Scars, Spells and Secrets

Chapter 22

She regained consciousness quickly, but was too dazed to do much of anything. Elizabeth heard shouting and the squeal of tires and felt herself being shoved, quickly falling backwards into something a few feet off of the ground judging by where she felt metal hit her calves. The van, her mind belatedly supplied. The same one she had seen outside of the house twice and in front of Vines once before. She closed her eyes and tried to recall what it had looked like, in order to get a sense of her placement. It had handicapped placards on it, and the side doors had been the type to open fully like a butterfly's wings. She was shoved again and quickly lost what little balance she'd had, falling onto her side. She tried to push herself up with one hand while jerking at the hood covering her face, but she quickly felt a knee in the small of her back to pin her body down. She yelped, then cried out as her arms were roughly jerked behind her body and bound together with something thin but strong. She heard Hawthorne's shouting close, only realizing just how near he was when he too was shoved into the van and landed on her legs. She heard Dimitri's yelling as well, though he was coming from across the parking lot. The doors slammed shut and the van immediately began moving.

By the way she slid on the bare floor Elizabeth could only assume that the driver had slammed on the gas. She tried to kick out blindly for purchase but her ankles were soon bound as well, the tale-tell clicking sound making her realize that she was probably being held with zip ties.

Hawthorne's body was soon moved off of her legs, and she was pulled up into a sitting position and her wrists were fastened to some kind of clip on the side of the van. Elizabeth twisted her hands so that she could feel it. It brought to mind something that she had used to attach her key ring to her backpack in school. She tried to press in the hinged gate of the metal clip but wasn't able to push it in far enough at her strange angle to be able to lift her wrist restraints out of it. Her heartbeat throbbed in her throat as she tried to subtly shift her legs underneath her body so that she might be able to lift off of the metal clip. As soon as she started to squirm too much, though, she felt the same burning pain that she had felt outside of Vines. She yelped and immediately felt her limbs go limp. She began to tremble and tried to regain control of herself, at least to sit up again; however, her entire body felt leaden. She took a deep breath, fighting to focus. She knew from watching movies and television that the best chance that she had to escape was to stay calm. She swallowed hard, forcing herself back into a sitting position. Her shoulders were starting to ache from the awkward angle that they were twisted at while supporting her body, hands still in place against the clip. She managed to lean back against the side of the van and pull herself up, wincing as her left shoulder popped loudly.

"Elizabeth?" she heard, though it was terribly muffled. She assumed that Hawthorne had a mask similar to hers, the fabric dampening even the road noise.

"I'm here," she managed. Her ribs still hurt from whatever it was that kept hitting her and making her lose muscle control, and her head was ringing. Even the act of speaking made it swim and she had to fight against the bile rising in her throat. Within a few seconds of speaking she felt something clamp around her wrist in addition to the zip tie. It was heavy and cold. Somehow, the metal seemed to draw away all of the heat in her body along with it, leaving her trembling. It was a few minutes before she heard Hawthorne again.

"Elizabeth... It'll be okay."

Even with the sound as muffled as it was, she could hear the falseness in his voice. She said nothing, closing her eyes instead and trying to sense anything else in the vehicle. She couldn't hear the road noise and could only feel the vibrations from the engine. The sides of the vehicle felt padded with some kind of dense foam. Soundproofing, she thought. Her blood went cold; if they were going to be killed in the vehicle there was no way that she could possibly fight back. Panic surged in her body, and she began flinging her weight in the van. Out of some primal instinct, Elizabeth began shrieking wordlessly as she thrashed. There was no planning involved, no thoughts of possibly breaking her ties or pulling the hook from whatever was anchoring it into the van. Her legs, still bound together, made contact with someone's body. She heard an unfamiliar male voice shout and suddenly felt a strong fist grab the back of her head, snatching ahold of her hair even through the hood. She began aiming her kicking then, no longer flailing but trying to cause as much damage as possible.