Disclaimer- I own nothing
This is a one-shot for now, but if I get enough reviews and positive feedback I might continue it. :) Please R&R
" NYPD, Detective Danny Messer..." He nodded, lifting his shirt up to show the girl his badge, showing a slither of his toned hip bone...The girl blushed slightly, covering herself with the door some more so he wouldn't see the bruises she had that were yellowing in places, but there were others that were still black and blue.
"I'm looking for Annabell Jones, have you seen her?" The girl's face suddenly composed, a mask of indifference covering her features.
"No, I know she lives around here, but no, I haven't seen her."
Danny raised an eyebrow, he knew there was something the girl wasn't telling him, but he didn't press further, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a card and pushed his arm out.
"This is my card, Call me if you know anything else." She noticed how he'd said 'know' instead of 'hear' which surprised her, why wasn't he pressing for further information? information that could send her into the ground if she told him.
"Okay thanks." she muttered, he nodded "Thanks for ya time."
The girl drew a large amount of air into her lungs, preparing to be questioned as soon as the door shut, she slowly closed it, shoved the detective's contact card into her bra, where she knew they wouldn't look. As soon as the door was shut she was enveloped in darkness, she felt a painful shove, pushing her up against the door, cold breath trickling into her ear.
"What did he want. tell me now." He growled.
"He..he asked about the girl, her name's Annabell Jones, asked where she was." She knew he'd heard every word the detective had said, but she also knew he liked her to tell him too. so he could hurt her afterwards.
His hand slithered around her neck, putting pressure on her trachea, forcing the air out of her lungs.
"You little bitch, you even talk to a cop ever again, I'll make sure you won't even be able to walk." with that he punched her hard in the eye, she knew she'd have a right shiner the next day, but she was used to his contant abuse in a way. She fell to the ground and gasped, forcing breath into her lungs as he walked away.
She felt her eye and brought her hand back, covered in blood, he must have cracked the bone, it stung a lot.
Her name was Bella Lewis she had been held captive for three years, a house in a large neighbourhood, His name was Damien, no last name. for three years, he'd beaten her, but never killed her. He was a killer, she was locked in the basement whenever he brought a woman back, he was very handsome, that was how he managed to get his victims back to the house, for what they thought would be something good, but no, it was something that ended in their deaths. Bella would sheild her ears, but that would never stop her from hearing the screams of the girls he killed, the smell of the blood when he shouted her name, forcing her to clean up after his mess, she was a tiny girl, and she would be forced to drag the bodies out into the garden at night time and bury them in the ground, he would watch and laugh at her because she wasn't strong enough to carry them, let alone dig a hole in the ground.
Now that she had a black eye, if that detective came back, he'd ask questions, the card in her bra burned against her skin, reminding her that there may be way out. She had been snatched from her home when she was only fifteen years old by him, only lucky enough to be fed and let have a shower when she needed, now she was eighteen, and she didn't see daylight that often.
As a kid, Bella had loved bridges, the architecture of them, every time her dad drove down either the 59th street bridge or the brooklyn bridge she'd gape out of the windows and stare up at the large masterpieces wrought from brick, metal, steel etc.
She had a few fond memories left throughout the last three years of darkness. A holiday on Coney Island with her family, her and her two younger sisters Emily and Christine, that had been nice, but now only a fond memory.
Bella got up from the floor and walked to her room, she shut the door and locked it, at least the bastard respected her privacy at times, for one he had never broken into her room, never broken the door down, he usually waited until she had to pee to jump on her. As disgusting as it was, she had kept plastic bottles in her room used to pee in, it was messy but she had a sink so it was easy to clean up. it prolonged the time in her room, away from that monster.
Damien had some mental problems, she was damn sure of that, maybe his parents had beaten him to a pulp as well, and that was all he really knew, watching his dad beat his mom, having his dad beat him, it was endless, he had probably seen a lot, and wanted to keep a pet, who could see the inner workings of his mind. He was surprisingly lenient sometimes, he let her go out and get groceries, but she knew it would be a few days now before he let her out of the house again. then, she would make her escape, she got up and limped to the mirror, she had two cracked ribs, she could feel them, but luckily she could still walk, but with a slight limp.
Her eye was starting to turn purple already, her long brown hair was mussed, teary brown eyes, pale skin from being inside so long. She pressed her hand to her heart, hoping her plan to escape would work.
A large bang on her door startled her. "Dinner time, open the fucking door." Damien yelled, she had no idea whether he was telling the truth or not but regardless she opened the door anyway. He shoved a tray at her chest and slammed the door back in her face, she heard his heavy footsteps stomp away and she let out a shaky breath and brought the tray over to her bed and sat down, there was a plate of pasta, a glass of water, an apple and a twisle stick, at least he made sure she was fed. over the years he had given her books and things to make her stay a little easier, she guessed he wasn't a monster all of the time.
She ate the food slowly, trying not to breathe too heavily because of her ribs, she knew he'd never let her go to a hospital to get them strapped because the doctors would probably ask questions, and he knew she'd try to lie, but they wouldn't believe her, so the hospital was a no go. Usually after he'd broken some bones he'd leave her for a while so they'd heal...he didn't want his pet dying, how kind of him she had thought bitterly, there were few times she'd tried to fight back which led to her stabbing him in the leg with a pen knife, she had tried to run, because he was down on the floor, but sadly he had picked up a lamp and smashed her around the head with it. luckily for him it had knocked her out cold. She had woke up three days later in her room with a bottle of asprin and a glass of water on the bedside, her head hadn't been bandaged though, he didn't care enough to do that, just enough so that she wouldn't be in pain, probably figured the air would do it some good.
Four days later.
"It's been Four days now, that eye has healed enough to look accidental, I need you to go to the grocery store, here's twenty five dollars, I want every penny of the change, and stick to the fucking list." Damien spat out, some saliva spattering across her face which she wiped away.
"I will." she squeeked before running out of the door, he had to buy her clothes that weren't tatty or dirty so people wouldn't notice she was a kidnap victim, he made sure she was clean and fed too, so people wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary, he made her wear make-up to cover the black eye and various other bruising around it, but what he didn't know was that she had a small vial of water in her pocket, enough spare change for the phone box, an NYPD detective's contact card and twenty five dollars that would be used for her escape plan. It usually took around an hour and a half for her to return home from grocery shopping since he made her walk two miles to the local store. She was counting on the phone box, it malfunctioned sometimes, but today of all days she hoped it would work.
Ignoring the pain in her abdomen she ran as quickly as she could, trying to save time, trying to get to the store so she had time to spare, it took twenty five minutes and she was sure she'd probably broken the ribs with the running, considering she could barely walk, she grabbed onto the handle of the phone box booth and yanked the door open, she put in sixty cence and waited. 'REJECTED' flashed on the green and she let out a cry, damn you phone box...fat tears began gushing down her face...now she didn't know if she'd ever escape.
"Excuse me miss, do you want to use my phone?" A woman with a young child asked, standing in front of the phone box. the woman was staring at Bella's abdomen...there was a blood stain where her broken ribs were, probably a compound fracture she inwardly groaned.
"Yes please! Thank you so much, I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here." with shaky hands Bella took the phone from the woman's hands and dialed in the detective's number, knowing the woman would probably ask questions after the call, but that didn't matter now, all that mattered was that she escaped Damien's hell house.
"Messer." she thanked god he'd answered.
"Hi. I'm Bella from the other day, you came looking for Anabell Jones, you need to help me, I've been help captive in that house since I was fifteen, that was three years ago, I'm at the local store on Staten Island, I only escaped because he wanted me to go grocery shopping...please help me, I can't go back there, please, please." She begged and began to cry, the woman in front of her moved closer and placed a warm warm around her shoulder, comforting her.
"Don't worry, I'll be there as soon as I can, I'll have anyone close come to you first so he won't find you OK? what is your name?" Detective Messer asked.
"Bella, Bella Lewis." She sobbed, "OK Bella, I'll be there soon, hold on OK?"
"OK." She mumbled into the phone and hung up, hoping everything would end up ok. She handed the phone back to the woman and smiled, the woman walked her over to the bench with her child who hadn't taken any notice and was holding a game boy with headphones plugged in thank god.
"How old are you honey?" the woman asked, her blue eyes shining with un-shed tears.
"I'm eighteen...I've been a kidnap victim for three years now...and this was the first time I managed to gain enough courage to do this." Bella panicked and glanced at her watch. crap. he'd be wondering where she was pretty soon...and it only took ten minutes in a car to get here. Her heart accelerated when she heard speeding cars coming in the distance. She sighed in releif when she saw three NYPD Squad cars pull up and a large black SUV.
Officers and two men in suits ran towards her and the woman and child.
"I'm Detective Danny Messer, and this is Detective Mac Taylor, are you Bella Lewis?" She nodded and rose, their eyes went wide when they saw blood seeping through her shirt and her black eye that she had washed the make-up off. Another man in a suit ran over and saw her, he grabbed a walki-talki from his belt and yelled into it.
"I need a rush on an ambulance now, I've got a young girl who's bleeding, victim of abuse by the looks of it."
Danny and Mac walked closer, they hadn't seen a case this bad in a while, a small portion of Bella's sixth rib was sticking out of the blue cotton of her shirt.
She glanced down and saw her ribs, which had been numbed by the pain, "I practically ran here, I knew he'd come looking for me soon enough so I had to save some time." She said.
Sure enough, a black pick-up pulled up, her eyes went wide, she knew it was Damien, he had a shot gun she knew of so she hoped she wouldn't be going back with him anytime soon. she nodded towards the truck, luckily all of the officers wore gun vests and were armed.
"That's him!" she yelled. They all ran towards Damien, he stood in front of the truck, gun poised, aiming at Detective Messer.
"I want you to give me the girl back." Damien said in a calm reserved voice.
"No way you sick bastard, look what you did to her." the unknown officer shouted, the one who had called the ambulance.
Damien shook his head and looked around him, everyone within three feet of him had their guns aimed at him.
Danny pushed Bella behind him, and aimed his gun at the bastards head.
"On the ground now! hands behind your head!" Danny yelled, warning lacing his voice. Detective Flack moved in closer, aiming his gun at the guys legs incase he decided to run.
"I want the girl..." He said again, pointing to Bella's huddled form behind Danny.
"No way in hell." Danny spat. Damien fired, the bullet bounced off a lamp post and fired back at Damien, lodging into his chest, He fell to the ground, blood flowing from his mouth, must have hit something important.
Flack and Danny lowered their guns, "All clear." Flack yelled to the uniforms surrounding the scene, they all lowered their guns, Danny got down on one knee next to Damien.
"I sure hope you rot in hell for what you've done to her for the past three years." Danny kneeled next to him until the life had disappeared from the bastards eyes.
Bella stood alone, unsure whether she'd be able to stand much longer, her knees buckled, she fell to the ground, the rough gravel hitting her legs. Fat tears streaming down her face, after so many years of abuse, he was dead. Gone. Never coming back. She looked up into the sky and said a silent thank you to god for taking him away, maybe she'd see her parents again now.
She felt a strong pair of arms snake around her waist and pull her up, Danny stood in front of her.
"Bell, you okay?" She blushed slightly at his nickname but nodded too, He led her over to a waiting amblance and watched as the paramedics gently sat her on a gurney and covered her in blankets, after loading the gurney onto the ambulance Danny got in and sat on a small stool beside the gurny. Bella reached forward and grabbed Danny's hand that had been resting on his thigh.
"Thank you Danny..." She mumbled, eyes heavy from the morphine that was beginning to run through her blood stream. Danny squeezed her hand.
"Don't worry Darlin', Just sleep." She nodded sleepily and closed her eyes. Danny turned the paramedic and smiled.
"Thank you for helping her, Is she gonna be okay?" Danny asked, worry lacing his voice.
The paramedic frowned slightly, "Yes, but she's taken quite a beating, compound rib fracture, several more broken ribs, black eye. He must have kicked her because she has a minor case of internal bleeding that can be controlled as soon as we get to the hospital."
"Tough though, there are many defensive wounds on her arms and hands." Danny frowned, the bastard had used her as his personal punching bag, it made him feel sick to his stomach. He was glad the guy had basically killed himself, because he didn't want Bella living in fear of him ever finding her again, she had lived through hell for three years, now he just wanted her to be ok, child services were looking for her parents, and they should hopefully be reuinited.
Danny stared at Bella, she was a beautiful girl, no doubt about that. Once they arrived at the hospital, Bella was taken off to be prepped for surgery, and three hours later she came out and was transferred to a room in Trinity General hospital.
Three days later.
"I have the missing persons report here Danny." Adam passed the report into Danny's hand and went back to what was on his computer screen.
"Thanks Adam, I owe ya one." Adam nodded and smiled, "Anytime, I'm sure you'd do the same for me." Adam said, laughing.
"I sure would." Danny replied and got a shocked look from Adam. Danny just smiled and looked at the report.
"Isabella Lucy Lewis, went missing at the age of fifteen, discription brown hair, brown eyes, five foot three inches, around one hundred and 10 pounds. Parents Johnny and Michella Lewis."
Adam glanced up again, "At least she had people looking for her." Danny nodded "Yeah, the case is still open, and it's been three years, I bet they'll be glad to see their little girl again, is there a contact number?"
"Yeah, in the back." Adam mused, once again going back to his computer.
He picked up the office phone and dialled in the number, it rang a few times and a woman picked up.
"Hello, Michella Lewis speaking."
"Yes, I'm Detective Danny Messer with the NYPD, I am happy to announce that your daughter has been found, she was kidnapped, and she managed to escape long enough to get to a phone, her kidnapper is now deceased, and she is currently in Trinity general hospital recovering."
Danny heard gasping and crying from the other end.
"It's been three years, and you've found my little girl, thank you so much detective!"
"Yes, and her room is 3413, you can go and visit her, when you go to the reception desk tell the receptionist that Danny Messer sent you, and that your Bella's parents."
"We will. Thank you Danny, We owe you so much for this, thank you for your hard work, bye now."
"Bye Mrs Lewis, I'm glad I helped her." Danny smiled and put his phone into his pocket.
Mac walked into the room and made a bee-line for Danny, "How did it go?" Danny folded his hands and looked out of the large glass window overlooking the city.
"It went well. Mrs Lewis seemed hysterical with joy, which is to be expected."
Mac nodded. "What about you Danny, how are you?"
"I'm fine...I just...I couldn't stand to see that guy asking us to give her back, if he hadn't of killed himself basically. I would have killed him instead. I had prepared myself for that outcome, maybe god gave me a second chance."
"You are a hero Danny, if you hadn't of gone to Damien's house, you probably would have never thought something was wrong. Never would have given Bella your contact card, and because you did, you gave her the courage to escape, to survive, to get away from that monster for good."
Danny felt some pride inside and smiled at him, "Thanks Mac, really, that meant a lot."
Mac patted him on the back, "You've come a long way since those first few months back in the lab a few years ago."
"I know...thanks to you and everyone here, I wish Aiden was here to see this you know, I think about her every day, what she's doin' up there and stuff."
Mac smiled somewhat sadly, "Aiden would be so proud of you, she always had faith in you Danny, no questions asked."
Danny nodded, he and Aiden had always been best friends, since they had first met really, the team going out for drinks had started that, and Danny had asked her out many times, and each and every time she'd say "No way Messer, I'm way out of your league." And each time she had said that, they'd both laughed their asses off, it was just how they were, and Danny admired Aiden for that, most girls were putty in his hands, but not Aiden, she was different, that's why her death had hit him hard. He had wanted to kill DJ Pratt so badly, but he knew he couldn't, Mac had said all they could do was make sure they got him so justice would be served, and they had. DJ Pratt was never getting out now. Thanks to Aiden they were able to put him away, but losing a friend like Aiden had effected everyone, it was a life changer.
Aiden still held a special place in Danny's heart, and she always would.
Danny sood and checked his watch, it was 6:45 pm, he was meant to clock out at six but he had to do some final paperwork, Mac stood too.
"I think I'm going to head home, I was meant to clock out at six, unless you need me?" Danny asked Mac, waiting for an answer.
"No, go ahead, I'll call you if there's a case, get some rest." Danny smiled and waved to Adam on the way out.
"Bye Adam." Adam looked up again, "Later Danny."
Once he got home he showered, changed and jumped into bed incase he would be woken up at three am for a case so he'd be fresh. As soon as he closed his eyes he was out. A long day of saving a kidnap victim had taken it out him, he was just glad Bella Lewis was now safe.
One year later.
Danny sat at his desk, skimming through his emails he saw one the caught his eye, the email adress said 'IsabellaLewis93 ' He clicked open and proceeded to look at the very long email.
Danny,
I know it's a little over-due, but for the past year I have been recovering physically and mentally. It took some time for me to become close to my mom and dad again, I also learned that they had a son in the time I was gone, his name is Colin, He's sweet. The reason I'm writing this email is because I want to thank you and the NYPD for everything you've done for me, I owe you my life Danny, and I thank you for coming to his house that day and giving me your card, if you hadn't...I'm sure I'd either still be living with that monster or dead in a ditch somewhere, for that I thank you. It will take time for me to heal from that experience, but I'm glad you saved me.
I'm indebted to you, again thank you.
- Bella Lewis.
It had been a year, a full year, and Danny never expected to hear from Bella Lewis again, but he was glad she had, it made him feel warm inside, these were the moments in his job that he loved, where he could save people's lives and have them thank him for saving their lives, even though being a detective had its ups and downs. He sure loved his job and the people he worked with fully with his whole heart.
END