Chapter Sixteen: Emma

Kidnap My Heart

Chapter 16: Emma

Smuggling things into the garage turned out to be a lot easier than I’d originally thought it would be. All I had to do was ask Will if I could go back to the storage room to grab a jacket in case it got cold inside the garage, and he actually said yes. I thought he was going to ask me where I’d gotten a jacket, but even he must have realized I’d stolen it from him. The rest of my clothes were stolen, after all, except for my underwear and bra. Those were my own, thankfully. They’d finally dried, so I was able to use my own and not Will’s boxers. Those boxers would never seem clean enough to me. Ever.

I managed to sneak in a considerable amount of things. I grabbed the walkie talkie I used to haunt Will—the nice thing about walkie talkies was their ability to transfer voiceovers from a place like, say, Will’s garage—a flashlight, a portable DVD player and a few DVDs—including one of my favorites, Titanic. Why they had it, I didn’t want to know-- some canned food in case Will didn’t bring me enough to eat, two water bottles, my toothbrush, some toothpaste, crazy glue—you never knew—and a blanket. I didn’t even bother trying to hide the blanket. I just carried it out and used it to hide all of the things I’d stuffed in the jacket.

When I came out, Will regarded me suspiciously. “You went in there a skinny girl and came out a fat Eskimo wrapped in a blanket. What’ve you got in there?”

“Only the basic necessities,” I said as I walked past him. “Let’s go. Ooh, grab that foldable chair on your way out. That looks nice.”

He shot me a dirty look. “I don’t think you realize this is a punishment, not a house you can pimp out.”

“Believe me, there’s no way even I could pimp that place out.”

“Emma, this isn’t happening,” he snapped.

I rolled my eyes and turned around to face him. He claimed this wasn’t happening, but he had started to follow me, anyway. “Look, I get it. Your ego is damaged. You’re wounded and vulnerable. That’s okay. What’s not okay is taking it out on me. It’s not my fault you’re so unappealing.”

His jaw clenched. It was an action that almost made me laugh. I figured he was mad enough as it was, so I held in my amusement. “If I were so unappealing, you wouldn’t have gone that far. You kissed me, practically.”

“If that’s your idea of a kiss, you really need to get out more.”

“Believe me, I get out plenty.”

“Not lately, you don’t.”

“You know what?” he asked. “We’re not even gonna discuss this. It’s not worth it. You’re not worth it.”

I smiled at him. I would’ve given him a thumbs up or something to signify how much I didn’t care, but my hands were busy trying to hold everything together. The jacket was starting to droop. “Sounds like I’ve offended you.”

He snorted. “Please. It’s not even a loss. I don’t even care.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Squilliam,” I said, turning back around. “Let’s go before you change your mind and beg me to stay with you again.”

Maybe I was making a stupid choice. It was certainly debatable. I’d had the perfect opportunity to escape the garage dangling right in my face—but at what cost? I would’ve been giving Will exactly what he wanted, and that just wasn’t going to happen. I preferred to suffer myself if it meant he suffered with me. Playing him was the most fun I’d had since his haunting, and if it came at this price, then so be it. I would rather destroy his ego and get sent to the garage than feed into it and live in his room.

He didn’t even try to fight it. He just followed me, his heavy footsteps thundering behind me. Oh, he was definitely pissed. We walked to the garage in silence. I couldn’t believe I was willingly walking over to that garage, but I was, and there was no going back. Maybe I could do as he said and attempt to pimp it out. Or maybe I could wait for another opportunity to arise to get back in the house, an opportunity that didn’t involve sacrificing my pride.

I stood by the door when I arrived first and patiently waited for Will. He took a few more seconds than I did, probably because he’d trudged the entire way over there, I figured. Upon closer inspection, I realized this wasn’t true. He’d gone back to get the chair I wanted to bring. What a sucker.

When he opened the garage this time, he didn’t even have to throw me in. I walked in all by myself. I think that was the biggest slap in the face of all, and that was what made it worth it. The fact that I still preferred this garage to him had to have hurt. I hoped it hurt a lot.

“Do I need to pat you down and see what you’re smuggling in or can I go to sleep?” Will asked, a tired expression on his face.

“You can go to sleep. I looked all over, but you guys have no weapons that would be of much use to me.

“Of course you did. I’m out. I’ll bring food by later if I remember.”

If he didn’t, I had enough food on me to survive. It didn’t look very edible, but it was better than nothing. And if it didn’t look edible, maybe the bugs and rats wouldn’t try to steal it from me. That might have just been wishful thinking, but it made me feel a little better.

Instead of replying, I stuck my hand out expectantly. Wordlessly, he handed me the chair and then shut the door. He could try his very best to exude anger, but the fact that he brought me the chair showed that I could still manipulate him. Hell, I was about ninety-nine percent sure he would still kiss me back if I threw myself at him at that very moment. Was I going to? Of course not. There was no need or desire on my part, but it was something that could be of use in the future. Not today, and probably not tomorrow, but maybe someday.

Once Will left, I set up the chair and climbed on top of it, hauling my legs onto the chair. There was no way I was going to let them dangle in the darkness. With the amount of creatures that were lurking in this place? Not a chance. Morning would come soon, and then I would be able to see what I was dealing with. I doubted it had been cleaned out for me.

I sat there in the utter silence for a while, waiting for daylight to make its way through the cracks in the walls and the door. My thoughts were a jumbled mess. Stuck in silence with no possible torture plans for the moment, I was forced to remember what I’d left behind.

How much did my parents know about this? What were they doing to try to get me back? How was Jack doing? He’d tried to save me, but he’d been too late. He must have felt horrible… And Taylor’s parents. How must they have been feeling, not knowing where their daughter was or if she was even okay? What about our friends, or our classmates? What was going through their minds?

I wished I could somehow let everyone know that we were fine. Well, as fine as you could be in a situation like this, although Taylor’s situation wasn’t too awful, to be honest. All she did was watch TV with Eric all day, according to Will. Not a very exciting or dangerous kidnapping. She wasn’t free, but she wasn’t being tortured or abused. She was literally just chilling out by this point.

My situation was less than favorable, maybe, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d feared when I first felt the chloroform making its way through my system. I’d feared the worst. I’d feared a scenario similar to the movie Taken. As annoying as all of this was, I would take a narcissistic idiot over a homicidal predator any day.

“Wait,” I muttered. I lifted my hand up and began counting the days. We’d been kidnapped on Friday. We arrived here the next day; I escaped that same day, on Saturday. They looked for me for two days after that. On Tuesday, they stayed home and I didn’t come out until everyone else was fast asleep. The day after that, they went to the grocery store and left me behind. On Thursday, I was caught. I was sent back just a little bit ago, and it was almost morning. This meant…

“It’s Taylor’s birthday today!” I gasped. “Oh, damn it; I should’ve done something. I should’ve focused on her instead of those pranks… godammit!”

Today was supposed to be the greatest day of Taylor’s life. She was supposed to feel like a real princess for the day, and her party was supposed to be the most epic thing anyone had ever seen. But that was ruined. Taylor was going to spend her birthday with two strangers who had no clue today was her special day, and I’d just gotten myself stuck out in the garage with no way out.

I hung my head down and slapped my hands to my face. I should’ve at least written her a happy birthday message before walking back to the garage.

I needed to do something, but I figured I’d wait until someone came out to bring me food and water— Will, most likely. He wouldn’t be mean enough to forsake Taylor’s birthday. At least, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be. Maybe Taylor had told Eric. I didn’t know. I had no idea what was going on in that house. I only knew the little I’d been told, and that wasn’t much. I hoped she’d told one of them. They wouldn’t be able to host a huge birthday party for her, but maybe they could stick a candle in a sandwich and throw a mini-party for her or something.

Time passed and no one came out. The sun came up, illuminating a good part of the garage. The bugs and rats were scattered and didn’t seem to have much interest in me at the moment. Even they weren’t a good source of entertainment. Time for a movie fest.

I was in the middle of Titanic when the door to the garage opened.

“Seriously, Rage? Where did you get that?” I didn’t look up, but I could hear the exasperation in his voice.

“Eric’s room. Can you do me a favor?”

“What do you want?”

“Paper, a pencil, crayons, glitter, whatever else you can find that’s artsy, and for you to come back in an hour, maybe less.”

“Don’t you want your food?”

I finally looked up and pressed pause. “I’m surprised you actually brought me food.”

“Eric made me,” he admitted, holding a large plate out. “Bon appetit. Enjoy, because you’re not getting any more today.”

I gestured for him to come closer and bring it to me. I was pretty comfortable on that chair; there was no way I was getting up. He did end up bringing me the food--which I soon devoured— and ten minutes later, he came back with the supplies I’d asked for without asking any questions.

So basically, he was my bitch.

I shut the portable DVD player off and used it as a table. It took me nearly an hour, but I eventually ended up with a birthday card that didn’t look like a five year old had made it.

Will came back a few minutes afterwards with a wary expression on his face. “So what were the crafts for?”

“Taylor didn’t mention anything?”

He shook his head.

“It’s her birthday. I can’t throw her a party out here, but I can at least let her know I remembered.” I stood up and held the card out. When he looked at it, he visibly held in his laughter but didn’t insult it.

“I’ll, uh— I’ll give her— this.”

“Do something for her birthday,” I said, ignoring his slightly condescending comment. “You guys probably don’t have cake, but just do something for her. It’s the least you could do. Stick a candle in a slice of pizza or a sandwich or something, I don’t know. Just don’t let her birthday completely suck.”

I’d hoped he would let me out of there, but it didn’t seem likely. When he spoke next, I knew it wasn’t happening. “She didn’t say anything… we’ll figure something out. Don’t worry.”

I nodded, and with that, he left.

***

A bathroom break once a day worked for the first two days. It wasn’t pleasant, but it wasn’t fatal, either. I could wait until four P.M. without having a breakdown. But once I hit my period, once a day wasn’t cutting it. Once I hit my period, all tactics became fair. If Will wasn’t going to budge on this stupid bathroom rule, I would make him budge.

When Will came to check up on me and denied me access to the bathroom because “it was only noon,” I went to action. After two days and no escape attempts, he thought I’d been subdued. He wasn’t even scared to walk in anymore. He seemed to have forgotten about the shovel incident.

His mistake.

I grabbed the nearest object that was at hand—a large rake—and pointed it towards Will, inching closer and closer. He thought I was just messing around at first, but when I didn’t move the rake, he slowly started walking backwards, trying to mutter soothing words, but I wasn’t listening. “Listen here, you piece of shit.” I shoved the rake closer, pushing it firmly against his chest.

Despite the position he was in, he still had the nerve to smirk at me and say, “I love it when you talk dirty, Rage.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not in the mood for this. You are not going to stop me from using the bathroom. This once a day rule is absolute bullshit. Do you understand me?”

He didn’t say anything. He just kept smirking. Stupid little shit had been waiting for me to crack. Complacency was no fun, I guess.

I pushed the rake harder against his chest, and he winced when the spikes started to poke him. “I am bleeding out of my vagina, and there is a war being fought in my uterus. I will stab you with this rake if I have to, but I am going to the bathroom.”

He still didn’t seem to think I was capable of taking him down in my agitated state, but he was wrong. I wacked him in the face with the rake, and he cried out and grabbed his face.

I took this as my chance to escape. I wasn’t going to try to make a break for it and go home, obviously. I honestly just needed to go to the bathroom.

I heard Will’s footsteps chasing after me once I was about halfway to the house. This was my cue to run even harder, but running with menstrual cramps was like rolling across a field of broken glass with protection over everything but your abdomen.

I ran inside the house, silently praising God for the open front door, and as I passed Eric and Taylor, Will began to shout at Eric. “Grab her!”

“What the—”

I thought I was in the clear. Eric just sounded confused, but he still managed to reach out and grab me by the arm.

I wasn’t about to let either one of these fools stop me, though, and I immediately twisted out of his grip. “I’m on my period, and I haven’t gone to the bathroom all day. Do you really want to test me right now?”

After a brief moment of thought, Eric let go of my arm and let me go to the bathroom, ignoring his brother’s angry protests.

“Eric, what the hell? Why did you let her go?” He caught up to me just as I was entering the bathroom, holding onto my arm with a tight grip. “Not so fast.”

“This is fucking ridiculous,” I snapped, trying to wiggle out of his grip. “I just wanna go to the bathroom!”

Will had the nerve to ignore me again. I was going to murder him.

“Hey, if you want to stop her from going to the bathroom, be my guest,” he said, nodding at Will’s grip on my arm. “But I want no part in this. She’s bad enough when she’s not PMSing. I’m not getting in her way when she is.”

Will looked at me with an annoyed expression, but after some consideration, he let go of my arm and let me go to the bathroom.

Oh, thank Jesus.

***

A/N: I'll try my absolute best to keep updating quickly this month and add as much to this story as I can for BeNoWriMo, but now that I'm in school, it's a bit tougher. But not impossible! I've written nearly 20,000 words in nine days. I can manage 30,000 more. Hopefully.

Anyways, yeah. Thank you to everyone who reads and votes and comments! I'm glad I returned to this story. The things I have in store.... hehehehehe. It's gonna be awesome.

Anyways, yeah, let me know what you think and stuff.

Oh. Also, just wanted to say that I am far too amused by my new profile pic. I cannot hahahahaha. :'D