Beauty And Her Beast

23 - And It All Comes Crashing Down

Thanks again everyone who voted and commented or even simply read this story. All the feedback on the last chapter was great so I hope I can make this one good enough for you!

Like an infant opening it's eyes for the first time, Danny struggled to find consciousness.

Before she could even open her eyes she knew something was wrong. Everything was too heavy. The air filling her lungs was thick and hot, the blood running through the veins in her body felt like lead, and there was a huge weight in her stomach making her nasueas.

The room was cold which contrasted with the warm heat of the coffee shop she last remembered. Danny's skin prickled and her heart raced.

Something was wrong.

Finally opening her eyes, it took everything in her not to cry out when sight still wasn't granted to her. Pitch black was the only thing that greeted her. She knew she was in a room, she could feel the floor beneath her legs and a wall pressing into her back, but where were the windows? The door, the lights, the anything leading to any type of an escape?

Where the hell was she?

"H-Hello?"

The gravel in her voice made her flinch and she reached out to touch the base of her throat, shaking when she felt the wetness of tears she didn't know she had been crying.

"Hello?" She repeated in a pathetic whisper.

She tried to move and could only groan instead as her body refused to cooperate. Danny felt like she was trapped in a whirl wind of heat and grogginess only it was all coming from the inside. Her stomach was twisted and felt wrong, her body heavy and ached, her heart beating far too rapidly to be healthy, and she was breathing hard -as if she'd just gotten done running a marathon.

She tried. Danny tried desperately hard not to loose it and to calmly analyze what was going on but to no avail. Before she could help herself, her body shook and sobs filled the cold dark room as a panic attack assaulted her body.

She knew she was unharmed physically but emotionally she was splitting at the seems.

Where was she? What happened? Had she been drugged? How long had she been here?

With as much strength as she could muster, Danny put her hands above her head and tried to calm herself before she really did die. All she could hear was the sound of heavy breathing and her heart thundering painfully behind a cage of bone.

She tried to think of things to calm her down like her family or Ray but the things that should have helped only made her worse.

She had no idea what was going on or who had taken her but Danny knew for certain that she had been kidnapped.

And last time she checked kidnappers didn't just kidnap you to let you go when you asked nicely.

So Danny panicked.

And she screamed.

And she lost consciousness.

When Danny woke again she was in a completely different setting. Instead of cold cement floors and walls, she was wrapped in what felt like a cloud and curled into what felt like a slightly firmer cloud.

She could feel the heat of the sun and when she opened her eyes, bright lights assaulted her to the point where she had to close them again.

"Ah, Daniela, you're awake."

Danny stirred. She couldn't remember much of what happened recently, but she remembered something being wrong. And so she was alert as she sat up and took in her surroundings.