"Just be quiet," the nasal voice hissed menacingly. The background sound of the engine was offset by the beat of bony fingers on the dashboard.
She squirmed on the backseat, twisted at the rope around her wrists, sobbed through her gag. She was blindfolded and terrified.
“I said be quiet!” the voice hissed again. “I can barely hear myself think with all your blubbering.”
Her breath came quick and panicky as she tried to force herself to stop crying. The car had stopped, she knew that. She could hear rain hammering against the roof and windows, the windscreen wipers sweeping back and forth, and the impatient drumming of the fingers of the driver.
“How long are we supposed to wait?” another voice asked, this one deeper than the first and definitely male. She heard him turn in his seat, felt him looking at her. She whimpered and he laughed. “I’m going to screw you,” he said.
She struggled with her ropes again, kicked out at the car door. She heard a slap and the other voice said, “Do that and I’ll shoot you! She’s to be delivered untouched.”
“I wouldn’t,” the deep voice muttered. He heaved a sigh and then fell silent.
They’re not going to hurt you, she told herself. Delivered untouched?! You need to get free... She managed to loosen the ropes enough to pull one of her hands free. She pulled the gag from her mouth and lifted the blindfold. There were two men in the front of the car, one small and wiry, the other large and brutish looking. She almost laughed at how much they looked like stereotypical bad guys.
She lay for a moment on the back seat, her breath held, expecting them to turn around and see that she was loose. Then she grabbed at the door handle, pushed the door open, and nearly fell from the car. She ran out into the rain and the dark...
***
“Bloody hell,” he said. “Why do they always run, Mr Fox? Do you want me to go and get her?”
“Just close the door, Mr Wolf,” Mr Fox said tiredly, “Before the rain ruins the upholstery.”
Mr Fox watched as his associate left the car, pulling his collar up so that the rain wouldn’t slide down the back of his neck. Mr Wolf rounded the car and closed the back door before returning to the passenger seat. “They always run towards the light,” he said as he sat down.
“Thank you for that information. I know,” Mr Fox replied. He put the car into gear and slammed his foot on the accelerator.
***
They weren’t following her! She looked back over her shoulder into the darkness and gave a relieved laugh. Ahead of her she could see the lights of a town or a village, perhaps. She had no idea where she was. She was bare foot and still in her night clothes from where they had snatched her from her room. Her feet moved quickly and quietly through the grass as she ran through the field.
She shivered in the rain, her blonde hair was plastered to her face but she didn’t care. Why did they want her? What did they want with her? Who were they?!
She climbed a stile and jumped down into another field. This one had sheep in it and in the darkness their white shapes looked strangely sinister. They were silent and not one of them was standing. She chewed her lip, looked to the edge of the field where the trees were, and then decided that she’d rather take her chances with the sheep than creep too close to where people could be lurking...
“They’re just sheep, Fliss,” she told herself. “Just sheep.” She tried not to think too hard about what she was stepping in as she tiptoed past the sleeping animals.
