1440
Megan Held
Copyright 2011 by Megan Held
Smashwords Edition
Smashwords
Edition, License Notes
This
ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may
not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to
share this book with another person, please purchase an additional
copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not
purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please
return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for
respecting the hard work of this author.
First of all, this is for my husband. Second, this is for all my friends who kept pushing for me to finish this book.
Prologue
Sometimes, I wonder how I got here. Why did I deserve this? I have wondered a lot during the past day. It was all I could do. I have been alone most of the day. I spent most of the time in silence. Now I lie here, silent, and alone with my thoughts. I listen closely, and jump at the sound of gunshots, outside of the room I was locked in. I can hear the screaming and more gunshots. I turn my head and look at the empty doorway. I desperately want to know what is happening outside. Who is dying, and who is being injured. I cough up blood and spit what was left in my mouth on to the floor. I continued to listen to everything happening outside of the room I was in. I wished I could just get up and unlock the door to see the horror outside. My body will not move, except for turning my head. I cough up more blood and my eyes began to tear up. I know that this is not good. I know that I am dying. I look up at the door and watch it slowly darken. First at the edges, then the darkness swallows the door. The last thing I comprehended is the sound of a single gunshot and then utter silence.
Hostage
Kylie, my older sister, and only sibling drove us to school each morning. She was normally on time, but when she was not, she would speed down the roads to still arrive at school five minutes before class would start. Today was one of the days she was running late. “I cannot believe that Owen was being that much of a pain in the ass today. He is usually good for me in the mornings,” Kylie said. Owen was her two year old son, my nephew.
“He’s two! What do you expect? Come on! He’ll have those days till you are done this final year,” I told her.
“He’s just like his dad though. I told him I should not have gone back to finish the year.” Kylie gripped then loosened her grip on the steering wheel.
“You needed to. You like being in my classes, don’t you?
She parked her car in her usual spot in the senior section. She turned off the car, grabbed her backpack and got out. “I just love it! You have a lot of annoying people in your grade.”
I got out of her car and put my backpack on. “I know. I can barely stand half of them.” The school having been new the year that Kylie began grade nine still looked new. Students here took care of the school, it being of great importance to the town.
“Including Bryce?”
“Sometimes. But, I love him.” I hugged her and gave her a good-bye kiss on the cheek, since her locker was at the other side of the school, near her friends, who had stayed back an extra year. It was a better relationship not being near each other so much, other than when needed to because of her being in my grade. I walked in to the school and up the stairs to my locker, which is next to my boyfriends. I wrapped my arms around his middle, pressing my body against his lower back. “Morning Bryce,” I said.
Bryce turned around in my arms and kissed me. “Morning to you too Mel,” he said. “Are we still on for tonight?”
“Yes, we are.” I let go of him and opened my locker. I shoved my bag in it and took out everything I needed for my first period class. “How far are you in that English project?”
“I’m almost done. It’s not that hard of a project. I thought that the final project would be harder than this.”
“That’s what I thought too. I think the exam is what is going to kill us.” I set my books on the floor, between my feet and closed my locker. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head against his chest, my normal routine in the morning. The position helped clear my mind, as well as include Bryce in my daily life. He was close to being six inches taller than me and I always rested my head against his chest seeing as I am not tall enough to reach his shoulder, so his chest is the only spot convenient enough for my head to rest against.
“Rough night?”
“I had a lot of math homework to do after work.” I heard the warning bell ring. “Great! Now I actually have to go to class.”
“So do I. I’ll walk you though. Just to be the gentleman that I am.” He bent down and picked up my books and handed them to me, even though I was closer to the ground. He grabbed his books from his locker and closed the door, locking it. He held my hand as we walked to the opposite side of the school to drop me off at my class. “Have fun in chemistry.” He kissed me lightly on the lips.
“Enjoy math,” I told him as I walked in to my classroom. I walked over to my assigned seat and sat down. I took out my stuff that I needed to use and watched the teacher closely. Something I tended to do because the teacher had eyes like a hawk and noticed anything that did not seem right. I snuck my cell phone out of my purse and sent a text message to my sister. I heard the final bell ring and quickly put my cell phone away, knowing that the teacher would be more alert now that class had officially started. I sighed at the fact that the long, agonizing school day had begun. Another boring day at school. I looked up at the television screen and saw our principal and vice-principal on the morning news. Great! Someone else died for some stupid reason or another. I rested my head on my arms, and waited to hear what they had to tell all the faculty, staff and students.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I ask that you remain calm at this moment in time,” our principal said. “We ask that you cooperate fully with what is going to be done, that way, you will not be harmed.”
Harmed? What the hell is going on? It cannot be a drug search. I watched as the principal and vice-principal walked off the screen and two guys walked on in their place. The two guys were wearing black, long sleeve shirts, as well as black ski masks. How original they are, and who the hell are they?
“I ask that the White sisters please make their way in to the hallways nearest their classrooms. Immediately!” the guy on the right of the screen said in a forceful voice.
I got my cell phone out quickly and sent my sister a text message, saying to stay put; that I would tell the people that she was sick and that I am the only one here today. I turned my cell phone off after I sent that message. I nodded at the teacher as I walked to the door and out in to the hall. I was met with a fist to the face, hearing the sound of my nose breaking beneath the guy’s fist. “Fuck!” I yelled. I quickly leaned forward so that the blood would drip on to the floor, not landing all down the front of me.
“Good morning Melanie,” the guy said. “Where is your sister?”
“She’s at home, sick. Why? Did you want both of us?”
“No! I would rather have you. You’re more fun.” He grabbed my hair and pulled me up straight. He smiled and watched the blood pour down my face, my clothes and on to the floor. “I think you and me might see eye to eye.”
“You wish!” I spat blood at him, pissed off.
He dragged me by my hair and swung me against the lockers. “We’re going to have to make a few rules.”
“Rules will never withstand. People break them, everyday. They are seen as being meant to break.”
“I don’t think you will, since Owen’s life is on the line.”
“You touch him, I will kill YOU!” I said to him through clenched teeth. My hair was sticking to my face because of the blood dripping down around my mouth.
“Not if you are already dead.” He wiped some of my hair away from my face, smearing blood on to my cheeks. “Rule number one, never spit on me or strike me. If you do, you will be hurt. Rule number two, never try to run. If you do, we will shoot you. Rule number three, if you try to get one of your friends to help you, I will kill them, right in front of you.”
“Let me guess what rule is next. Hm….Rule number four could possibly be that if you yell or strike any of your men, they could hurt or kill me. Am I right?”
He smiled, and then punched me on the jaw. “Good. Rule number five, never mock me, or else I will hurt you. Are we clear?”
“I get it. But, I will not always obey them.” I spat more blood on to the floor.
He laughed. “Enjoying yourself?”
“I am just loving it. Can’t you tell?” I said sarcastically. This was not how I thought my morning would begin like.
“I can tell.” He started to pull me down the hallway by a fistful of my hair. “How about we make a visit at a classroom along the way? I am sure that you will enjoy it.”
I bit down on my bottom lip as I felt some of my hair being ripped out as he pulled me down the hallway. “You are just hoping that I will enjoy it.” I looked at the numbers on the classroom doors as we passed them. Oh no! The bastard! I looked at the classroom door that we had stopped at.
He opened the door and walked in, dragging me in behind him.
“What are you doing?” the teacher asked the guy who was dragging me.
“If you remain quiet, I will not hurt you,” he told her. He scanned the classroom and spotted Bryce. “Ah! Bryce! There you are! Do you recognize her?” He jerked my head up so that everyone in the classroom could see my bloody face. “I know that you do.”
“She’s my girlfriend! What the hell are you doing to her?” Bryce asked through his clenched teeth. He felt anger pumping through him, knowing that he had to be careful not to snap knowing that I would be hurt if he did.
The guy grinned. “This is what she deserves. She’s not too badly injured. At least, I don’t think that she is.” He pulled me up to my feet and then let go of my hair as he shoved me toward the desks. “Go say goodbye to your boyfriend. This will most likely be the last time that you will see him.”
Bryce got up and hugged me, not caring if his shirt ended up with blood on it, or not. “I promise that I will help you,” he whispered in my ear. “I’ll try everything I possibly can.” He kissed my forehead, where my blood had not managed to land on.
“How cute!” The guy made mock puking sounds. “Let’s go Melanie. We’ve got to go play a game.”
“Over my dead body!”
“Not yet. Now, do not make me have to kill you Bryce. I do not want you to make me do it.”
“Make you do it? You would do it just for fun, if you wanted to.”
He walked over and pulled me away from Bryce, by my hair again. “Come on Melanie, dear. We’ve got long hours of torture ahead of us.” He pulled me out of the classroom and toward the main stairwell. “I think your room will be ready by now.”
“My room?”
“Yes, your room. Since you are being held hostage for a while, I thought I would be nice and let you have a room. But, you won’t have any privacy. I will be in and out of there quite often.”
“Great.” I looked ahead and saw the stairs. “Will you at least let me walk down the stairs like a normal human being?”
“No! I think you will try to run. Not that I wouldn’t like to shoot you.” He let go of my hair and picked me up, putting me over his shoulder in a fireman carry.
“What the hell?” I started to flail, hoping he would let go of me.
He pulled out a knife and let it touch the back of my calves. “Do not make me stab you.”
I stopped moving. I knew that if he cut the back of my legs, I would not be able to run. I felt his hand go in to my pocket, trying to grab for something I had snuck in there. I had put my cell phone in my pocket, not my purse, hoping that I would be able to use it eventually. “What the hell do you think you are doing?”
He tossed my cell phone at the wall and broke it in to hundreds of pieces. “Just disposing of something you will not need anymore.”
I looked at what was left of my cell phone on the stair landing. There goes my only chance to live. I did not say another word, knowing that my life was at hand. I looked at all the guys. They were dressed in all black attire, including ski masks, and were standing around with guns in their hands. This is not a run-of-the-mill heist. This one has been planned out thoroughly. I felt my body shudder at the sight of all the weapons in one confined area. Anyone would have shuddered at the sight. It looked like someone’s worst nightmare, and now it just happened to be mine.
“Thinking?’
I froze, my body tensing more than it had already been. I did not like the fact that he knew when I was thinking. I liked no one knowing when I am thinking, it was kind of my blanket, my escape from the world. “Yes! Is that a problem with you? Or, would you rather I get your permission? Or maybe even fight that void of the blonde stereotype that has been around for a long time? I can do both of those if you would really like me to.”
The guy just shook his head. “You’re a very pretty girl, but your mouth seems to be running off with smart ass comments that are not going to get you anywhere.”
“Good. I do not want to go anywhere. I am happy with being right here.”
He dropped me to the ground, watching me land on my ass on the tile floor. “Good. We are on the same page then.” He waved at some of the guys, summoning them over to join him around me. “This is Melanie White,” he told the other guys that had come over to gather around me.
I looked at each of the guys masked faces and knew that they were grinning underneath them. I looked at their eyes and tried to see if I could recognize them. It was of no use. I just sat there, useless. I had the urge to run, but their guns were the only thing that stopped me from fulfilling that urge. They, in general, did not scare me. It is the fact that they know how to use the guns that were in their hands that scared me. I could tell that something was going to happen, due to the silence among them. Just breathe and whatever they do to you, you can handle it. I looked at them all, again, and noting that nothing had changed.
“Is the room ready yet?” he asked the guy that was standing across from me.
They guy just nodded, not wanting his voice to be heard by me.
“Good. Get up Melanie,” he said to me. He grabbed my hair, pulling me up to my feet. “I’m going to show you to the room that you will be staying in for awhile.”
“You know that the cops will come,” I told him.
“There won’t be enough of them.”
“You’ll be surprised.”
“I like surprises.” He dragged me down the hallway towards the gym. “I hope you do too.” He dragged me in to the gym hallway, and stopped in front of the girls’ change room. “I hope you will enjoy your stay with us.” He opened the door and shoved me in to the room. He pulled the door shut and locked it. He turned around and walked out of the hallway, grinning underneath his mask.
Hour 1
I hit the wall and spun around in time to see the door close and hear the door being locked. “DAMMIT!” I screamed. I turned around and smacked the wall open-palmed out of anger. What the hell is going on here? Why am I in the girls’ changeroom? I walked around the corner, in to the changing room area and saw a bed. I walked over to it and looked at it. It was made out of a few gym mats and was covered with some form of sheets. There was no need to test it out, it looked dismal and uncomfortable. With lack of options to amuse myself, the one idea that came to mind was to check my nose in the bathroom mirror. When I walked in to the bathroom and over to the mirror, my face did not shock me. In fact, it was not as bad as what my mind had conceived. I had dried blood on my face and black eyes were starting to develop. Some attractive new look you have going on. I walked in to the toilet stall and ripped off a chunk of toilet paper, separating the large amount in to several pieces as I made my way back over the mirror and sink. I scrubbed the blood off my face and looked at my nose. It was broken, and anyone could notice it from any distance. I ran my hands through my hair while looking at my nose, upset by what I saw. When I removed my hands from my hair, about to leave the room, chunks of hair fell out, some remained stuck between my fingers, while others fell on to the floor. “Great! He’s fucking pulling out all of my hair!” I yelled to no one but myself. Urges to punch and break the mirror rushed through my body as I left the room. It would have been great if I did because I could have used the pieces to stab the guy, but then again, there is the fact that the rest of the guys would kill me. Even though I had been in this room so many times throughout my time at the school, I now began to search the room completely. When I began to search the ceiling, I discovered a vent that I had never noticed before. Come on Melanie! You can do it! I climbed on top of the shelf that was meant to be used as a storage area for the middle bench. The sound of a gun being cocked caused me to freeze in my movements. Turning my head slowly, I was met with a gun pointed at my face. Oh shit!
“Naughty, naughty Melanie. Already trying to escape. Dumb move,” he said. He walked over to me, grabbing my hair. With one swift move, he pulled my hair and swung me so that I landed partially on the makeshift bed, my knees hitting the ground. “We’re not that stupid. You should have realized that the instant you met me. Those vents are all bolted shut.” He gripped my hair tighter, smiling under the mask.
I shoved his hand away from me and felt some relief from the back of my head. “It was still worth a shot, and you would have to admit that.”
“I don’t care what you say. I will never admit to anything you say Melanie. You have to agree with me, not vice versa.”
“I do not care what you say, whoever you are.” It pissed me off because I did not know his name and could not use it against him.
“My name is Brandon. That way, when we become close, you can call me by my name. How does that sound to you?”
“It sounds like bullshit, but then again, that is all that comes out of your mouth.”
He smiled again. “Clever, but you’re still a little naïve. It’s like you don’t realize that you have a gun pointed at you and craving to shoot you.”
“It’s amazing that it actually hasn’t shot me then, since it is craving to shoot me,” I said sarcastically.
“Cute!” He pointed the gun at the ceiling and shot it. When I jumped a little yelp came out of me, causing him to chuckle. “Thought I was going to shoot you?”
“No! It’s just the fact that I’m not used to guns being fired around me.”
“But, your father is a judge.”
“That doesn’t mean that guns are fired wherever he or I go.”
“They should be, especially when they’re aimed at you.” He put his gun away and pulled out his knife. “Do you remember those rules that I set? The one about trying to escape? And the one about mocking me?”
“That you can hurt me? Jeez, how could I forget? Isn’t it your hobby to hurt me?”
He grabbed my right arm and placed the knife at the top of my arm, just below my shoulder. “How much do you like to use your right arm, seeing as it is your strongest?”
“Quite often. Why? Do you have the sudden urge to sacrifice it?”
He put pressure on the knife, so the tip of the blade started to dig in to my skin. “I have to abide by the rules, and they state that I can hurt you. That is what I intend on doing.” He put more pressure on the knife, and the blade dug in deeper. “This is a very effective method because it makes it hurt more and the person has to endure being tortured longer.”
I clenched my teeth together to try and fight the pain. “After a while, the body will go numb and the person will not be able to feel anything. You have to love shock and the many stages of it.”
“Yes, but that does not mean that the torturing stops. It could just worsen. I bet that you would like that; having the pain increase so much that you can feel it through the numbness.” He pulled the knife down my arm, trying to see my reaction. “You don’t like to show pain. Why is that?”
“Well Brandon, you see, showing pain can cause fear and I am not afraid of you.”
“Are you afraid of being a hypocrite?”
“I would rather be a hypocrite than show pain.” Fuck! This really hurts. Just keep holding back the pain as long as I can. Don’t let him win. He cannot win.
“I will make you show pain yet.” He put more pressure on the knife and let the knife dig in more when it got closer to my wrist. “If I cut even deeper, you will bleed to death, and I don’t want that.”
“You don’t want that?”
“We both don’t want that.” He pulled the knife away from my arm and wiped it off with a cloth. “You should have noticed the First Aid Kit. I want to make this more interesting.” He put his knife away. He then pulled me up so that I was standing. “Those rules won’t be the only ones. I may add more as I go. You better be prepared for more though.” He kissed me on the lips, even though I resisted. “I will see you in a bit.” As he turned the corner to walk out the door, he looked back at me. “I like your nose. Makes you seem weathered.” He laughed, slamming the door behind him as he walked out of the room.
I wiped my lips with the back of my left hand, trying to remove the feeling of him. I looked around the change room and saw the First Aid Kit underneath a pile of cloths and clothes. I pulled a cloth from out of the pile, quickly wrapping it around my arm and tied it tight so that it would help control the bleeding. Frantically, I opened the First Aid Kit, digging through it. It was the gym departments and it contained everything that a well equipped kit should contain. I remembered my gym class and when we learnt how to control bleeding that would not stop. I would have to stitch the wound shut on my own, something that I did not want to do. The cloth on my arm began to become more saturated with my blood, the smell irritating my nose. Come on Melanie, find that needle and thread. After a few minutes, I found the needle and thread with trembling hands. My right arm had become useless due to the blood loss. Without the use of that arm, I used my teeth to bit off a long strand of thread, fed it through the eye of the needle and tied the end in a knot. This took more time then what it should have due to my body shaking. I removed the cloth tied tightly around my right arm and quickly grabbed the needle, bringing it closer to the wound. Everything had gone black.
I woke up several minutes later. What the hell just happened? I sat up and looked at the needle resting on my lap. That explained why I had passed out. I looked at my right arm and saw the blood still seeping from the wound. Let’s go Melanie. You need to stitch up that wound. I picked up the needle and moved it closer to my wound, getting ready to stitch up the cut. I passed out again, and when I woke up for the second time, I was furious. I knew that it was going to hurt when I started to stitch it up. It needed to be done so that I would not bleed to death on the floor of the girls’ changeroom. I picked it up and knew that this time I would not pass out and manage to stitch up my arm. I poked my arm, causing me to pass out again. When I woke up several minutes later, for the third time, I decided that I was going to give up stitching my wound shut. It was not going to work because I continued to pass out every time I got the needle close. There was another option, but it would scar my arm more then what the stitching would have done. Crawling over to the First Aid Kit, my left arm quickly looked and found a bunch of butterfly bandages that were often used as an alternative to stitches for small wounds. Unfortunately, my wound was much larger than what these bandages are used for. First, I grabbed the cloth that I was using before, wiping the new blood away from the wound. Second, I grabbed a handful of alcohol wipes, ripping them open with the aid of my teeth. It’s going to sting. Be ready for it. While I cleaned my skin I made sure that my wound would be able to fully close for when I placed the bandages down the length of it. As soon as I finished wiping my arm with the alcohol swabs, I quickly opened the bandages and efficiently placed them on the length of my wound. When I completed the placement of the last bandage, I checked the job over and dug in to the First Aid Kit to find a roll of gauze. I grabbed the larger one and wrapped it around my arm. I made sure that it was not wrapped too tight that it would be cutting off my circulation. After securing the end of the gauze to the rest of it, I cleaned up my mess. Being stuck in the room did not mean that I would leave it a mess.
Once everything was done, I felt really tired due to the blood loss. I walked in to the bathroom area and started to wash my hands, trying to get rid of all the blood. I looked at my face in the mirror, seeing my eyes finally blackened, my nose swollen. Don’t even start with me. I dried my hands off with one of the cloths by the First Aid Kit and walked to the bed. I crawled underneath the blankets. My body needed me to rest so I would be able to gain back the energy I needed, as well as making up for the amount of blood I loss, even though I did not want to sleep mentally. I listened closely to everything around me and heard no noise. I was alone. Stay awake Mel! You never know where Brandon is lurking. I heard the door slam open. Damn it! I lied very still, hoping that he would just leave me alone. I listened to the footsteps and knew that they belonged to Brandon, his walk was distinct.
“Look at this mess!” Brandon said. “And look at you! Are you trying to hide from me?”
“God can only hope,” I mumbled.
He walked over to the bed and sat down next to me. “Give me your arm.”
“Fuck you!”
He grabbed me and pulled me so I was on my back. He squeezed my right arm through the covers, the other around my neck. “Give me it!”
I looked at him. Don’t show pain! Don’t! “If you let go of my arm, I would give it to you.” When he let go of my arm, I pulled it out from underneath the blankets, revealing it to him.
He grabbed it and looked it over, carefully. “Nice job. It looks like it bled a little bit, but you have got it wrapped up nicely. I will check it over in a few hours.”
“I can check it myself! I am the one that wrapped it up!”
“Don’t get all defensive with me! I am trying to be helpful.”
“I don’t care Brandon! I don’t want you to be helpful! I fucking don’t want you near me!” I shoved him away. I tried to get up to run, but he had grabbed my ankle and pulled me down on to the bed.
He pinned me. “Don’t fight me Melanie! I will hurt you worse than I did before.”
A guy walked in to the room. “Brandon, we have a problem,” the guy told Brandon.
“What do you mean we have a problem?”
“We have students trying to get in to the school. Some are with their parents. What do you want us to do?”
“Keep them all captive. Make sure that all the phone lines are cut. I don’t want anyone trying to call or get help. Just leave one phone in the main office hooked up.”
“Okay. What about the students? Most have cell phones.”
“Go to each classroom and confiscate all the cell phones. If a student does not want to give it over, threaten them with his or her life. Do not forget to cut all the phone cords in all the classrooms too.”
The guy just nodded and left the room.
Brandon looked back down at me. “Now, where was I?”
“You were just leaving,” I told him.
“Nice try.” He sat down next to me and pulled me up so that I was sitting up between his legs. He wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on my shoulder. “I don’t see why you fight with me. I’m just going to kill you in the end.”
“I was told to never die without fighting. That’s exactly what I plan to do.”
“Just give up.” He twirled some of my hair around his index finger.
I elbowed him in the stomach and got up. I ran to the door and hoped to God it was still unlocked. I pulled on the door, just to discover that it was not going to budge. “Fuck!” I hit the door. I turned around and found myself looking down the barrel of the gun. I froze, not showing a single expression, my eyes wide. “What are you going to do? Shoot me?”
“No.” He flipped the gun around and hit the side of my head with the butt of the gun. He watched me crumple to the floor, unconscious. He put the gun away and dragged me back in to the changeroom, picked me up and tossed me on to the bed. “Dumb bitch.” He walked out of the room.
Bryce sat in his classroom, trying to concentrate on his school work. It just was not working for him. He was more concerned about whether or not I was alive. He pulled out his wallet and shoved his new, barely there, cell phone in to one of its credit card slots. When he heard noises coming from outside the classroom, the hairs on the back of his neck and arms went up, signalling that something was wrong.
Two guys walked in to the classroom, while the other one went to talk to the teacher. The teacher looked at the class. “Whoever has a cell phone, please place it on your desk now. I will give you a sticky note with your name on it so you can place it on the back of your cell phone. That way, it won’t get lost amongst the others.”
Bryce watched as a few people took them out. When he got patted down, he felt relieved that his was not anywhere to be found. Keep your cool. Once he leaves, call him. You need to.
Once the two guys left with all the cell phones, he took out his wallet. He pulled out his cell phone and dialled the number. He hid the phone from viewing sight while he had it placed against his ear. It kept ringing. Worry began to set in. Pick up! Pick up! Pick up! Now is a time to answer your phone! When he heard the click of the person picking up, he bounced in his seat. “Hi, it’s Bryce. We have an issue in the school. It’s something you are not going to like hearing. It’s about Mel. People have her, and I don’t know where she is, or if she is alive. There are probably hundreds of men. Figure something out fast.” He hung up, not waiting for the other person to respond. That was all the information he needed to tell them to get help. I did my job, now it’s your turn to do the rest.
I heard the door open and slowly opened my eyes. My head hurt and I tried to remember what had happened. The feeling of a needle pricking my arm and the sensation of something being flushed in to me caused my eyes to open wide. I just lied there and looked at the masked face of the guy kneeling in front of me. “What w-was tha-hat?” I stuttered.
“It’s something to help you,” the guy said. “Sweet dreams Melanie. We’ll be talking to you in a bit.”
I felt my eyes slowly close. “Wha-what w-was it?” I asked to the sound of a door closing. I felt my body go numb and knew that I would not be up for a while.
Hour 2
When I woke up and I felt like I was going to be sick. I rolled on to my right side and saw a blurry shadow in front of me. My head was throbbing. I could not handle the pain. My body felt like a thousand or so needles were pricking my body as it woke up. I watched the shadow disappear from my eye sight and felt my head being stroked. “Wh-wh-what did-did yo-you g-g-give me?” I stuttered. “Who-who a-are you?” I felt someone kiss my cheek, lightly. “I asked who yo-you were.”
“It’s Brandon, of course. I wouldn’t let anyone else touch you the way I do,” he said. “Your body will start to really hurt soon…or now.”
I felt the extreme pain after he had said that. It felt like all of my limbs were being pulled off of my body while being burned. I wanted to cry, but not showing weakness was my goal from the beginning of being held hostage. I felt him stroke my cheek and wanted to throw up, his touch caused more nausea. Once my body stopped aching, I slowly sat up, shoving him away from me, not wanting him to be near me, which caused me to fall down again. I pushed myself back up in to a sitting position, and then manoeuvred in to a standing position using the bench as my aid. As I got to my feet, I felt a little off-balance knowing that I was still trying to flush out the drug that I was injected in to my body. “What did you give me?”
“That is something that I am not going to tell you. It’s harmless, really.” He got up and looked at me. “You look cute right now.”
“Cute?” I looked at him, suspiciously. I was leaning against a pole in the middle of the benches, trying to support myself. I coughed and it felt like my lungs were on fire. I sat down on the bench and tried to breath, the burning sensation remaining in my lungs. The pain started to cause my eyes to tear up. Oh god! This better not be me dying in this much pain.
Brandon looked at me, and a trace of worry came across his face. “What’s the matter now?”
Every time I took a breath, my lungs burned and made my body seize up, tears welling up in my eyes. “I…can’t…breathe.”
“Oh fuck!” He walked over to me and picked me up. He placed me on the bed and felt my forehead. My forehead was hot to his touch, causing his eyes to panic. “I’m not going to let you die like this. I’m supposed to kill you!” He picked me up and brought me to the showers in the bathroom. He placed me in one and turned the water on to cold. “Drink some of the water when it hits you.” He left and locked the door behind him.
I felt the cold water hit me, and I still felt like I was going to die from whatever drug that guy had injected me with. Everything just burned: my skin, my hair, even my own breath. I pressed my back against the shower wall and let the water hit me. I looked down at my wet clothes and wished that they would just disintegrate with the water that went down the drain. Slowly, I turned my head from side to side so that the cold water managed to hit it all. I opened my mouth and swallowed some of the water. It did not help me that much, the burning feeling still remained. If anything, it made me feel worse. Calm down Melanie! Maybe if your heart beat was not going so fast, you may not feel so bad. I tried to slow down my heart beat, but it just started to beat faster. I heard the door open again. Oh no! What now? Why can’t they just let me die if that is what is happening with me?
Brandon pulled open the curtain and looked down at me. “You’re going to have to take something. I know that you hate me, but if you want to live a little while longer, you will take this.”
“What is it?” I turned my head to the left and puked. Blood was in the puke, either swallowed by accident when my nose was broken, or my body was producing blood in to my stomach. Whatever reason, it is not good. It meant that I was not going to last much longer if I did not take something to help relieve me of this pain.
“It will stop everything.” He turned my head and he showed me a needle. “You see this needle, it is going to hurt.”
“I thought that you said I would have to take something?”
“I just wanted you to trust me.” He gave me the needle. He felt my body tense to his touch, and then relax when he pulled out the needle. “Good. It worked.” He turned off the water and pulled me out of the shower stall. He grabbed the towels off of the bench and brought them over to wrap my shivering body in. “That should help you. Your body will stay relaxed for a little while before it goes back to normal. I don’t know for how long though.”
I looked up at him while he rubbed the towels against me, trying to dry me off to the best of his ability. “Great. So, I am stuck with the feeling that I will never be able to move again for a little while. Lovely.”
He picked me up and carried me back in to the main room. He placed me on the bed and fixed the towels so that I was still covered. “I will check on you later. Once you can start moving again, there are some clothes you can change in to. Don’t worry I will be watching you anyway.” He got up and left the room, leaving me alone on the bed in damp towels, with wet and cold clothes clinging to my skin.
While lying on the bed, I started to wonder what drug they had injected me with. I knew that it could not be any hallucinogen because I did not see things, then again, I had never heard of a drug that caused people to feel like they were burning from the inside out. I felt some of the burning feeling appearing again, but I pushed away the majority of the pain by focusing on my thoughts of how to get off of the bed. It was time to make my body move, but it seemed like the nerves were not working. Work damn it! I shivered. That means my body is connecting with the nerves! I focused on the towels wrapped around me, wanting to move them off of me. When I focused on the towels and the want to be able to move them off of my body, my body started to react with what my mind was telling it to do. Finally, after much effort, I sat up and unravelled the towels from around me. I grabbed the clothes he had left and noticed that they were my pyjamas, which was strange because those were in my dresser at home. I got up and changed in to them in the bathroom stall, not knowing where the camera was, or if it even existed. After I put my pyjamas on, I checked the gauze on my arm, making sure it was holding up before I started to dry my hair. Even though I could move my body, it still ached. I heard the sound of the door opening and saw Brandon standing in the doorway.
“I see that you managed to move. You must be feeling better,” he said. He walked closer to me and saw my eyes follow him.
“How was it supposed to help me? My body aches, I am still breathing in hot air and I feel like I am going to die,” I told him.
“Feeling like you are going to die, are we? How do you know what dying feels like?”
“Every minute I’m stuck here, I am dying. That’s how I know the feeling.”
“I will let you experience the real thing; you just have to be patient, that’s all.” He pulled out his knife and started to play with it. “Have you figured out who I am yet?”
“I have no idea. I don’t ever remember my father mentioning a Brandon. Why? Am I supposed to know who you are?”
“You’ll find out who I am soon enough. Till then, you will have plenty of free time to think. Any wrong move,” he showed me the knife he had used on my arm, “you’ll get another deep cut. If I were you, I’d re-bandage that arm of yours.” He put his knife away and left the room just as quickly and quietly as he had come in.
I heard the door being locked and knew that I was going to be alone for awhile. I glanced down at my right arm and saw what he meant. The gauze was fine before, but now that it was starting to dry it showed signs that it needed to be changed. I took off the gauze and looked at my arm. It did not look too bad, but I knew that I would have a nasty scar from it because I was unable to somewhat stitch it shut. Instead of using up all the gauze from the First Aid Kit, I grabbed one of the tensor bandages and wrapped that around my arm. It was more durable and would be able to withstand longer. Moving back towards the bed, I lied down and stared up at the ceiling and decided to count the tiles on the ceiling. It was all I could do to pass the time.
Bryce pulled out his cell phone and quietly opened the phone, accessing his voicemail. Sure enough, my father had replied to his message with a worried, yet sincere reply. He informed Bryce that help was on its way and to say calm, even if it may be hard. Also, said not to do anything stupid. Bryce sent a text message to my father’s cell phone instead of calling to tell him that he would remain calm and think rationally. Bryce turned off his cell phone and put it way. He turned his head and saw his friend, Pete, looking at him. “Don’t say anything,” Bryce whispered to him.
“I won’t man. I want out of here just as much as you do,” Pete whispered back.
“I know. I’m hoping that they get us out of here soon. I don’t know how much longer I can stay here knowing that we’re locked up in the school.”
“Me either.”
“Bryce, Pete. Is there something you need to inform the class?” the teacher asked them.
“Nothing that anyone doesn’t know already,” Bryce told the teacher.
“Bryce!”
“Do you actually think that I can pay attention to the lesson when my girlfriend could be getting killed at this EXACT MOMENT? DO YOU?”
“I don’t think you could,” Brandon said. “I don’t think anyone could.”
Bryce just looked at Brandon. “What the hell do you want now?”
“I wanted to talk to you. If you behave, I won’t hurt her. But, any wrong move…” Brandon showed his gun and knife, “she’ll be hurt.”
“Fine.” Bryce got up and followed Brandon out in to the hall. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“I need to ask you a question. If you answer correctly or how I want it she won’t be hurt.”
“What’s this question?”
“How many ways are there to get in to this school?”
Bryce stood there and thought. Four stairwells, the foyer, the three gym doors, the three cafeteria doors and however many are on the roof, and one for the principal’s office. “I know that there are at least eleven ways. I don’t know how many ways are for the roof though.”
“That’s okay.”
“Did I answer you the way you wanted me to?”
“I will have to decide later.” Brandon shoved Bryce at the door, having finished with what he had intended on doing. “Get to class and try to learn something.” Brandon watched as Bryce walked back in to the classroom and smiled as the door closed. It did not matter if he had promised Bryce that he would not hurt me, he was going to do it anyway. Brandon walked down the hallway heading back to the gym.
Bryce sat back down at his desk and looked over at Pete. “He asked me a trick question. I’m hoping that I got it right,” Bryce told Pete.
“Did he threaten to hurt Melanie if you got the question wrong?” Pete asked. He suspected that his question was just going to be answered yes.
“He was going to hurt her no matter what answer I provided him. I could have gotten it right and he still would have hurt her.” Bryce sighed, knowing that his attempt at protecting me from one beating failed. “He asked me how many exits there were in the school that people could at least access from the outside. I knew that there were at least eleven for sure.”
“There are thirteen. Two lead to the roof.”
Bryce looked over at Pete, a worried look crossing his face. “You should have answered the question for me. I could not even remember how many exits there were on the roof. I feel like I failed her not being able to answer that question, which most students could have figured out better than me.”
“It’s not your fault. I just remember useless facts that most people would never think of. Most students do not even know that answer, so stop feeling guilty. You and I both know that she would have gotten hurt whether or not you answered that question properly.”
“I understand that.” Bryce just looked down at his paper, at the useless words he was writing out. There was no point of him writing them down when there were many other important factors at hand distracting him from retaining the information.
“You know that she could be killed.”
“Excuse me?”
“You can just tell that he will torture her till she is dead. I can tell that just by the first time he walked in to our classroom with her.”
“Thanks for the reassurance.”
“I’m just telling it as it is.”
“Next time, keep your mouth shut. It is not helping the situation.” Bryce rested his head in his arms and closed his eyes. It would be better to dream about happier thoughts and happy times that he had spent with me. That way, it would lessen the fear of the horrible things that would eventually come.
One hundred and seventy six, one hundred and seventy seven…I heard the door open and stopped counting the tiles. I knew that it was Brandon that had walked in. I was already getting used to the sound of his footsteps on the grainy changeroom floor. “What do you want?” I asked, bitterly. I was getting fed up with his actions and the way he talked. He talked down to me, like he was better than I was. In this circumstance he was considered that, but it did not help me when I just wanted to hurt him.
“I had a chat with Bryce. It seems like he doesn’t know the school to well,” Brandon told me. He walked over to the bench next to my bed and sat down on it.
“What do you mean?”
“He doesn’t know all the places where people can enter or leave the school from.”
“I don’t know that either.”
Brandon smiled at me. “Doesn’t it annoy you that you still have no clue who I am?”
“Every second.”
“Do you want to know who I am?”
“What kind of question is that? Of course I want to know! I want to know how the fuck you are associated with me!”
“With that temper, I’m not going to tell you anything.”
“Fuck you! You make me a hostage in my own school, hurt me and now you won’t tell me why you are doing this to me! You are a fucking ignorant bastard!”
“Hush!” He looked at me. He grabbed my left arm and twisted it. He watched me bite my bottom lip. “What were those rules that I told you earlier?”
“I…don’t…care…ABOUT THEM!”
He twisted my arm more. “If I were you, I would shut up before you have a broken arm.”
I did not say another word. I needed my left arm since my right arm was still healing from earlier. When my left arm was released, I drew it quickly to my chest, protecting it. I felt the weight of his body on the mat beside me.
“Good. Now that you’re quiet, you’ll listen to me.” Brandon moved his body closer to me so that when he turned his head he was able to whisper in my ear. “If you want to figure out who I am, I’ll give you another hint. I’m part of your father’s past.”
“I got that point when you first said it. I know most of the people in my father’s life and work at present.”
“Not the recent past though. Before you were born.” He kissed my cheek. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
I chewed on my bottom lip to help stop me from hitting him. I rolled on to my back and looked up at the ceiling. Brandon cannot be much older than I am. Three years maximum. Instead of counting the ceiling tiles, I decided to try and figure out who Brandon really was. He was not my father’s child; I know that one for a fact. The only other possibility was that he could be an ex-friend’s child, of my father’s. How could he have found out about me? I try my hardest not to be associated as the judge’s daughter. I need to do something else, other then give myself a headache trying to figure out who Brandon really was. I looked back up at the ceiling and started to count the ceiling tiles from the beginning. One…two…three…
Hour 3
Judge White barged in to the local police station, slamming the door open door, causing it to make a thud as it hit the wall. He headed toward the Sergeant’s office, each step increasing his walking pace. “Glass! I need to talk to you right now!” Judge White barked.
Glass walked out of his office and looked at Judge White. “What’s the matter White? You look like one of your kids just died,” Glass said, trying to make a joke.
“Not yet.”
“Well...what?”
“My daughters’ entire school is being held hostage at the moment. Also, Melanie is being held captive somewhere in the school and being tortured.”
“Do you have a direct source?”
“Bryce called me and sent me a text from in his classroom.” Judge White handed Glass his phone so he could at least read the text message. “Read for yourself if you don’t believe me. The message is on my office’s voicemail.”
Glass did not need to hear that message, the text message was enough proof that there was something going on at the school that should not be. “Do you have any idea how hard it is going to be to assemble that large of a group? We don’t even know how many people are in the school holding them hostage. We really don’t know anything.”
“Bryce believes it’s a large group, over a hundred. If I were you, I would treat this as a worst case scenario.”
“I’m getting on the phone right now. I’ll call you and let you know when the team is assembled and ready to go.”
“It better be soon. Page everyone, or call everyone who doesn’t have a pager.”
“I’ll get as many people as I possibly can.”
“No! You’re going to get everyone!” Judge White turned on his heel and strode out of the room, and then the police station. He knew Glass would do his job; it was just the fear that that could not be enough. Judge White got in his car and cried, unable to put the key in the ignition.