Taken
“God damn, what a party.” Jen sighed, sliding into the taxi next to me and slamming the door. I could do little more than giggle and nod, the copious amounts of champagne I’d drunk at the SNL cast party impairing my ability to form coherent sentences.
“Christ, you are hammered!” Jen burst out laughing as the taxi pulled away from the curb.
“Am not.” I tried to look serious, but the world was spinning a bit, so I opted to lay my head against the cool glass of the window. I watched through half-closed eyes as the lights of the city slid by the window and was happy when we finally pulled up in front of my building.
“Should I come in with you? Or is Mr. Secret Boyfriend home?” Jen raised an eyebrow as I half-fell half-climbed out of the car.
“‘M fine, I’m sure he’s home.” I mumbled, collecting my purse from the seat and blowing her a kiss. “See you Monday.”
I unlocked the entry door clumsily and took a centering breath before starting to climb the stairs. I made it into the apartment and was surprised to find it dark. Lola barreled into my legs, effectively knocking me down onto the hallway floor and I lay there laughing as she slobbered all over my face. I finally pushed her off and extracted my phone from my purse with some difficulty, realizing that I hadn’t checked it in a few hours. I rolled onto my stomach and squinted at the bright screen as it came to life.
“Ah, fuck.” I whispered, noting that I had two missed messages from Frank, the most recent from half an hour ago. I clicked on my texts and struggled to focus on the words.
Frank: Emergency at the site with a burst pipe. Going to have to stay late. How’s the party?
Frank: Guessing the lack of response means it’s going well. Call me before you leave sweetheart.
I groaned and quickly hit the button to call him, sitting up and pressing a hand to my forehead. His phone rang and rang, but eventually went to voicemail. I left him a quick message apologizing for missing his texts and letting him know I was home before kicking off my heels and making my way to the kitchen for a glass of water.
I fed Lola and leaned against the counter, glad that the room was spinning a little less. I was putting my glass in the sink and getting ready to head to the bedroom when I heard something tap against the glass of my living room window. I turned hesitantly and made my way over to where the curtain was drawn over the frame. I curled one hand around the edge of the fabric and instantly, the window exploded, sending shattered glass shooting at my face. I screamed and shielded my eyes as best as I could, feeling shards embed themselves in my hands. I dropped to the floor and crawled to the side of the window, breathing hard and trying to make Lola go to the bedroom. She was barking like crazy, but finally got the hint and took off.
I was about to start crawling towards where I could see my phone lying on the couch, but just then, a pair of boots came through the broken window and someone was suddenly standing in front of me, wearing a black ski mask. I raised my hands and whispered, “please,” but his hand moved towards me, I felt a sharp sting in the side of my neck, and then everything went black.
----
The first thing I noticed when I came to was that my head hurt. A lot. I cursed myself for drinking so much, but was pretty sure that the majority of the pain was coming from whatever wound was steadily dripping blood down the side of my face. I slowly opened my eyes and took stock of the situation.
I was sitting on a rolling chair, arms and ankles zip-tied to the chair. I was barefoot and the front of my dress was covered in blood, which I figured had accumulated from the cut in my head. I was in a giant room, empty except for crates stacked in one corner. The air in the room felt damp and everything smelled like dirty seawater, which led me to realize I was down by the docks. Phenomenal. My head was fuzzy from whatever they’d sedated me with and panic started to rise in my chest, but I forced myself to take deep breaths and try to focus. As I was starting to examine the zip ties on my wrists, a door opened behind me and I heard footsteps drawing nearer. My whole body tensed.
“Well, well, well.” The footsteps stopped right behind me and I felt a hand grab my hair and yank my head backwards. I grunted as pain shot through my head and found myself staring up at a face I recognized. The man from the parking lot. I thought, filled with fresh dread.
“So you recognize me, eh, princess?” The man smiled, showing a mouth of dirty and broken teeth. He let go of my hair and walked around so he was standing in front of me, clasping his hands behind his back. “Not my smartest move letting you see me outside that diner, but it seems that it all worked out for the best, hmm?” He leaned down so that his face was right in mine and I couldn’t help it; I spat.
His face contorted with rage as my saliva hit his cheek and he reared back and slapped me across the face. I felt my lip split and tasted copper.
“Bitch!” He roared, wiping his face with his sleeve. “You’ve got some spirit, eh? Should’ve known Castle would pick one like that.”
I glared up at him, keeping my mouth shut. Just don’t talk, don’t talk. I thought feverishly.
“Not going to say anything, huh?” The man simpered. “That’s okay. Really, you’re just bait. We’re just going to bide our time together and I’m going to hurt you a little bit more and more until your boyfriend,” he spat out the word like a marble. “Shows up to save you. And then I’m going to kill him.”
I shivered involuntarily and the man smiled when he saw it.
“I’ll be back, princess. Don’t go anywhere.” He laughed and strode out of the room. I closed my eyes and licked blood off my lips, trying not to cry. I had no doubt that Frank knew what had happened by this point and even though I desperately did not want to be in this situation, I didn’t want him to die trying to save me.
I took a deep breath and looked down again at where I was shackled to the chair, trying to think of anything I’d ever read about how to break out of zip ties. I noticed that the arms of the chair tapered a bit at the ends and felt a glimmer of hope that if I could somehow shimmy the zip tie further down the chair, I might be able to slide it off. Looking around to make sure that no one else was in the room, I gritted my teeth and started to push my wrist against the plastic, biting back a scream as it cut into my flesh. I’d managed to work my wrist a few agonizing centimeters further down the chair when I heard the door open again behind me and quickly stopped moving.
The man from before was back, but he was accompanied by another guy who was holding an electric drill. Despite my best efforts to remain calm, I started hyperventilating just at the sight of it and the guy grinned, whirring the motor a few times.
“Already figured out what the plan is here, huh? You’re a smart one.” He said, crouching down in front of me and aiming the point of the drill right above my right kneecap. I felt tears start to slide down my cheeks and stared at him pleadingly, but he just put his finger on the trigger. The drill started spinning and just as it dug into my flesh, there was a pinging noise that flew around the room and the lights cut out. The guy stopped immediately and I cried out as the metal pulled away. He’d managed to get probably a half an inch into my skin and I felt the warm blood pouring down my leg and immediately wanted to faint.
“What the fuck was that?” The guy with the drill whispered in the darkness.
“Shut up.” The first man hissed, and I heard him cock back the hammer on a gun. I held my breath, waiting and hoping that this was good news for me. There were two more loud ping noises and I watched in disbelief as the shadows of both men fell to the ground after being hit in the head by some kind of metal object. Another shadow raced towards me and I braced myself against the chair, but let out the breath I’d been holding when I recognized the pointed shapes on the shadow’s head.
“Matt?” I gasped.
“Yes.” He replied tersely, pulling a knife out and starting to work on the zip tie on my right wrist. “Don’t have much time. Frank’s about to start blowing shit up around here and it’s going to get messy. I need to get you out of here.” The zip tie holding my wrist snapped and Matt put a hand on my shoulder, holding out the knife. “Can you do the rest yourself?”
“Yes.” I grabbed it and started sawing at the one holding my left wrist as Matt straightened up and cocked his head, clearly listening to the rest of the building. I freed my wrist and bent over my left knee, gasping at the pain that kickstarted in my right leg as I flexed my muscles. I tried to avoid nicking my ankles as I hacked through the plastic and was mostly successful.
“I need something to stop --”
“Here.” Matt pressed a length of cloth into my hands, already anticipating my request. I tied it as securely as I could around the hole in my leg and stood up, keeping my weight on my left leg. I reached up and gingerly felt the wound on my head. It wasn’t deep and the bleeding was starting to slow.
“Okay, time to move.” Matt took my arm and as we took a step, I heard machine gun fire explode somewhere nearby and Frank roar. I instinctively turned towards the sound of his voice, but Matt tugged me away. “We have to go, there’s going to be a lot more of them soon.”
“Matt, I can’t leave him.” I sobbed. “It’s my fault he’s here.”
“No, it’s not.” Matt said exasperatedly. “Come on. You’re getting out of here even if I have to carry you.” More gunshots were fired and I could tell they were getting closer. I heard running steps and yells, men frantically trying to avoid the wrath of The Punisher. I cast one desperate look towards the still-closed door and allowed Matt to start leading me towards a window, which I could see was halfway open.
“It leads to an alley.” Matt said, boosting me up so I could get my good leg over the sill. “Follow the alley and you’ll find a car. Get in the car and drive. Go to this address.” He pressed a piece of paper in my hand and I clutched it, hauling my injured leg to join the first so I was sitting on the sill.
“Will you be okay?” I was crying at this point, listening to Frank fighting outside and imagining Matt joining the fray.
“Yes.” Matt said confidently, gripping my wrist. “Now go.”
I nodded and pushed myself out the window into a five foot drop, trying to land mostly on my left foot. I half-succeeded and bit back a scream as I started hobbling down the alley, feeling glass and rocks scrape against the soles of my feet. I hugged the wall, staying in the shadows as I heard people running and talking on the other side of the building. More machine gun fire sounded and I almost turned around to see if I could spot Frank, but forced myself to keep moving. I saw the gleam of a car parked at the end of the alley and made my way to the driver’s side as fast as I could, jamming the keys I found on the front seat into the ignition and slamming the car into gear. I pressed down hard on the gas pedal, ignoring the hot spike in my leg and drove.