I just wanted to try something different…
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Tina stared down at her bound hands, she couldn't quite believe that she was actually kidnapped! After all the precautions that her father had taken and even after having an all-day bodyguard (who, by the way, was lying a few feet away… Wahim was still unconscious and tied-up too), her father oil-sheikh rivals had managed to kidnap her. 'This is so cool!' Tina thought-squealed to herself.
While she waited for Wahim to wake up and tell her what to do, she mulled over the events of the day…it all seemed so dreamlike, as if the day didn't really have anything to do with what was going on now.
That morning she had woken up, and spent the usual hour in front of her full-length mirror. She had wondered, yet again, on whether she would ever actually manage to lose some weight. Her good friend Mia (the Princess) had told her she was so pretty and exotic, Mia's best friend Lilly (the Genius) mentioned something about superficial view-points and told her she was fine as she was…even her ex-boyfriend Dave (the Jerk) had told her she looked cool-though that was before he dumped her. So why did she have these hang-ups about her weight? She wasn't that chubby, her mother described her as 'gracefully curved', but she knew that was model-code for 'maybe a little too much'. Oh well, it wasn't gonna get much better than this, and she had slipped into her favourite outfit: her most comfortable jeans and an oriental-style top. Her dad had bought it for her from a recent trip to Saudi Arabia, where he was born. Her Arabian heritage contributed to her big eyes and dark, straight hair…which Mia thought was so cool.
Anyways, she remembered greeting Wahim as he came to pick her up. She thought about how her dad was weirdly paranoid, she never actually believed that she'd be kidnapped.
So now, because of her dad's madness, she was escorted the whole 5 blocks to her school. Tina remembered rolling her eyes as she sat in the car on her way to school "Wahim, have we run into any kidnappers yet?" she had asked her bodyguard sarcastically. He smiled a bit and then answered simply "No"…Yep, Wahim was definitely the strong and silent type.
Come to think of it, Tina couldn't remember much about that day. She remembered a few vague details, Mia complaining about princess lessons, Lilly asked…well, more like ordered Tina to sign her petition and Boris had surprised them all by wearing jeans and a t-shirt…Wow.
Wahim moved a little and Tina looked over at him. She would have called out to him if she didn't have duct tape around her mouth. Why did they have to chloroform her bodyguard? She supposed they had left her unchloroformed because she was a girl and wouldn't make a fuss. But she had, she kicked and writhed and bit her attackers, but in the back of her mind, there was a small part that thought 'shut-up' and 'wicked'.
When Wahim didn't move anymore, Tina looked around in the apartment where her kidnappers had dumped her. 'Gross' she thought as she looked at the stained walls and peeling paint, surely oil-sheikhs could afford better places than this! There were no lights, and Tina peered at her watch, barely making out the time: 7:46. Her parents would be worried about her by now, and her father was probably having a fit and calling every police station in Manhattan, hell, he was probably calling the FBI and bringing out the S.W.A.T.
All her kidnappers had been wearing masks as they ambushed her 2 blocks from her apartment building. Wahim had been a little suspicious when the police had flagged down their car, but had pulled over nonetheless, and his guard also dropped a little more when they had flashed their badges. But within 2 minutes, they had chloroformed Wahim and stuffed Tina into a nearby car. After about 25 minutes of driving, one man had led the blindfolded Tina into a building and three men carried Wahim in. Tina's blindfold had only been removed once she'd been shoved onto the floor. Not one of the men took off their masks, so Tina couldn't work out if any of them were cute. She knew she was being weird, I mean, who tries to see if her kidnapper is a hottie? But the novel-reading part of her brain craved some kind of romance in this situation. Eventually, the kidnappers had left them alone in the apartment…
Tina turned her gaze to Wahim again as he coughed and grunted, and woke up suddenly. He blinked a few times and said, a bit incoherently, "Where are we?" Tina sighed, even specially trained bodyguards suffered from the after effects of drugging, she would have said something like "Wahim, we were kidnapped, car, cops? Anything ring a bell?", but she couldn't speak.
Wahim blinked again "Oh" as the memories rushed back to him and tentatively tested out the strength of the ropes. He didn't have much luck with the bindings on his hands and turned his attention to his feet…all in vain, he was trussed up like a turkey.
There was some rattling at the door and a masked man entered the room, he glanced at Wahim, who stared stonily back at him. The man looked at Tina and seemed a bit put-off "You're younger than we expected…" he said in impeccable english.
Tina just glared at him.
He laughed and continued "Well, Miss Hakim-Baba, we have already sent a ransom note to your father, he must think highly of you, because he agreed to our demands almost instantaneously…so we'll be letting you go now."
The relief was evident in Tina's eyes, and she lifted her bound hands, indicating that he better free her now.
He shook his hands at her gesture "No, we haven't received the money yet, so until we do, you and your little bodyguard will be taking a trip far away."
Wahim suddenly lunged at the man (how he did this with bound hands and feet is questionable, but bodyguards must learn many things in the Gobi Desert), but the man barely managed to get out of the way. He waggled his finger at Wahim "Uh uh uh, if you're not polite then we won't be polite…you wouldn't want anything to happen to Tina here, would you?"
The man snapped his fingers and a few masked cronies came in, blindfolded Tina and Wahim again and led them out of the apartment, Tina felt the cold air and breathed deeply (through her nose). She wished Wahim could have done something, or even have told her that everything would be alright, because these kidnappers were nothing like the ones in her books. Assholes, she thought angrily and hoped that her little brother was ok.
Once again, they were driven to their next destination, and Tina shivered when she was pulled out of the car. It was cold and her thin jacket didn't do much to help. The blindfold was removed and Tina looked around, this sure as hell wasn't JFK, but some makeshift airstrip thingy where a small plane was idling. She and Wahim were led into the plane and tied into their seats. 'This sucks' thought Tina, 'we should be treated with respect and one of these men have to be a total Baldwin and should save us, but is it happening? No!…this whole kidnapping thing is so wrong!"
Tina felt the plane take off and soon the gentle hum made her sleepy. She peeked at Wahim, who had already fallen asleep! She squirmed a bit, looked around, her captors seemed to be busy in the cockpit and so, made herself slightly more comfortable and dozed off too. She dozed fitfully throughout the night, occasionally waking up to peer blearily around the gloomy cabin.
"Tina! Tina!" she heard a voice urgently whispering in her ear. She shook her head and moaned "Mom, five more minutes…then I'll wake up…" well, she meant to moan that, but it came out more like "Mhf, mim mou mimus…mn mm mamm um" She squeaked when she realized she couldn't speak, her eyes flew open and she saw Wahim's face nearby.
"We've landed" he said simply and gestured to the men standing in front of them. Tina's eyes narrowed as she studied the masked men, who reached down and untied them from their seats, they were careful to keep their hands tied up though. Tina winced as she stood up, the blood rushed to her feet and prickles ran up and down her legs. The tape around her mouth was removed and they were man-handled out of the cooped-up cabin and were steered down the stairs. Tina and Wahim blinked in the hot sun.
The same masked man who had talked to them the night before followed them out of the plane. "Welcome to your roots" he announced grandly.
Tina cocked her head slightly "We're in England?" she inquired
The man coughed "What?"
"My mum's English" said Tina matter-of-factly, deliberately teasing the man.
The man seemed to scowl "No, you dumb kid, we're in Saudi Arabia."
Tina shrugged "Oh" and then noticed a slight rumbling in her stomach, "I'm hungry."
"So what?"
"I…want…some…food…and…drink." Said Tina slowly, as if talking to a small child.
The man gestured to his cronies "Take them away and put another tape on the kid's mouth"
He walked off briskly, muttering to himself in Arabic. Tina's Arabic was pretty rusty, but she tried to make sense out of what he was saying. She turned to Wahim and grinned "Either he wants a new pair of boots, or he hates spoiled kids who forget their roots."
Wahim, ever professional, just said "The latter."
Tina finally looked at the landscape around her. Far away, she saw what looked like the skyline of a city "Maybe Mecca?" she thought out loud, this airstrip was pretty desolate, except for a few old hangers scattered around the area. A guy slapped on a bit of tape and pushed them into the nearest hanger. The air in it was musty and stifling, as if the hanger hadn't been occupied in a while. They were tied to chairs again and left alone.
Wahim turned his face to Tina "You know, I never thought this could actually happen."
She raised her eyebrows enquiringly
"You know, actually being kidnapped…I told your father I would protect you and I failed…I'm a failure."
Tina wished she could hug her poor bodyguard, he looked so sad and forlorn. All she could do was shake her head.
Wahim was silent for a while, then he started to talk…and not just as a bodyguard, though he did discuss some ways of escaping, but also as a person, he told her about his wife and his daughters. He didn't see them a lot but he loved them all so much…Tina was getting a bit teary eyed as she listened to her 'strong and silent' bodyguard.
Abruptly, Wahim stopped speaking, and Tina looked at him questioningly. "Shhh" he whispered, Tina rolled her eyes, like she was in a position to make a noise!
A guy slowly entered the hanger, carefully closing the door behind him. He was wearing a mask too, and carried a covered tray in his hands. "Hi" he said quickly "Sorry about all this, but here's some food."
Wahim looked at him, he seemed like a young, really nervous boy, judging by his voice. "How are we going to eat the food, Sherlock?" as he indicated his tied hands.
The boys eyes widened, Tina noticed they were of a very different shade than normal Arab eyes. "Oh" he fumbled, than muttered "I really don't want to feed you guys by hand, though that was what I was supposed to do…could you manage with one hand?"
Tina nodded, she really was hungry.
The guy silently moved behind them and undid the rope just enough for them to slip one hand out. He then bent in front of Tina, and with surprising gentleness, started to pull the tape off her mouth. His and Tina's eyes met and he seemed to smile (well, his eyes crinkled up in the corners and you could see the smile in them).
"Hi, I'm Sameer" he said as he pulled the last of the tape off.
Tina would have been rude to anyone who had kidnapped her, but she surprised herself by replying, curtly but nicely, "Tina".
"That's a nice name, not really Arabic though." He stated
"I'm only half Arab" said Tina shyly, 'what is wrong with me?' she thought, 'I should be kicking this guys butt for what he did to me and Wahim', but she did acknowledge that he had nice eyes.
Tina tore her eyes away from him and looked at the tray that he had placed in her lap. Sameer helped both of them with small actions that required both hands, but let them feed themselves.
Tina felt better after having a few morsels and took a close look at her can of soda, reading the name printed in Arabic "Bebsi? What the heck is Bebsi?"
Sameer laughed "It's Pepsi, but since the Arabic alphabet doesn't have a 'p' sound, Bebsi is the best they could come up with."
"Oh, right." Said Tina and laughed too.
Wahim didn't say anything during this conversation, but eyed the two of them talking. Once both of them were done, Sameer apologetically retied their hands, though leaving Tina's mouth un-duct taped.
Tina looked over at Wahim once Sameer had left, "Do you think I'm crazy if I think he's a nice guy?"
Wahim looked back and replied cryptically "We'll see"
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Hope you enjoyed it…
Ok, well, I was planning for this to be a one-shot, but I can't seem to put any brevity into my writing…This will be a two-parter and the next part will come tomorrow, or at latest, the day after.
You are feeling sleepy…very sleepy…
You're eyes are feeling heavier and heavier…
You will now obey my every command…
You will now click the "Submit review" button…
And tell me I'm brilliant…or not.
There, see? That wasn't so hard and your reviews all contribute to a good cause…maintaining my ego…lol.