed in deeply before she made her way into the crowd in a daze, just trying to make sure that she blended in and wasn’t drawing any attention to herself. She slipped her shoes back on to her dirty feet with her shaking hands.
“Eve?” Cassandra called over the crowd as she staggered towards her.
“Cass,” she whispered.
“What the hell are you doing? Why weren’t you wearing your shoes?” Cassandra pouted with a confused look on her face.
Eve shook her head. She didn’t even know where to begin.
“Go on in without me,” she said as she began to approach a cab that was pulling up to drop off other partygoers. “I’m sorry, I just…” she didn’t know what to say. All she knew was that she had to get the hell out of there.
As she slid onto the back seat of the taxi the image continued to replay in her mind over and over. The man’s face being hit with the bat. The blood and the sound of laughter.
Her skin prickled.
What the hell had she walked into?
3.
Eve lay in bed still fully clothed and stared up at the ceiling. It was approaching midnight and she had been home for around two hours. She had missed the great party, she had broken her own promise to herself to begin her year in the most fabulous way possible, but how could she have carried on after what she had seen?
On her way back in the cab she had debated asking the driver to drop her off at a police station… but she had known the second she had seen those men in the shadows down the alley that they were likely to be the kind that the law couldn’t touch. Even though Eve had lived a sheltered life, she knew a criminal when she saw one, and those men with their leather jackets, their chains and their bikes were the epitome of danger.
She knew she couldn’t tell Cassandra and she knew she couldn’t tell the police. She was on her own with the burden and she didn’t see how the hell she was going to manage to fall asleep.
Could he be dead? She thought.
Did they see me?
It had all happened so fast it was a blur, but one thing she knew for certain was that now her life was never going to be the same. She was a witness to a serious crime and she was in trouble. Even if they didn’t see her there, she was going to have to carry the weight of the secret around with her for the rest of her life, constantly wondering what had happened, or if she would bump
into one of them and recognize them, giving the game away.
She felt the tears prick the corners of her eyes. What a mess. She had been so determined and focused on herself and on beginning her new life that she had ended up going in completely the opposite direction. Now all she could think about was that faceless man and of how the great big biker with the beard had smashed in his skull with a bat.
She shuddered and pulled the covers up around her. Outside the city was still alive with chatter, music and anticipation of the New Year to come. As Eve lay wide awake in her bed she wondered what her neighbors were up to and whether they were all out raving and having an amazing time. She cursed the cab driver for getting them stuck in that jam and then she cursed herself for thinking that way. She had only missed a party… that guy in the alley… he could very well be dead.
She rolled over and buried her head in the pillow. It was going to be a long night of tossing and turning and even though her body was exhausted her mind was wide awake and buzzing with thoughts.
As the hours passed she became aware of the countdown drifting in from the street. She blinked tears away as the clock chimed midnight and she heard the cheers from the bars and restaurants and out on the street. When it went quiet again she closed her eyes and sighed.
Tomorrow is another day, she thought positively. Time to switch off and try to forget. Wrong place, wrong time… You were just unlucky, that’s all.
As she drifted off into a restless sleep she blocked out visions of what had been the end of her year. She couldn’t dwell on it. She had to forget and move on.
Lights from cars peeked in through the crack of the curtain and she sat bolt upright, suddenly awake. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end and her heart was pounding but she couldn’t tell why. She wiped her forehead and realized her hand had come back damp. She was sweating and shaking. She must have been having a nightmare. She breathed in and out deeply and slowly, trying to calm herself down.
“One, two, three…” she said aloud before she breathed in again.
She looked at the clock on her nightstand and saw it was 4:30am. She must have been back at the apartment for at least six hours and she was still a bag of nerves. She exhaled and lay back down and pulled the covers around her. Even though it was January 1st, it was still good and warm in the apartment and it made her smile and forget her worries for a moment. She had picked a floor right in the middle of the modern high rise, and as a result she rarely ever found it to be cold.
She listened again to the sounds of life out on the street and she was about to drift back off when suddenly something snapped her back onto high alert.
She heard a creak on the floorboards in the hallway outside of her bedroom door.
She held her breath as her pulse hammered through her ears.
Did I really hear that? She thought.
She was about to close her eyes when it happened again, but this time there was no mistaking what was happening… the floorboards weren’t just creaking… someone was walking down the hallway, right for her bedroom door.
Her heart almost burst out of her chest as she reached for her cellphone and scrambled to dial 911, but she couldn’t do it fast enough.
Within seconds the door to her room crashed open and a huge, hulking figure came into view. Eve was trembling and she knew that there was nothing she could do but scream.
As she bellowed so loud she thought she might burst her own eardrums, the shadowy figure in front of her came into view and her nightmare was fully realized.
She recognized the man.
He was clad in leather and had a long beard.
It was the bat-swinging maniac from the alleyway and he was there… in her bedroom…
This was no coincidence… Someone had seen her and they had followed her home.
They had come to make sure that the only witness wouldn’t talk.
“Please,” she stammered. “Please don’t hurt me!”
She held up her hand and cowered down as her cellphone tumbled off the bed and onto the floor. The man stomped on it with his huge steel capped boot and pulled her by the arm out of her bed and up towards him. He was so strong and powerful she knew she couldn’t resist.
Without saying a word he clamped a hand over her mouth and with the other handcuffed her wrists behind her back. In the haze she had no idea what was happening but in an instant a rag was shoved in her mouth and her world went black.
She felt him lift her over his shoulder and she heard the clomp of his boots as he moved down the hallway. She was powerless and terrified and she knew there was nothing she could do.
Whoever he was, Eve was at his mercy… she was being kidnapped.
4.
She awoke with her hands bound high above her against an iron railing. She was shivering and the cold bit her skin as she blinked the sleep out of her eyes and groggily tried to figure out what was happening. She wasn’t at home. She was somewhere she didn’t recognize.
“Hello?” she croaked as she forced her eyes open fully and looked around.
The room was bare and dark. The mattress she was lying on was supposed to resemble a bed but it was patchy and hard. A sharp spring poked out of the foam next to her on her right side and she could see that it was dirty.
She shifted her weight and tried to move herself off it, but her hands were bound so tightly above her that she couldn’t shift an inch. As she became more conscious and more aware that she was trapped, her pulse raced faster and she began to panic.
“Help!” she screamed and she kicked out her feet trying to free herself but failing miserably.
She looked down at the floor and at how cold and gray it looked and it made her shiver even more.
Oh God, she thought. What the hell am I going to do? Where am I?
Her mind raced and she remembered the man… the cracking of the bat in the alleyway… the figure looming above her as she should have been safe in her bed… and now she was here, in a dark, cold room that she didn’t know. She tried to pull her knees up to her chest but her energy was fleeting. She was exhausted as if she had just run a marathon, but she knew it was from trauma.
She had been scared half to death.
She began to cry quietly to herself when she heard the sounds of heavy boots coming towards the doorway and she held her breath. As the door began to open she knew instantly who was going to come inside, and when the long beard came into view she couldn’t help but wail.
“Please,” she begged. “Don’t hurt me!”
The huge hulking man, clad in leathers and with the meanest look on his face that Eve had ever seen, snarled as he closed the door behind him and stood staring at her.
He folded his arms across his chest and breathed in and out deeply.
Eve was petrified. She stared back at him in terror and didn’t dare move. He was so big and intimidating that she didn’t dare speak. She watched the way his eyes glossed over her. He seemed to be taking in each little detail on her face, as if he was taking a snapshot of her and committing her to memory.
“I heard you were my audience in the alleyway,” he spoke finally. “What did you see, girl?”
His voice was deep and menacing and Eve trembled as she looked up at him.
“Nothing,” she finally stammered. “I didn’t see anything.”
She shook as she remembered what it had looked like as the man that was now stood in front of her had swung the bat high over his head before crashing it down onto the face of another.
He was a brute.
A criminal…
… and quite possibly even a murderer.
“Well, we’ll find out I suppose,” he said with a sneer before he turned and heaved the heavy metal door open before letting it crash closed behind him.
Eve let out a lung full of air and panted. She was dizzy and disorientated and could barely comprehend what was happening.
She had been kidnapped by the criminal she had accidentally stumbled upon on her
way to the New Year’s party. She was being held captive for information, or worse. She was completely screwed.
Shit, she thought as she bit her lip.
Just when she was about to try her luck with the restraints on her wrists again and attempt to wriggle free, she heard another set of steps coming down the hallway. They were just as loud and heavy as the bearded man, but she knew they weren’t his. There was just something about the way this person moved with less urgency and aggression. She knew that whoever was going to come through the door this time was either coming to break her, or save her.
She felt a tear roll down her cheek as she looked up towards the door with wide eyes. And as it creaked open and the figure on the other side came into view, she was sure her heart stopped for a moment.
He stood tall at over six foot and his sandy blonde hair fell down around his eyes as he stepped through the doorway, letting in a slice of light. He looked down at her and as his dark eyes found hers she sensed a warmness in them that she hadn’t been expecting to find in this situation. His frame was huge. His muscles were ripped and seemed to swell out from under his clothes. But unlike the man with the beard, he wasn’t all clad in leather, he wore a pair of ripped, low slung jeans and a vest.
Eve swallowed as she stared up at him, her eyes wide with more than fear. She knew the second she laid eyes on him that he was going to be trouble for her in more ways than one. He was like a God stood above her. He was incredible.
Oh my God, she thought trying to force the naughty ideas from her mind. You’re at the mercy of these men… don’t get turned on.
She shuffled back on the mattress and waited for him to come closer, but he stood in the doorway as if he didn’t know what to do or how to act.
Finally he stepped further inside and closed the door behind him. He cracked his knuckles and Eve winced. Maybe her initial impression had been wrong. Maybe he was there to break her.
“You’re in a lot of trouble,” he whispered through the darkness.
