Taken & Saved - Jason McCann

three

My eyes adjusted to the darkness a little bit ago, but I still have to squint to make everything out. The curtains in the corner are dusty, almost like no one has bothered to clean them in ages and the bed creaks more than my grandmother's bones. The carpet burns my feet, from never being vacuumed. I move up on the bed and look at the guards standing in the corner, looking intimidating as ever. Despite the fear constantly gripping my heart, I'm surprised I still haven't broken down and screamed, kicked, and try to escape. I'm actually completely calm as I flip my leg over my other. I examine the cuts on my leg, seeing an odd symbol. Its an overturned 's' with the bottom at an obtuse angle and the top at an acute angle. If I didn't know any better it looks likes a constellation from my astronomy class in sophomore year of high school.

I run my fingers over it, whimpering as fresh blood seeps out. Idiot. I place it back not the floor and stand up. The guards instantly move to hold me down but I try my best to send them a withering look.

"I'm going to the bathroom. Wanna watch me piss?" I growl at them before walking into the bathroom and shutting the door. I look at myself in the mirror, barely recognizing myself. My eyes are almost as red as the walls of this place and my lips are swollen from being under that duct tape that one of the guards finally took off after I stopped screaming. He threatened to hit me if I screamed one more time, and that shut me up completely. I fear that ugly guy coming back, the one with the scar, and will do something much worse to me. He looked like he was going to kill me when I spit on him, and I very well think he literally almost did. Remembering that, I gently reach up and examine my ribs. A yellow bruise runs across my chest, and halfway to my spine. I drop my shirt and bend down to look for medical supplies. I see nothing in here. Deciding that I seriously need to wrap up my calf, due to the blood still leaking out of it, I instead start to look for something sharp. Wait. My eyes find the mirror. I glance toward the door and lock it before grabbing a rack meant for towels. I look at it, seeing some screws. Luckily, they aren't that tight. I dig my hands into it, blood escaping my fingers. I wince but nonetheless get the screw out. I get ready to hit the mirror but pause. Screws are sharp enough.

I sit down on the toilet and grab the remaining part of my leggings. I pull it taut and then kind of saw the screw through my pants. I stop when I hear a knock at the door. I stand up and walk to the door to listen. Only I realize it wasn't my bathroom door. Someone wants in the room. This makes me furiously start sawing the screw. When I get to the point, I yank my leggings end, causing it to snap off. I then grab the side and place it over my cut. I position it as best as I can and pull. I suck on my lips as I tie it as tight as I can, groaning when I stand up. I wrap my hand around the screw and hold it in my hand before hiding the original towel rack and unlocking the door. As I walk out, I hear a thump, making my eyes snap to the guards. What I see makes me open my mouth to scream, but a rough hand wraps around my mouth. The smell of cologne fills my nose, making my nostrils flare. I recognize this cologne. With wide eyes, I turn around and see the guy who originally kidnapped me. His brown eyes stare into mine, somehow calming my nerves.

"Who are you?" I ask as I back away from him. I wonder if I can swipe a gun off one of the guards and run out the door.

"My names Draco," he says, his eyes looking bored.

"Draco?" My heart suddenly seizes up. I know of Draco. He's the most famous criminal in the world. Ruthless and smart. He can get out of any situation, which is how he is now standing before me. He doesn't look dangerous. He looks like any other guy. The hood still covers his head and his jeans fit him semi-tightly. Why am I looking at him like this? He kidnapped me and is back to do something to me. So why am I checking him out like he is a piece of candy? Ugh. I turn my head away from him and back up more. His eyes look around me, eventually landing on my patched up calf. Deciding I need to distract him, I raise my voice. "Why did you kidnap me?"

Now the cut on my calf makes sense. He always marks his victims. Either with gunshot wounds or cuts, like mine. He rolls his eyes before turning to walk to me. I back up more.

"For some money," he answers simply. Somehow, I force a dark laugh to come out of me.

"You stole someone from their life for a little bit of money?" I growl. Anger wells up inside of me, making me suddenly launch at him. I twist the screw in my hand as I move forward. He just stares at me, still bored. Even as I move toward him. I pose myself to whip the screw across his face, but he sees it coming and grabs my hand. "Ah!" I shout as he twists my arm behind me, making me wince and try to stomp on his foot. I was stupid to try and attack him. He's a practically a living ninja. He's lethal and usually can get out of a Mexican standoff with a scratch.

He opens my fingers, and pulls the screw out, examining it before chucking it across the room. I watch it go, feeling my hope die.

"Stop resisting," he whispers in my ear since my back is against him. "I'm trying to save you."

"Save me?" I glower at the wall. "You took me—"

"And then Marco thought he could swindle me, so now I'm going to deprive him of the one thing he has that's good."

"And that's me?"

"Yup," Draco grins before moving me over to the window. He grabs the rope that was taken off of my hands earlier and stares at me with his deep brown eyes. "Are you going to try to escape?" He asks me.

"I may," I spat, my nose turning up when I see the rope. He stares at me for a moment before he finally just rolls his eyes and grabs my hands. He'd rather not take the risk. He ties them super tightly, making me groan. "Can you do them looser?" I ask. Maybe if I keep asking him to do it loose enough, I can slip them off when he's not looking.

Only my plan fails when he just pulls them tighter. I whimper making his eyes find the duct tape. "You won't scream," he growls, his hand coming out with a gun.

"You won't shoot me." I hiss suddenly, surprising even myself.

"Oh really? Why is that?"

"Because I am the only thing that guarantees you'll get your money," I snap, my eyes looking at the gun. He scoffs but knows I'm right. He moves his hand around to shoot the window. I wince at the loudness of it and wonder where the hell is all the people in this motel. Either this place is naturally a bad neighborhood and no one cares, or this place is abandoned. The window shatters, glass falling into the heater. I turn around, unprepared for Draco to pull me suddenly. He whips me toward the window, pausing as I stand by it.

"Crawl out," he demands. I nod, a little scared to disobey. I move over the heater, trying not to cut. Suddenly, Draco comes back with more guns and even keys. He nods for me to start walking and I turn to the left, toward the street. He follows me, seeming totally cool about the fact he just kidnapped me for the second time tonight. Only for some reason, I feel safer with him.

Draco shoves me into the back seat of a van while he hops in front and locks the door. I won't make a move to get out, even as my hand grasps the handle. He's my protection right now. Marco had no problem bruising my ribs, imagine what he may do in the future. So far, the only thing that Draco has done is kick me and make me scrap my hands while also cutting into my calf, but it's his thing. I know he can also handle people three times his size, especially when we pass three dead bodies of men I know he must've killed. 

I heard the shots.

I move to look at him in the driver's seat. He focuses on the road as he speeds down it since we are practically alone on the road. I look away from him when his brown eyes slice over to mine. I look away, trying to get my hands out of these restraints just because they hurt. 

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