Break Me One More Time [McLennon]

in which barney goes out to get some milk

     It was a normal day for Barney, late in the year of 2032. He spent the day just as he spent most of his days; in the F.H.O. Headquarters pretending to be loyal to the organization when he was really betraying them and transferring all of their files, little by little, to the Unknowables' data base.

    After work, he went home to the woman that he loved more than life itself and his one year old daughter who was his whole world, his pride and joy. They ate dinner together, then Barney did the dishes while Lilly played with Kylie. After the dishes were washed, dried, and put away, he joined his wife and his daughter in the living room and they spent the evening together.

     A few hours after the sun had gone down, as Kylie was beginning to yawn and her eyes were growing heavy, Lilly went to the fridge to get some milk to warm up in a bottle for her.

     "Barney," she came back to the living room where Barney was holding his sleeping daughter, rocking her back and forth in his arms, a few moments later. "We're out of milk. Can you run down to the corner store and get some?"

     Barney nodded and handed Kylie over to Lilly. He threw his coat on and yanked on the first pair of shoes that he could find (a pair of converse sneakers, which he thought looked rather strange with the suit he was still wearing from work). He made sure that his wallet was in his coat pocket, then headed out into the nippy autumn air.

    The corner store that Barney was headed to was just down the street from where he lived. He crossed the street and walked down the sidewalk, hands stuffed in his coat pockets to keep them warm in the weather that was quickly turning from a nippy fall to a frigidly cold and unforgiving winter.

     He was only a few yards from the corner store when he got the strange feeling that someone was watching him. He stopped and looked over his shoulder just in time to see a man's face.

    In the moments that followed, Barney found him with a rough hand over his mouth. More men appeared around him; one tied a thick, damp piece of cloth over his eyes; another bound his wrists together behind his back with rope that dug into his skin; the man who had his calloused hand clamped over Barney's mouth removed his hand, then quickly replaced it with a piece of filthy material that he stuck in Barney's mouth and tied behind his head, efficiently gagging him. 

     Barney struggled against his attackers, and tried to figure out how he was going to get out of this terrifying situation. Just as he was thinking that there were definitely three attackers tying him up, but possibly more nearby, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and the world went black.

~~~

     Barney slowly came to, and he found himself with his hand tied behind him, his arms linked around the back of a chair. His ankles were tied to the legs of the chair.

      He looked around frantically and found that he was in a dimly lit room and a few feet away from him, bound to a chair like him, was Lilly. She stared at him with wide eyes. "Thank god you're awake! I was worried!"

    "I'm fine," Barney assured her. "Where are we?"

    "I'm not sure," Lilly frowned. "But I think it's Shadows Headquarters.. I heard some of them talking when I first woke up, and these people are definitely the Shadows."

     "Do they have Kylie?" Barney asked worriedly.

    "I don't know," Lilly said, visibly trying to keep calm and not worry about her daughter too much. It wasn't easy, of course. There was just so much to be worried about! If she was there, being held hostage, then she was in danger. But if the Shadows had left her behind then she was all alone in the house — she was only a year old!