“Kyung??” I called. No answer. I wasn’t too worried though. My bigger concern was checking my e-mail. I haven’t heard from Nick in two days. It had been five months since I had seen him. That was in the hospital. I had finally gotten released, but he still went in as an outpatient for physical therapy. Ever since then, we had talked every day. At the very most we had skipped a day. Either on the phone, but more often by email. Even if it was just a quick one to say hi. Now it was almost the end of Wednesday and I hadn’t heard from him since Monday morning. He hadn’t returned an e-mails and both his and Brian’s cell phones only rang. I was worried.
I left the front door open, leaving my gym bag and laundry basket on the porch. When I tried to flip on the light, nothing happened. “Damn.” I muttered. Was the power out? But, no, the neighbor’s lights were on. I had noticed because they always leave their blinds open and you can see everything. I started to go find a flashlight when I felt a monstrous arm circle my neck. I gasped at the sudden lack of oxygen.
“We’ve got a little surprise for you.” A deep voice growled, in my ear.
I struggled to break free, but whoever was holding me was huge. I couldn’t even budge him. My heart was pounding. I increased my struggle.
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” He stated menacingly.
Out of desperation I threw my hand back and my nails connected with something. I dug my nails in.
“YOU BITCH!” My assailant screamed as he let go of me. I took my chance and started to run. I didn’t make it two feet before I felt something crack down over the back of my head. I didn’t even have time to react as I pitched forward, falling unconscious.
Okay, this laying around was driving me crazy. I spent most of the past two
days trying to figure out how to break free of the handcuffs that were
forced on my wrists and the thick chain that went from my left ankle to the
outer bar on the steel cage I was locked up in. I looked over at Brian. He was
still sleeping in his confinement, the same predicament as mine. I had yet to
meet the person that had done this to us and still had no idea why this was
happening.
Searching the dimly lit room, I could see two more cages off into a corner.
From what I could tell, they were both empty. I was still trying to figure out
where we were. It had to be an older house of some type. It smelled dank
and musty. I could hear water constantly dripping and the mold was
definately not doing great things for my allergies. It had been two days
since I had taken my anti-seizure meds and I was starting to wonder how
long I could go without those.
A heavy wooden door that evidently led to freedom creeked open. A short,
fat man came lumbering in with a female’s body slung over his shoulder. Her
arms drooped lifelessly. I narrowed my eyes hoping to make out who this
person was.
“HEY!” I yelled at the man. He continued his work, ignoring me. “HEY!”
The man threw the cage door open and tossed the woman’s body onto the
floor. He methodically handcuffed her wrists and placed a shackle around
her ankle and then attached a chain to the brace and then to the bar of her
cage.
“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US?” I yelled again. The man slammed
her door closed and waddled over to where I was. He looked dirty and
sweatty. He picked up a steel bar and poked me in the side. I flinched away
when the steel met my skin.
“SHUT UP!”
The bar made an echoing clanging noise as he dropped it to the floor. He
turned on his heels and walked out the door, slamming it loudly when he
closed it.
The commotion woke Brian up, he slowly sat up, coughing and holding the
back of his head.
I just stared at him, helplessly.
“Still hurt?” I asked quietly. I was afraid he had a concussion from the blow
to his head.
Brian cleared his throat to talk. “Yeah. You have any clues yet?”
“All I’ve seen is some fat guy and he just brought in a woman and put her
over there,” I said as I pointed towards one of the cages in the dark.
“This is just too weird, who would want to do this and why only you and I?”
Brian asked.
“I don’t know. I wish I did, I’ve been trying to figure this out and I still have
no reason why this is happening,” I replied as I shrugged my shoulders.
Before Brian could answer, the door creaked open again. The fat man
reappeared holding a camera. He pointed it at me and snapped a picture, the
flash of the camera nearly blinding me. He did the same to Brian and then to
the woman.
“HEY! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?” I took a gamble at asking the man again.
“Where are we?” Brian asked in a more calmer tone of voice than mine.
The man didn’t answer, only walked out the door and once again slammed it
shut.
“Nick, how are you feeling?” Brian asked as he pulled on the chain around his
ankle.
“I’m more concerned about you,” I replied.
Brian shook his head no. “I am more worried about you and your seizures.”
“Maybe they are gone now, don’t worry about me, I’m okay,” I tried to
reassure him as well as myself. I was feeling a little funny earlier, but I was
hoping that it was just a case of nerves.
Suddenly, a loud moan came from over in the dark corner from the woman.
“Hey, are you okay?” Brian and me asked simultaneously.
“Nick? Brian?”
“Oh my god! Lizz!”
I slowly sat up, immediately feeling dizzy. I reached my hand up to the back of my head and felt a good sized knot. My thoughts were still fuzzy and I felt disoriented.
“You too?” I squinted into the room and as my eyes focused, I made out the shape of three more cages. Nick and Brian occupied two of them. The more my eyes focused, the more I could see that they were shackled much as I was. Brian was motioning to the bump on my head. His hand was resting gently on the back of his own head and I guessed that whoever had done this, had hit him too.
“I feel like I’ve been slammed in the head by a two by four.” I mumbled.
“Are you okay?” Nick asked anxiously.
“I think so. What’s going on? Are you guys okay?” My head was beginning to clear now.
“We’re fine and we have no idea what is going on. We’ve both been here for two days. We’ve only seen a short fat man and once a woman that looked to be about his age. They won’t answer any of our questions.” Brian explained.
I looked around the room. There were no windows and it felt damp. Not to mention, it had a rather unpleasant smell. “What day is it?” I asked.
“As far as I know, late Wednesday night. Maybe early Thursday morning.” Nick suggested.
“I was just getting home and when I let myself into my apartment someone came up behind me and grabbed me. He was huge. I don’t think he was the guy you described because this guy was tall. He wasn’t fat either, just huge. I scratched him and when I tried to run he must have hit me. I don’t remember anything after that.” I said, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice.
“Lizz, we...” Brian started. He was interrupted when a large door over in the corner of the room opened. A tall, younger looking guy strode in, something draped over their shoulder. As he walked closer I could see that the something was a someone. He opened up the cage next to mine and dumped the unconscious figure in and chained her up. I gasped when I saw who it was.
Kyung.
Without thinking, I jumped up in the tiny cage. “You bastard!! What the hell did you do to her?!”
The guy walked over to me and I could see his face now. Angry, red claw marks went down the length of his cheek and I knew he was the one who kidnapped me.
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” Nick yelled at him.
“Who are you?” Brian also demanded. Neither one of them had seen this guy before.
“You asshole! If you hurt her, I swear to you...” I continued to holler. The guy grinned at me. He might have been decent looking if his eyes weren’t so cold and hard. I tried not to shudder. “Why did you bring us here? Who are you?!” I yelled.
His grin disappeared and was replaced by a menacing glare. “You know what happened to the cat when it got curious?” He sneered at me.
“Do I look like a cat to you?!” I shot back.
Once again his look changed and this was one I did not like. I shrank away from him in my tiny cage.
“Oh, maybe.” He then purred at me. “I can see you’ve already used your claws. Don’t think you are getting away with that.” He rubbed his cheek.
“You’re a fucking sicko.” I whispered. I was scared, but I didn’t want him to see that.
He grabbed a metal pole that I had missed before. “You’re gonna get the same treatment as your loudmouth friend over if you don’t watch your mouth.” He snarled. With that he jammed the pole into the cage and into my side. I sucked in my breath and dropped back to the floor of the cage. No way was I going to show him my pain. Instead I glared at him.
He whirled around and stalked off to the door. “I have a surprise for you guys. Someone who has been waiting a long time for this. I’m sure you will be very glad to see her.” He opened the door.
"Okay, I could see Nick skippin' out on this, but Brian? AJ commented as he looked at his watch.
"I wonder if the two of them rode together and are just stuck in traffic," Howie defended.
"For two hours?" AJ replied. "And no call at all?"
"I hate to say it, but I agree with AJ," Kevin stated. "Have you tried either one's pager yet?"
"No, but I will now," AJ said as he picked the phone up. First he dialed Brian's pager and then Nick's. After he finished with his task, he started back up with pacing the floor as Howie sat on the backwards chair, watching.
A sharp knock on the door snapped Kevin out of the trance he had put himself into with his thoughts of what was happening with Nick and Brian.
"I'll get it," Howie announced as he stood up. Looking out of the peep hole in the door, he saw Susan, their appointment secretary in the hall. As soon as she entered the room, AJ started making comments about Nick and Brian botching up their schedule.
Susan wordlessly held out a blue slip of paper, her face ashen.
Kevin took the paper from her and read it outloud.
"Do not worry, Brian and Nick are fine. Their friends Kyung and Lizz are with them as well. I got screwed over once and it won't happen again. This is not a demand for money, this is just a letter to let you know that they will be staying with me until the paper meets my demands."
"This was in the envelope too," Susuan said softly as she held out two polaroid snapshots.
AJ took the pictures from Susan.
"Oh shit, this is Nick and Bri, I can't tell where they are, but there's like a chain link fence behind them," AJ stated as he handed the photos to Kevin.
"Where did you get this?" Kevin asked.
"It came through the mail, I guess maybe one of them gave the kidnapper the office address," Susan explained.
Kevin looked at the white envelope and the postmark on it. "This isn't any help, it's got a generic postmark on it," Kevin sighed.
"We better call the police," Howie advised.
Terri stepped into the room, a smug grin pasted on her face. I couldn’t believe it was her. How did she get out of jail? She was the one behind this?! But why? I glanced over at Nick and Brian. Brian looked as shocked as I felt. Nick looked just plain pissed off.
“YOU BITCH! THIS IS YOU’RE DOING?!” He screamed at her.
The guy I had scratched walked over to Nick’s cage and picked up a metal bar that was lying near it. “I don’t think you better be talking to my girlfriend like that pal.” He stated angrily, brandishing the pole.
Nick backed away from the front of the cage, although he only had room to move about two feet.
Terri smiled sweetly at him. “You’re looking so much better. I didn’t think you would ever be normal again.” Her gaze shifted towards me. “You either. You were supposed to die.”
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want that pole in my side again.
“Well, I suppose you are all wondering why I brought you here. You see, I was supposed to get a lot of money because of you guys, but no, you had to go and ruin it for me. Well, I will get what I deserve. The National Enquiror was supposed to give me a lot of money. I was promised a job there. I would have had it all. But, NO, you had to ruin that didn’t you?! Instead, I lost my job at the hospital, I lost my money, I lost my offer to be a reporter, I WENT TO JAIL!” Terri paced back and forth in front of our cages. Thankfully Kyung was still out. I knew she would be freaking out when she woke up.
Just then an older woman peeked her head into the room. “Terri, sweetie, the letters were delivered. They should be reading them now. I even postmarked the envelopes so they won’t have any idea we are so close.”
“Thanks mom. We won’t be here for much longer anyway.” Terri replied as her mom went back through the door.
What the heck was that?! What did she mean by so close? If the mom had delivered them, but postmarked them, does that mean we were in Florida? That didn’t make sense. Did it? And what did they mean about not being here for much longer? Were they going to kill us or move us or what? My head was pounding and trying to fit the pieces together only made it hurt worse.
Terri turned back to us. “Don’t think we are going to make this easy on you. The four of you ruined my life and while we are waiting for my demands to be made, I am going to put you all through just what I went through. Do any of you know what it’s like to be in jail?! Trust me, you’re going to find out.” Terri was getting more and more agitated. Apparently she didn’t have a good jail experience. Sarcasm noted. The more she said, the more uneasy I got. What the hell did she plan on doing with us?
After her little speech, she turned around and flounced out of the room. Her boyfriend followed her. After he slammed the door it was silent for about two seconds when I heard a sob.
“Kyung?! Oh god, are you okay?” I called to her.
She was breathing hard and repeating over and over, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”
I looked over at Nick and Brian and they both looked pained. How could we do anything when we were in these damned cages? “Kyung. Kyung! Listen to me! Hey!” I called sharply.
She continued to breathing in the same fashion. Shit. “Kyung, sweetie, you gotta stop hyperventilating. Besides, that’s my thing. C’mon, hun, breathe. Take in a deep breath okay? Slow. C’mon babe. Look at me okay?” I coached.
Finally she looked up, her eyes wide with fear. “Kyung, I am not gonna let them hurt you okay? We’re going to get out of this. All of us. Okay? Sweetie, do you hear me?!” I said sternly.
She nodded, breathing a little more regularly. I ran my hands through my hair. “What now?”
“I don’t know. What are they gonna do? I can’t believe this, I really can’t. That girl is totally psychotic and she’s got her whole family into it. And her boyfriend I guess.” Nick replied.
I shuddered. “He scares me.” I whispered.
Brian nodded. “It seems as though they have it all figured out. That woman, the mom, said she delivered the letters. I’m guessing ransom letters? And delivered them how? Are we local and she dropped them off today and they were delivered today? She said whoever was getting them should be reading them now. They have this planned to a ‘T’.”
“But they said something about us going somewhere else? Why? When? Where?” I countered.
Brian shook his head. “I don’t know...”
“She’s got so much anger in her. She is going to take that out on us.” I said, wrapping my arms around my knees.
The next hour went by painfully slow. I was getting hungry and my head was still pounding. Kyung had barely said two words and I was getting really worried about her. Brian had fallen back asleep and Nick mentioned that he thought that Brian might have a concussion.
“Nick?” I called quietly, breaking the silence.
“Yeah?”
“I don’t have my meds.” I have to take a bunch of immunosuppresants for the rest of my life now. They keep my body from rejecting my kidneys and lungs. If I didn’t take them, I risked rejecting the organs. That could kill me.
“Shit, Lizz...” He was quiet for a second. “I don’t have mine either.”
I shook my head. “You haven’t had a seizure have you?”
“No, but...”
“But what?” I pressed.
“I felt kinda funny earlier.” He said so quietly, I could barely hear him.
I shut my eyes. “This is really bad.” I hadn’t cried yet, and I was determined not to now.
Before Nick could answer, the door burst open. A guy walked in that appeared to be about Brian’s age. He looked a lot like Terri and I wondered if he was her brother. Terri’s boyfriend was behind him. Terri pushed her way around both of them and announced “Time for some fun!”
