can't change what you don't know

hush

                Tatum woke up on the cold hard floor of some empty concrete room, "help!" She cried out, what the hell is going on? Where is she? "Shut it baby face" a deep voice emerged from the corner. She jumped as a dark figure approached the only source of light in the room and revealed the amused expression on his face, "well lookie here, you really are scared huh?" he laughed. Tatum screwed up her face at him, why is he doing this? "What do you want? My dads gonna find you..." she started but a harsh hand to her face cut her off.

"No ones gonna find you sweetheart, no one can even hear you down here. Your daddy'll never see you again" he scoffed, not even knowing who her dad is.  Tatum let a tear roll down her face, "why're you doing this?" She backed away from him.  The man followed her steps, "hush, you ask too many questions. I'm gonna make big bucks off you, you're prettier in real life" he took her chin in his hand then flicked it away.  Tatum was terrified but she knew that he was feeding off of her fear, so she sucked it up, "my dads a cop you know, he's gonna find you even if you kill me" she shook her head.

"Oh really? You see I wasn't actually planning on killing you before you said that. I might just have to now" his face dropped, well then... Tatum kept a straight face, she remembered what her dad told her about what to do in these situations; be calm, be smart and be brave. The man looked her up and down then left the room as the door slammed behind him, it was a metal door, that's what she noticed first, so she wouldn't be able to leave without making a noise, damn it. She stoop up since she had no restraints on and looked around. So if this is soundproof, she's on her own, if she's underground, then no one can see her; she's going to have to be smart about this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

                 "Alright, where are we with the pods?" Hank folded his arms.  Kim nodded, "CPIC sent over some footage, it shows a man who looks around 30, not that far behind Tate while she's walking past union. But Tate must've noticed him, because she took a random left turn off" she nodded as everyone gathered around.  She scrolled along the footage to a later time, "two minutes later she's coming down an alley west off angle-wood, but she's running so she's aware that he's following her. Then..." she scrolled through the footage again.  "she drops the box from her hands and legs it down another alley as the guy catches up to her, she's on the phone by the looks of it too, but that's all we got. She doesn't come out of the other end, and no one else walks out of it apart from this red van" Kim sighed as everyone nodded, jay was too nervous and worried for this.

               "Facial rec?" Hank huffed.  Kim shook her head, "no, it's too unclear. But the plates on the vehicle give us a ray Westwood, 32, no priors, adams working in finding the last known location now" she nodded hopefully.  Hank turned to face everyone, "alright, when Adam finds his address we're moving so gear up" he waved them out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Get up, put this on" the man barged through the door and threw a blind fold at Tatum. She turned around and obeyed, since she wasn't really the one in power here, and tied it around her head but left enough room at the bottom so she could peep through it without him seeing. He grabbed her arms and lead her out of the room where there was a flight of stairs in front of them already; 1...2...5...9...12...15... there were 15 steps before she got to the top, 15. "Go" the man nudged her through the door, a second door, she obeyed and stumbled through the door where she once again kept her head down but the sounds were rather alarming, screams and cries. There are other girls here, too many to count, but there's other girls here. She took note of everything she saw, heard, smelt, felt.

It felt like eternity before she finally got to another door, the floor behind her was smooth concrete, "inside" he scoffed and nudged her through a door. A third door. This room was more quiet, the floor was a dark blue speckled carpet like the kind in movie theatres, "sit" he ordered her over to a chair in the middle of the room. She winced as he pushed her onto a chairs before he tied her ankles and wrists to the legs and arms of it, "I'll be back" he sighed then left the room angrily. This door sounded different, every other door they had gone through sounded metal but this one, this one was wooden. She sat still for a minute or two to just take everything in, she still had her blindfold on but she still had ears that worked and a nose that could smell.

Nothing felt real, she was terrified, but she knew her mind was the only thing she had to get her out, to get the other girls out too. She just took her time. There's a window to her right, she can feel the breeze, she must be near the pier, because she can hear the water, she can smell Indian food, so she must be close to a restaurant. All of these things were repeated in her mind so they were embedded deep down, if she escaped them she'd have to tell her dad, or any detective for that matter, everything.

She took a deep breath and began from the beginning, a metal door, 15 steps, a second metal door, a long room full of crying girls, a wooden door, a window to her right, near the pier, Indian food. Once she was sure it was secured in her mind she let out a shaky breath, now she could let reality hit her a little, she's in her own, scared, lost, and vulnerable. What could possibly go wrong, right?

~~~~~~~~~~~

               "Chicago PD!" Hank yelled as jay got ready to kick the door down but jay had already punctured a hole through it with his foot before he got the chance.  "Clear" jay nodded as he made his way through the small family home which belongs to this ray Westwood who supposedly has his daughter. "It's empty..." jay groaned in defeat. "Hey sarge..." Vanessa called out from the basement. Everyone joined her downstairs and stood in front of the brick wall in utter shock. Stuck onto the wall we're images of young girls walking home from school, with their friends, with family, on their own. This man is a stalker, and on the table laid pictures of Tatum, she had been a target too. "This mans lethal, we don't stop until we have him, Tatum and the girls" hank shook his head in disbelief.

~~~~~~~~~~

              "C'mon pretty girl, get up" ray scoffed and untied her shackles.  He didn't even give her a chance to standup before grabbing her wrist and dragging her out of the room.  Right, back to the focusing tatum....

               He pauses before opening a door and leasing her down a new flight of stairs, 1...5...7...10... there's only 10 steps this time. She felt a huge gust of wind caress her face as what sounded like a fire escape door flung open.  She looked down to see gravel and cobblestone on the floor as she was dragged over to a car.  A blue car, she had to take a huge step up like she does in her dads truck, it must be a truck. She sat down in the passenger side seat before ray ran around the other side to get in and drive.  She looked down at the interior, black leather, very dirty, there's a palm tree magnet attached to the smallest vent.  "Stay low" he huffed and lowered her chair back so she was laying down.  She's doing well so far, but now for the hardest part.

                She stayed still and quiet as he began driving, straight ahead, stopped at traffic lights, left turn, straight ahead for at least 2 minutes, left turn, left turn, right turn, junction, straight ahead for a minute max, the sound of construction, stop... She decided to be clever about this, she was using her hands to discreetly help her remember which turn offs he took and the sounds also helped, it seemed like he was on a busy road then he trailed away from it.  She heard the drivers side door open before a moment of suspense, then her door flew open.  Since she was leaning against the door she fell out of the car, it was a harsh fall so it's definitely a truck.  "Stop messing" he scoffed and pulled her back up.  But only this time she was on grass...