Chapter IV

Chapter IV: Travel

He stood over her limp form, praying that he hadn’t accidentally killed her. He waited in silence, and was reassured by the sound of her quiet breathing. Good, everything was going according to plan.

God, she was so beautiful. So perfect. She was his angel, his saving grace.

He lifted her up just a little, so he could slide a blanket around her to keep her warm. It was cold outside, and he didn’t want her to be uncomfortable on the ride. He carried her ever-so-gently towards the door. He was on his way out of the apartment when the phone rang. He glanced at the clock; 4:22.

“What the hell.”

He carried her into the living room and laid her gently on the couch. glancing at the caller id, he let the machine get it, knowing full well who it was.

Hi. you’ve reached Emily.

I may be ignoring your call right now.

Please leave a message after the beep

and I’ll think about calling you back.

beep

Hey Emily! It’s um...James! You know, “Mr. Markovic.” I was just hanging out at this one bar…um...and I thought maybe you’d like to come over and maybe party t my place! you know, just you and me! It could be really fun if you know what I mean! My address is 715 at the corner of Mullholland and Lexington! Come on over. I’ll be there in about…uh…20 minutes, so I’ll see you there! Bye babe!”

He was completely shocked.

And pissed.

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be TOO inconvenient for us to drop by since we’ll be heading in that direction anyway.” he mumbled to the machine, as if talking to it would get the message through. He went to the couch and picked up his precious cargo, carrying her sleeping form out of the apartment. Before shutting the door behind him, he glanced at Norma sitting directly in the center of the floor in front of the kitchen.

“Don’t worry, Norma, everything will be all right, you’ll see” he said in his usual soothing voice to the cat.

Norma just responded with a silent blink.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Getting down the stairs without causing any alarm was harder than he thought.

In one of his weaker moments, he seriously considered walking back up the stairs and letting her wake up in her own place thinking it was all just a dream, but he knew that he had already gone way too far to just leave without her.

Brushing the thought out of his head, he crept his way to his van, laid her gently in the back, and made a final trip to the apartment to grab one more thing. After that, it was only a few minutes before he was back in the van and driving towards the freeway. With a full tank of gas, they should just barely make it to his cabin where they could hide in bliss from the world forever.

As long as she was in the back of the van there was literally no way for anyone to know she was with them. Emily had just paid her bills, and the only thing that he had to worry about now was her boss. How was he going to deal with him? It would be so easy to just rush in and kill the man, but that just wouldn’t be right, and he didn’t think that Emily would approve. He could try and scare the man maybe, that would be easy enough, but if Emily didn’t show up work on Monday, Mr. Markovic might think she was responsible.

It was most certainly a pickle.

And he was having trouble deciding what the hell he was going to do.

If he went to Markovic’s house, he ran the risk of Emily getting found. However, if he didn’t go to the house, Markovic would remain a filthy and disgusting pig without ever being taught a lesson.

“Damn,” he said. He thought about it and realized that at this point in time, Emily was way too important to be compromised right now. Maybe after he brought her to the cabin he could hunt down Markovic at his leisure. That’s what would have to do for now.

“Don’t worry though,” he cooed to the sleeping figure lying in the back of the van, “I’ll make him pay, I’ll make him pay just for you.”

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

She was cold.

Though most of what she felt was fear.

She had woken up and immediately dread filled her. Keeping her eyes closed, she had to guess everything simply from feeling. She was definitely in a van; she could feel the wheels rolling over the ground on either side of her. She was wrapped in a blanket which helped against the cold, but it left her confused. This person had obviously kidnapped her, but why was he taking care of her? She had heard of so many women being taken and raped and/or sold, but she had never heard of them being kidnapped and wrapped in a blanket. As far as she could tell, he hadn’t forced himself upon her yet, but that most certainly didn’t mean that he didn’t intend to. He could be driving them to a place right now where her fate would be sealed forever.

Her mind started flashing to all of the television shows she had seen about stuff like this, and she started think about how she was so stupid to not be prepared for it, physically or mentally. She figured that the driving to a grocery store at midnight was a perfect example of how unsafe she had been.

That was beside the point now though, and she had to figure out what she was going to do. So far, just lying there, pretending to be asleep, had been working in her favor, and she saw no reason to change that.

She barely opened her eyes, just a flutter, to see anything in front of her that could help. It was just a cold metal van, with a few boxes. She was too low on the floor to see what they were filled with, but her imagination was running wild. She also saw on the floor near her feet a cat carrier. In fact, it was the same cat carrier she had at home. She stared at the carrier, and a pair of iridescent eyes, glowing in the moonlight stared back at her.

Emily was completely shocked. Did this guy kidnap Norma too?

She had no idea what to even start thinking. This guy had kidnapped her, AND her cat? What the hell? She didn’t know what the hell to expect, but she knew that whatever was going to happen, she was kind of glad that there would at least be a familiar face around her when the crap hit the fan. In fact, having Norma there kind of calmed her, and she realized that whatever happened, she was going to have to bear through all of this, and survive. No matter what, just survive. She closed her eyes again, and pretended to be unconscious. Like she had thought earlier, it hadn’t drawn any negative attention to her yet, so she might as well keep it up.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Six hours was a lot of driving, but they had made it, and only had to fill up with gas once the entire trip. He turned around the last bend in the road and came upon the cabin. He had bought it some time ago, when he knew that he would have to bring Emily somewhere. He had cleaned it and made it secure. There weren’t any houses anywhere for miles, and this was the most perfect and romantic place in the world.

And the most secluded.

He wasn’t stupid, he knew that Emily would not initially be pleased, but he knew that she would eventually grow to love him. She would have to.

He stretched; his body sore from the long drive. He opened the door to the cabin, and walked back to the van. Picking her up, he gently made his way to the cabin.

He glanced down at her face, which was brightly illuminated in the sunlight. Her brow was furrowed, and you could tell that she was scared. Whether in her state of unconsciousness she was aware of it or not, but yes, she was scared.

He pulled his right arm up, which brought her face close to his, and he gave her the slightest kiss on the forehead, barely a whisper of his lips on her skin. He could practically taste the soap she had used in the shower earlier that night.

He carried her inside, brought her to the bedroom and lied her down. She held her breath. She had been dreading this. If he attacked her, she would fight tooth and nail to keep him off of her. She would at least have the element of surprise, because he thought she was still unconscious. It was unfortunate for her that he had caught her while she had been sleeping. She would have most certainly made him earn her kidnapping.

This was the moment. This would determine whether or not she was a stronger or weaker person.

He stood above the bed and stared at her.

Like a game, it was his move, and she was ready for it.

A.N.-

So this is the first story I’ve ever written and posted online.Sso far, I guess it’s not too bad, but I wouldn’t mind hearing anybody else say that. Responses are delicious, and you wouldn’t believe what I would do for the stuff. In fact, a single response was all it took for me to start writing this story again after two years. I am completely open to suggestions and recommendations (I might even write a few in, as I don’t have any idea where this story is going to go). Please read and review, but if you’re going to flame, please be gentle. I may be awesome, but I’m not completely immune to negative responses yet.

Thanks to the readers

The Lovely Desdemona