Kidnapped

Chapter 27

Soooooo....here it is!!! Finally!!! :) :) Thanks to all my readers, hope you enjoyy! :)

Chapter 27:

We all froze in our tracks, staring at the building before us as if it was a giant fire breathing dragon about to kill us. But it wasn't a fire breathing dragon. No, this was much, much worse.

"Look!" Jake said, lifting a trembling finger. Not, though, to point in front of us at the giant building peeking between the trees. Instead he pointed behind us, at the four police officers a distance away, sprinting full speed through the forest towards us, their guns aimed. Predominantly at me.

"Well," I said, the word tasting sour in my mouth. "Make your choice. Imminent death," I glanced at the factory. "Or," I glanced at the officers, the angry looks on their faces, "Imminent death."

"Is there a third option?" Dave asked. Well, we could try to run, but none of us seemed to jump on the chance.

"They saw us on the screens." Jake said suddenly, looking around frantically.

"What?" I asked, but the second the word passed my lips, a bunch of angry-looking men dressed in dark clothes seemed to appear out of nowhere, surrounding us.

"Freeze." One of them said.

"No, I think I'm just going to walk away. Maybe all fifty of your bullets will simultaneously miss me and I'll have enough time to jump on my Pegasus and fly away. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."  I said.

"Silence!" A voice called from behind me. My blood turned cold.

"What do you want from me?" I shouted, turning around to face him. My father. I barely looked at him for two seconds before I had to look away, shielding my eyes from the man that had caused all this. How could I look at him, after all he'd done?

"Just one small thing." He said.

"One small thing, huh? Well maybe if you hadn't killed hundreds of innocent children, kidnapped my brother, thrown me in jail, and ruined my life, one small thing wouldn't seem like much of a big deal!" I shouted.

"Erica, I just need you to listen to me, that's all."

"Oh, that's funny! What makes you think I'd listen to you? You-"

"I said silence!" He roared, his eyes flashing. He held out a gun, pointing it directly between my eyes.

"You won't kill me." I said, my voice low. He considered this for a moment, then smiled.

"Actually, I have no problem killing you. Perhaps it would be more fun to watch you suffer, though."

Then, to my horror, he moved the gun to the left, aiming it at Dave instead. Dave blinked, staring my father straight in the eyes. To anyone else, he would look confident at this moment. Unafraid. Unflinching. But I knew him better than that, and I saw the slight shake in his hands, the way he nervously shifted his weight.

I stepped in front of him. For once, it was my turn to protect him.

"You can mess with me all you want." I told the man in front of me. He didn't deserve to be called my father. "But mess with my friends, and you'll be sorry."

"Oh what a brave young girl you've become." He said. Then he shifted his aim and pointed it at Jake. I stepped in front of Jake.

"Mess with my family, and you'll be even more sorry."

"Oh, but Erica. I am your family." He said, a devilish smile working its way onto his face.

This man was crazy. Psychotic. He deserved nothing more than to go curl up in a deep, dark hole in the middle of nowhere, lay there until the earthworms started eating his rotting flesh, and die. Die like so many had before him.

"You're insane." I told him.

"Am I? Because I seem to be pretty successful at what I do."

"I'll kill you." I growled.

"I'll kill you." He shot back. "Now can we get through these pleasantries? I've got better things to deal with."

"You kidnapped my brother! You planted a bomb to kill him, and me!" I yelled.

"Lucky you escaped in time, right? That was a close call. You should have seen the paramedics. They were scrambling to get that boy onto the ambulance. With the ten seconds they had to do it, of course." He laughed. I cringed. "But, that's not the point. That wasn't me."

"Wasn't you? Now thats funny!" I laughed. Not a real laugh, though. A fake, angry laugh. The kind of laugh you laugh when you're on the verge of tears. "Then who was it?"

"Thats the thing I wanted you to know. But does it matter? He's safe, isn't he?"

"No! Nobody's safe with you around!" I yelled, anger bubbling up inside me and nearly bursting through every pore.

"If you'd listen for a moment, maybe you'd take that back." He said. His voice sounded soft, almost gentle. I couldn't stand to even be in his presence.

I hated that man.

"Erica." He finally lowered his gun, which was the least of my worries. "I need you to know something. I'd like you to know the truth."

"Why should I listen to a murderer?" I asked.

"Because I'm your father. Because you three wouldn't even be alive without my help." He said.

That caused me to laugh. A true, hardy laugh. "That's the funniest thing I've heard all day." I said. Then I looked at him seriously. "You? Help? Keep us alive? What kind of idiot do you think I am!?"

"You're no idiot, Erica. If you were an idiot, you'd be dead by now."

"And if you were smart, you would've killed me already. What do you want from me, anyways?" I demanded.

"That is exactly what I must tell you. But not here."

"Not here? Then where? The factory? If you think I'm going anywhere near that place, you'd better think again!"

"Erica, it is the only place that's safe."

"Safe? And killing innocent children is suddenly under the definition of safe?" I spat, the words almost like fireballs being hurled at him. If only they were real.

"Erica, you don't understand."

"No! And I don't want to!" I screamed.

And suddenly I was staring into the barrel of a gun. "Come with me, or I will kill you."

"You're going to anyways." I said.

"So? You don't want to know the truth first?" He asked.

For some reason, I found myself considering this.

I knew I couldn't trust him, knew I couldn't believe him. He was a liar. A filthy, rotten liar.

But I was curious to find out what he could possibly want to tell me. It was obviously not going to be the truth. But still, I was curious. And if it could prolong my life a few minutes, possibly giving me a chance to escape, why not take that chance?

I put on the most confident expression I had, held my breath, and prepared to face the last few minutes of my life.

"I'll go." I said.

"Excellent." He said, in a way you'd expect a villain in a movie to say it. I shuddered. "Take her gun, and whatever else she has." He ordered.

Suddenly, I felt a man grabbing my arm, prying my hand open from around the gun. In my other hand, I had the credit card, and the key. Suddenly I panicked.

The key. What if it went to something that we'd need? Like what if it was a key to the factory? I couldn't let them take that, much less know that I even had it.

But I was barefoot, in hospital clothes. My hair was hanging around my shoulders in a knot, and I had nowhere to put it. Except...

I pulled away from the guy, struggling to get away from him. I turned my head away, and bent downwards so nobody would see me slip the key into my mouth, wedging it behind my teeth.

Nobody saw it, thank goodness.

I couldn't talk, of course, with a big piece of metal in my mouth. And I couldn't really smile, either. But why would I need to smile, in a situation like this?

It would do, for now.