Stops
C H A I N S
When I open my eyes my heart shatters. For a moment before I rouse I’m floating in the haze of my mind, my situation doesn’t come back for a blissful minute. The fabric of the world is slowly pulling itself back together and I see the man that dragged me into this car gawking at me. I discretely slid my fingers against the lining of the seat snagging the sleeve of the jacket he used the night before and pull it over me as a makeshift blanket. I wonder if he even slept?
I doubt he did considering he hasn’t yet figured out what to do with me and what kind of person I am. I could only speculate on this matter of course but that’s what I would first do if I was in his position. That’s how I worked. All my patients reacted differently when coming in. Some were in hysterics, others were runners, most were fighters. I looked at him through my lashes keeping my head down closing my eyes to distract myself from the reality of my situation. He probably wanted to peel back all my layers in order to peg me down in a category he could strategically use to put a plan into motion on how he was going to handle me.
Maybe he wasn’t thinking about me at all. Hinata…was she awake? Was she crying? I felt a twinge ripple through the muscle in my heart and my thoughts went out to her. I willed her to be strong. The motion of the car stopped, the engine turned off, and I felt like a trapped animal in a very small box. I had an alarming shrill of fear thrum through my blood. I wanted out. Where were we? It was hard to see in the darkness of the windows and it was worse in the cover of the night. My captor nonchalantly glanced out the window not moving a muscle. I heard the driver’s door slam shut and then the pop of the trunk. My body was urging me to fight. If not for me then for Hinata’s sake. He was going to hurt her. I needed to disable the asshole across from me first. His eyes froze me in place. I was on the edge of my seat, ready to spring. Spring at what? I was inflating a false hope that I could subdue him and get out. I needed to rationalize. I took deep breaths trying to keep them hidden from reaching his ears and I settled back in my seat.
The door opened on the opposite side from me but the elder captor didn’t duck his head into the cab. He didn’t need to address me. It was clear I was not part of this.
“I want her to wake up.”
My ‘sitter’s’ voice boomed in the interior drawing me back from my thoughts. “You’re supposed to give her another dose so she does sleep.”
Its clear there’s some sort of calm dynamic between the two. There’s anger in the elder’s voice but it’s reserved and doesn’t threaten to turn to violence. Meanwhile the younger one acts more casual and blasé about the whole thing. Maybe even sparking more annoyance from the elder. But he keeps composure and continues. “The young ladies will need something to eat, drink, and I’m sure have to use the facilities.”
The younger one shrugged casting a glance in my direction. I ripped my gaze from his defiantly jerking my head away so he couldn’t openly stare any more. I don’t want him to see that I’m on the verge of tears. Despite chanting a mental mantra I could feel the walls I put up cracking and threatening to crumble. I was absorbed in keeping my tears stalled. My door opened and the figment from the room was now a solidified form.
This one had an older face but his likeness was startlingly similar akin to the younger ones. Brothers. They had to be. There was no way that the man before me could be the young one’s father. Perhaps they had a slim gap in age difference but I had no more doubts that these two who worked as a cohesive team were related somehow. He was slender and lanky in the middle to his hips but as my eyes glide up his body broadens at the chest and his entire arm span could encapsulate from my window to the tip of his on the driver’s side. His hair is neatly tied back by a red band with a fair amount of bangs that wouldn’t collect because of how it was cropped and cut. He had distinct lines under his eyes that almost looked like scars. He was just as lean and muscular as the other one was but had more of a menacing face. His was placid and unreadable. That was terrifying. Those who normally didn’t show emotion were categorized as psychopaths. My thoughts were trying to turn this over to something positive. At least he offered to feed us and let us relieve ourselves. I mentally smacked myself over and over until all my ramblings blurred and quieted. Somehow…this man’s voice was deeper and guttural than his twins. It was rougher. But the way he spoke he had an articulate and smooth reach in his tone like crumpled paper that’s been ironed.
“Ms. Haruno. Do you need something to eat?” I think my eyes were wide. I think my expression looked horrified. I didn’t have a mirror to look at but I felt the stretch of skin around my sockets and felt the muscles in my jaw tense. He knows my name. I almost let my fingers flutter to the top of my breast to make sure I wasn’t wearing my medical tag. I’m on vacation. I’m in normal clothes. So he knows about me by some other means. But how? I was practically with him the whole time. He was driving. How could he get that information? Then I thought of a theory. Perhaps as the younger male went through my phone he sent texts to the older one divulging all my information. I rarely used my social media. It was usually posts of forwarded messages or medical articles. I only usually made calls and didn’t have any selfie’s or pictures aside from the things I found interesting. I collapse exhausted by the time I get home so I wasn’t attached to my phone like the women my age were.
“I-I am…” I involuntarily ground my shins together. The elder one shift his eye so discretely I blinked and barely caught its movement on my legs. But of course his subtle glance caught my reflex to the word of using a bathroom. That’s how these men were meant to be built. They were trained to watch for details. They had to be. The exchange the night before told me so. I wasn’t part of this plan. So I was going to be dealt with eventually. But for now he was offering me a life preserver that extended it just a sliver longer. So I took it. He held out his hand.
“Come. You need to use the bathroom too.” My eyes adjusted to the natural darkness which was much lighter than being in the small cage of the car. There were faint buzzes coming from the line of lights leading to the rest stops restrooms. I was taken aback. We were in a public place. Which meant people. Which meant I could escape since there wasn’t a gun at my back or an arm to restrain me. I could scream. I could fly off the handle like a wild crazy woman beating on car windows and there would be no threat to ban me from doing so. But I couldn’t know that for sure. There could be sharp objects in the span of his waistline. A gun tucked in at the small of his back. Or a knife that could be quickly produced by a spring from its sheath. So while the crazed woman inside me screamed pushing all the stress against the inside of my body, outer me, rational me, calmly emerged from the car.
There was a reason he chose this spot. It was secluded and there were no other cars except our own. He gently laid the trunk of his hand against my back guiding me forward. I numbly walked in step with him and entered the foyer. He blocked the only way out and I listened to the rattle of the soda machine and humming of a dim bulb in the vending machine. Only two options and of course I pushed open the female door. There was nothing I could use as a weapon. Strangling by toilet paper was a fool’s errand and the trash can was hardly weighted enough to lay a good blow to the soft spot against his head. If I took too long I had no doubts he’d probably march in here and drag me off the toilet. So I went. I washed my hands. I dried them. I rejoined him in the foyer.
We walked back to the car. My last moments of escape were growing smaller and smaller and I would be forced to sit on my sore bottom in the Lincoln once more. The trunk was open and the youngest blew a puff of gray smoke glancing at us while his spine leaned firmly against the frame of the trunk. I saw a glimpse of Hinata. She was slowly coming to doing the same thing I had been when I awoke. Groggily lifting her head assessing the situation. I risked the next part of my judgement spinning on my heel.
“Listen…I’m a doctor…besides that I’m her friend. She trusts me. Let me stay out here so I can calm her down and go with you when you take her to the restroom. Please…” The elder looks at me then to his twin. Something is silently exchanged between the two then he gives him a nod and then me one. I rounded to the trunk gingerly guiding her hand into mine. “She might panic and scream…” The younger one puckered his cigarette between his lips retrieving the revolver from his waistband. I held up my hand. “That will make her piss herself right here and I think you have enough DNA evidence to damn you.” He hid it at his side.
As predicted she panicked upon waking. She realized she had been stuffed in a trunk like dusty baggage and the severity of being abducted added to her grief. The highway signs were turned away from us. As we walked to the restroom I squint my eyes desperately trying to find signs to get some semblance of where we were.
This time Hinata was allowed to sit with me in the back. She was a tangle of nerves and a ball of tears. I did my best to smooth my hand down her back while the young male scrolled through his phone ignoring the spectacle. I could smell the stale cloying scent of his smoke clinging to his clothes. I wasn’t a health nut that usually came with being a doctor, but I also didn’t care for things that could speed up your life span and cause your body to fail. Not to mention the smell burned my nose. Time stretched by. The divider came down once and a handful of fast food bags were distributed. An array of burgers with cheese and without it. We stuffed our mouths not sure if this would be our last meal for a while. The salt from the fries mingled with my natural bile but the situation I was in was sobering and it soured in my stomach. I begged my stomach to keep the contents down. I added fuel to the fire gulping down the soda that was offered. I lived off that until we would get to our destination.
I imagined a disgusting little shack in the pits of a suburb where boarded windows and shit and piss stained the walls. Maybe we’d be hold up in a crack house that had long been abandoned. I shuttered and winced at the nightmares I created for myself. Hinata used me as a pillow, I barely was able to sleep anyway. I was too busy conjuring all the worse possibilities that were going to happen to us.