Damien's attraction

Chapter 47

The whole room reeked of smoke. It made October irritated. From what she had heard, this was a building with at least three rooms. Then out of all the rooms, why did it have to be this particular one that they came to smoke?

There were about five men in the room, two laughing like mad men and the rest talking in hushed tones. About three of them were smoking cigarettes. They were seated at different parts of the room. The first man who had talked to her a day ago when she woke up was not among them.

She had studied every detail about them so that when she got out, they would not be free. They had one thing in common though, which was highly detailed tattooed wrists.

She was so tired of sitting on one spot. Her body was hurting. Her hands and feet were still bound but her mouth was free now. It was of no use to cover it anyways, she guessed, because they had told her they were in an abandoned area.

The sound of a phone ringing made October snap out of her thoughts. One of them left the room as the youngest one among them picked up the ringing phone on the table.

"Adrian's phone is ringing." He said and shushed the others as he noticed that it was an unknown number.

"Ano?" He asked as soon as he answered the call and put the caller on loudspeaker.
(What?)

"Kung saanay siya?" A lady's voice at the other end of the line said.
(Where is he?)

A wave of recognition hit October immediately. She knew this voice.

The countenance of the man who had answered the call changed as soon as he heard the voice. He looked serious now.

"Siya ay hindi dito." He answered.
(He is not here)

"Your boss is not there?" The person sounded annoyed. October knew who it was immediately she spoke in English.

"Ano ang pangalan mo?"
She was asking for his own name.

"Hector, ma'am." He answered.

'Hector. He was the bartender!'
October thought.

"Tell Adrian that the money is coming. Tell him they reconsidered telling the police after he threatened them." She paused. "And I hope he did his job." She concluded before the line went dead.

October couldn't believe Jessica could go this far. Order a man to abduct and rape her, then ask for money.

**********

Aaron shut the door of the car he had just come down from. He was holding a huge black bag on his right hand, the kind that could contain millions of pisos.

He took in the whole area as Kcee and Damien came out of the car too. It was so quiet. There were no buildings there, save the abandoned uncompleted building in the large compound in front of them.

There were a lot of trees around them, tall trees that covered the sun rays from touching them. "He said he'll meet us here." Aaron told Kcee and Damien.

"We need to keep an eye out from here. Anything goes wrong, we'll contact the police." Aaron said and unlocked his phone. He sent a text message to October's phone telling the abductors that he had arrived.
Seconds after, he received a text from the phone. He was so annoyed as he saw a picture of October still tied to the chair. This was the third time he had been sent this kid of photo with October's phone since the abduction. There was a threatening message beneath concerning the ransom and the police. Aaron sighed in frustration.

"He's here. I can see him." One of the abductors said to Adrian from inside. He was standing near the window in a room different from the one October had been kept in, with Adrian behind him who had been staring at the ceiling.
His gaze came back down immediately he heard the man say that.

They began to hear some noises in the building.
"What's that?" The man asked, as if he was asking himself.

Adrian's eyes widened and he ran out of the room, towards to the room they had kept October in, struggling to see with the few lit candles here and there since the power had gone out in the building.

When he got to the room, he got angry at the sight of two of the men that were supposed to be watching October, fighting. Now October was the one watching them from her chair. Hector was on the floor and he was being beaten by another man, and the other two men that had been there before had been trying to separate them.

Adrian tried to stop the mess happening, and as they were not concentrating on anything else, they failed to realise that one of them had hit some lit candles which fell to the rugs scattered throughout the room.

It was after the rugs started burning that it dawned on them that the room was on fire. The men that were fighting had ceased the ruckus and the others took to their heels, including Adrian. The fire was drastically spreading.

Only October and Hector remained. He struggled to get up, injured and weak, and tried to run but turned back and looked at October who was choking from the smoke.

October's vision was getting blurry as she could not escape, and she was so surprised when she felt the ropes come loose.
She was so weak to stand, but she was grateful that he of all men there had helped her.

And then he ran.

***********
Damien paced around the side of the car, Aaron the others side. It had just been minutes since they received the message, but they were all very worried.

Kcee just sat on the hood of the car, staring at the building. Sharmaine had called to ask what was going on, but they too had no clue.

"Is that smoke?" Kcee asked as he squinted.

Aaron and Damien both halted and turned to look at the building at the same time. It was on fire. The bag dropped from Aaron's hand in shock and before anyone could say 'Jack Robinson', Damien had already dashed for the building.

***********

October tried to move but she couldn't anymore. The building was collapsing and the last thing she heard before she passed out, was someone calling her name.