33
Moscow, Russia
4,664.20 miles From New York
Pushing the door to the station open Daisy was greeted by a warm burst of warm stale air and a bundled up family coming through the same doors as her, moving to the side they let her past, to which she nodded and smiled a thank you, not wanting to risk speaking. Inside the station there was a tall slim christmas tree not far from where she stood, made from what must have been recycled cans, as it shone like metal and looked like it has been compressed together and decorated, it was interesting and unusual. Elsewhere there were christmas pictures drawn by children on the wall, it was a sweet sight and Daisy would have liked to have seen more of it but she knew she had move quickly. Turning to her left she saw steps that led down into the station, wide two tier stairs down. Putting her hands into her pockets she walked down, trying her best to look composed and not a woman who had been kidnapped and was trying to escape her kidnapper. At the bottom of the stairs she could hear the voice of tannoy speaking in Russian, barely audible over the sound of the underground trains below and before her she found the barrier into the station, which made her gasp at her stupidity, forgetting she couldn’t get on to the metro without a ticket or money, Daisy pushed her hands into her pockets.
What was there to do? Looking up she saw the camera in the corners, and knew that she could try to jump over the barrier but didn’t want to risk it and draw action to herself. Behind her more people were coming into the station, on their journey home or going to continue their night elsewhere.
A mild panic formed in her chest.
Thinking fast, she had an idea. She begun to pretend she was franticly looking through her coat pockets, shaking her coat, pulling her pockets out and making herself look on the verge of tears in front of the crowd of people coming down the stairs. A few of them looked blankly at her but one elderly man looked at her concernedly, his gentle aged face and deep brown eyes wide with worry, with his cane he walked over to her, with his hunched back he was only slightly taller than Daisy. Speaking in Russian to her, Daisy simply looked at him, face upset and tears falling down her cheeks.
If only I knew a tiny bit of Russian. Daisy thought.
The elderly man, lowered his head and asked her a question. Taking a chance she shook her head and made herself cry harder. Tilting his head the elderly man extended his hands in an open gesture of ‘awww’. With a cheeky look in his eye, he put his finger to his lip and waved her to follow him over to the barrier, at which moment another small flow of people were entering in. Gesturing his hand for Daisy to go in front of him at the barrier, the old man looked left and right, then placed his pass on the reader, to which the barrier opened, with a small tap of his cane on Daisy’s shoulder he told Daisy to go through, to which she did. When through, she turned to the old man, who gave her a cheeky wink and waved his hand for to go, to which after he again put his pass on the reader, which did not work, simply beeped at him. Again the elderly man did again, and again it beeped louder, which the people behind were growing impatient, a small mumble of annoyance escaped from a few of them. With a cheeky smile, he tried again knowing full well it wouldn’t work.
Daisy wiped her eyes, smiled at the elderly and went down the escalator down, walking down the moving stairs to get to the platform faster. Mentally Daisy thanked all the Gods and Goddesses in the world for that small wonderful luck of the kindness of the elderly Russian man.
At the end of the escalator Daisy was met by the brightly lite metro station and its smell of warmth and metal, with the sight before her of the of mixed red, brown and white patterned marble floor, with pylon walls in either darker shades with metal coverings. Walking further into the she could see the lighting above was on the inside circle of the ceiling where different paintings were above, all different with amazing details, perfectly positioned so that which ever angle you walked you always got a wonderful view of the images. Head tilted up as she walked, for a moment she felt lost in the details of them, only to come to her senses when the sound of a train screaming dully to a halt and people exiting off.
Above at the barrier the elderly Russian man still continued his attempt to try his pass. Behind a small crowd had built up, trying to get to the other available barrier or wait for the first barrier to be usable again. From behind a frustrated young Russian man asked to try for the elderly man, smiling cheekily gratefully at him, the elderly man gave him his pass. And like the elderly man, the young man tried the pass and nothing, to which he frowned and tried again, this time pressing the pass very hard on the reader. Smirking to himself from the side, the elderly man couldn’t help but feel like a school boy playing a trick and enjoying it.
Walking down the stairs, hands in his pocket, hair pushed behind his ears came Daisy’s kidnapper. Upon seeing the crowd he looked carefully to try and find Daisy, trying his best to not look to obvious in doing so.
The young Russian man’s friend behind him was now trying, cursing in Russian to which a mother with her two small children hissed at him to mind his language in front of her children. Looking at the pass and then the reader, the second young man waited a second before trying again, which it beeped loudly again at him.
An exhausted sign came from everyone behind.
From behind the other side of the barrier a metro station worker came over, asking what was going on, his express annoyed. Both the young Russian men begun explaining, pointing at the elderly Russian man, who shrugged his shoulders at the station worker. Rolling his eye the man on the other side, he moved to the barrier and pressed a button and let the barrier open, waving the elderly man to come through. With his cane and cheeky smile the elderly man walked through and nodded thank you to everyone, who as he did so, all the annoyance and frustrated disappeared as the all they saw was a small sweet little Russian man going on his way, no-one seeing the mischief maker he really was.
Gradually everyone begun moving through the barrier, Daisy’s kidnapper walked down the left side of the escalator down at speed, not knowing if he was going to even find Daisy.
At the end of the platform, standing before the second set of escalator that lend further down to another platform, Daisy was looking at the last painting above her head that was WW2 fighter plane in the air, when she saw the crowd of people come down from the escalator at the other end, all moving with speed and patience. From her right a train came and many got on and many got off. Drawing her attention to the side she looked at the name of the Russian stations in front of them, all unknown to her. She couldn’t figure out where was where and what was what.
Does it matter? Daisy thought. Just get as far away as possible, as quickly as you can.
With that thought in her head she turned to walk to one side of the platform when something caught her eye.
Walking from the other end of the platform was her metal armed kidnapper, his head lowered and his gaze furnace like.
Inhaling a shocked breath, Daisy took two, three steps back to the escalator that lead to the next level, before she turned and begun to run down them at speed. From behind her, walking in the centre of the two marbled platform Daisy’s kidnapper begun to move faster.
This part of the station was much quieter, Daisy could only guess the metro line was not as centralised at the platform above, as there hardly anyone going down them, as she moved down she saw only a couple and lady traveling up to the upper level and no-one in front of her as she went, only one person behind her in pursuit.
On the lower platform she found similar design and layout to the upper one, though the there was an opposite to colours and shading, this level taking on a more reddish tone throughout. Running along the platform Daisy darted to her right and hid herself behind one of the marble granite pylons, pushing her frame to the side, watching to see if her kidnapper followed.
From the escalator Daisy’s kidnapper stopped in his steps for a moment and looked around him.
Hidden behind Daisy held her breath, from the scream sound of the trains above she couldn’t hear anything to let her know if he was near.
Using three long strides, Daisy kidnapper walked to the left, to where he poked his head out on the platform from the behind the pylon. Scanning up and down with his eyes, he saw nothing. Spinning on his heels he approached the other side. First walking away from the first and second red pylon and stooping in front the third he waited.
From the other side where her kidnapper stood in front of the granite and marble, Daisy waited.
Seeing nothing, Daisy begun to slide herself along the wall, so the she came into the arch of the pylon and moved slowly along it’s wall to the middle of the platform, where upon she poked her head out.
Standing in front of her, full height, head high and looking down at tiny frame, stood her kidnapper.
“Damnit.” She breathed, letting out the breath she had been holding in.
Glaring at her he said nothing. Instead he reached out his arm and grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her to him.
“Would you believe me if I said I just wanted to explore?” Daisy asked sarcastically.
Pressing his lips together he looked down at her and said. “Why can’t you just…do what I say.”
Holding her shoulder he turned them both to where the the escalator was. In front of them at that moment, coming on to the platform was the 7 giant happily drunk Russian men with red haired man who had danced with Daisy in front them, his face no longer happy or cheery but menacing walking towards James and Daisy.