Kidnapped

Andrew (Revised)

A direct order. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to quiet the turmoil in my heart. The girl persisted, obviously frightened of my dad, but still seeking an escape route from me. I hesitated.

"Well?" My dad stared at me through the rear view mirror. I swallowed hard. I took a deep breath.

I couldn't do it.

My dad glared at me. Headlights from passing cars glanced off his eyes, lending them an unearthly shine. They seemed to belong to a creature from Hell rather than a human, which wasn't too far from the truth.

The girl nudged my knee with her foot.

"Please don't make me hurt you," I begged quietly.

She persisted.

"Andrew," my dad's voice was low and commanding, "you know what you need to do. Unless, of course, you want another demonstration?"

Tears pricked my eyes when I slapped her. The force slammed her head against the wall and I bit my tongue to keep from apologizing. All of the anger and fierce determination in her eyes vanished. Horror took their place and she moved away from me slowly, tears spilling from her cheeks.

"Let me sleep," I said pitifully. "Lay down."

She didn't move.

"I said, lay down." I shoved her shoulder and she fell onto her back where she stayed for the remainder of the car ride. Occasionally, her one of her feet would brush against my leg, but she quickly pulled it away. Skip slept. My dad drove on. Throughout the night, I couldn't catch a wink of sleep. Whenever I closed my eyes, all I could see was the way her face changed from determined to terrified the moment my hand connected with the side of her face. The darkness behind my eyelids only provided a screen for me to replay that moment over and over.

I'm just one step closer to becoming the monster he wants me to be, I thought miserably.

Gradually, the sky turned from that deep blue to a rosy pink. The bumps in the road became familiar and the short glimpses of our surroundings through the windshield confirmed that we had arrived.

The car stopped.

"Home sweet home." My dad stretched in his seat, then turned around to me. "Show the lady to her room. Skip and I will get things set up for you." He climbed out.

I nodded and reached for her arm. Although scared, she had fallen asleep again and woke up startled and confused. She tried to roll away, but didn't really have anywhere to go, unless she wanted to spoon Skip which was highly unlikely.

My dad opened the side door and nudged Skip awake while I wrestled for control of the girl's arms. She swatted at me and slipped out of my grasp with uncanny flexibility.  My dad and Skip watched impatiently until I finally looped my arms under hers and dragged her out of the car that way. She kicked her legs, straining against the duct tape, but to no avail.

The house and property surrounding was concealed by trees and bordered by fields. No one watched us while I dragged her from the van and up the walkway. Our wrap-around porch was dirty, just like the rest of that god-forsaken building. Two cloudy windows on the second floor watched the girl thrash and scream, washed white with glare from the rising sun, blind to her plight. My heart stung at the thought of her fate. I extinguished the pain with a cold thought, desperate to rid myself of these emotions.

Even if I wasn't the one doing it, she'd still be sold. Two weeks and she'll be gone, just like the rest of them. Who knows? She might even get her picture on the news.

Once inside, I wasted no time in getting away from my dad and Skip. Through the living room and kitchen, the girl thrashed violently, screaming through the tape like a wild banshee. As I dragged her up the stairs, she hooked her feet between the balustrades. Every single one of them. However, she wasn't the first to try that, and certainly wouldn't be the last. I jerked her hard and a particularly loud scream ripped from her throat. She winced after every step and tried to keep one of her feet from bouncing. When we finally reached the room meant for her torture, her thrashing resumed.  Careful of her head, I laid her down in the middle of the floor and locked the door behind us. When I crossed back to her, she had sat up and was busy trying to tear through her bonds again. I crouched in front of her hand held up one finger.