TRAPPED

11

Celine

"Celine."

I peel my eyes open to see my father sitting beside me. He smiles. "You have to go to figure skating, remember?"

I nod, a little dazed. His expression softens as I blink a few times. I'm still in Léo's room. He's sitting on the other side of the bed, looking at me too.

I yawn and climb off the bed, untangling myself from Léo's blanket. I wrap my arms around myself and walk out, then into my bedroom.

     Half an hour later I'm in the passenger seat of my fathers car. He parks outside of the ice rink, then turns to me.

     "Turn your location on your phone so I know where you're going after, please." He says.

     "Okay." I reply, then show him as I turn it on. He reaches into his pocket and pulls money out, putting it into the back pocket of my bag. "Thanks."

     He smiles. "It's okay. Let me know when you get there."

     I nod. "I will."

     "Alright. Bye, sweetheart."

     "Bye." I mumble, climbing out of the car.

•

Four hours later, I walk outside to see Joey there. He smiles at me, and I smile back.

"Our bus is in five minutes, at that stop over there." He tells me. "It'll take, like, forty five minutes to get there."

"Okay." I reply.

Adrien

I check where Celine is every half an hour, messaging to ask if she's okay sometimes. She only messages back two times out of the four I text her.

     I understand she's having fun with this new friend of hers, but she just moved here. She doesn't know where she's going, and what if this kid doesn't either? She's safe, I know she is, I've made sure of that, but she doesn't know that.

     CELINE: I'm fine. Stop mesagging me.

     I'm about to reply when my phone rings. I furrow my eyebrows at the unknown number but answer anyway, putting the device up to my ear.

     The person doesn't speak, so I say: "who's this?"

     A message comes through then. I pull my phone back, putting the call on speaker, and my eyes widen when I see that it's a picture of my daughter. It seems to be taken from somewhere concealed. She's sitting with a young boy by a lake, on a bench. She's smiling.

     "Who the hell is this?" I ask.

     A robotic voice answers. "If you don't want us to harm your daughter, you'll send a million pounds over to this account."

     A link comes in. My jaw hardens.

     I send a quick text to my security, who I obviously had keep an eye on my daughter. They're outside that park right now.

     "Yeah, okay." I say.

     "We have a gun. If the money isn't in our account by half past, we will shoot her."

     "It will be." I reply steadily.

     It's twenty past now. I have ten minutes. They probably only have five.

     The line cuts off, and a few minutes pass before I get a text from one of my employees.

     CLIVE: Got them. Hiding in the trees.