hospice || e.j.

quatre | carpooling with cannibals

"STOP PANICKING," a guttural voice sighs. "You're safe."

Marli cracks open half an eyelid. It's dark here, a dim grey wash that takes some time adjusting to. She grapples around, and the ground feels... soft? Bouncy, even. Like a cheap mattress, the generic ones with springs that she'd never laid upon because memory foam is far more superior and deserving of her family's status.

Then her finger skirts over something leathery and calloused.

"That's my hand," the guttural voice says quietly.

"Oh, crap, sorry." She withdraws hastily, then flushes – in anger. Why is she apologizing? She's the one who's been dragged out of bed and kidnapped – in broad moonlight. Her abductor should be sorry for messing with her.

"I don't know who you think you are, Blue Boy," Marli snarls, eyes flared at the culprit. She can just make out the tattered outline of his beat-up blue sweatshirt in the dark. God damn it, he's not even dressed like a professional kidnapper. She should be offended at this point. "But when my bodyguard finds out about thi– are we on a moving truck?"

The ground underneath them wobbles, shakes and jerks, like it's moving through speed bumps at a velocity speed bumps were invented to discourage.

"A semi, actually," her captor shrugs. "I'm surprised you didn't see this coming. Y'know, with you being all-seeing and all that."

Marli squints her eyes in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing you didn't know about." The creature sits up again, turning to Marli. "Eyeless Jack. EJ." He extends a hand, inky claws at the end of gray digits. "Call me Blue Boy again and someone gets hurt."

Despite EJ's words, his tone is softer now, much less threatening than it was back in the room with the cyborg. Still Marli makes a point to scoot further away.

"That's fine," Jack chuckles, retracting his hand. "No need to introduce yourself to me, miss Marli Morris – I already knew who you are. Only child of Cezar Amarsaikhan, pharmaceutical head honcho of Eurasia and the West Coast. You took your late mother's last name because your father wants you away from the spotlight, what with your illness and all. Kinda hard being a poster child when you're in a wheelchair, huh?"

Marli's face darkens. "Shut up. You don't know anything about my family."

Her captor shrugs. "I don't need to. To me, the only thing worth knowing about you was your room number and floor plan. After that," he sucks his teeth, "background noise."

"Oh yeah?" Marli fights the pang in her chest, a dread that's ballooning halfway through her ribcage. This is the first time she realizes she could very well die out here. "Well, you should have paid attention, because I have a CVS-long list of medical complications that'll knock me dead by the end of the week if I don't get proper medication for."

"Oh I wouldn't be worried about that, princess," EJ chuckles drily. "You'll live. Whoever's taking you off my hand will see to it."

"If that's what they want in the first place," he adds, darkly.

Marli's heart sinks. This is bad. This isn't a simple extortion stint anymore, she can feel it. Something insidious is afoot, and she has a dreadful hunch her family will be caught up in it sooner or later.

"What's to keep me from screaming my lungs out and alert the police?" She asks, testing the waters.

EJ hums. "I'd prefer you don't. We're off-road, which means about," he counts off his ring and little finger mockingly, "zero people and two cows will hear you. Second of, your voice is growing hoarse. From all the screaming earlier, I suppose. Would be a matter of minutes before you lose it completely. Thirdly, I have chloroform on hand, so I'll have to ask you again, do you really want to go through this?"