Disclaimer: Do we really need to go over this?

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Chapter II

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It can't be helped. Her pleas can't be heard.

God. Why was this happening to me? Of all people?

She's being blindfolded and gagged. Should she be thankful she's not being drugged?

No. That's horrible. She can't be thankful for anything these people do. These men! More like scum—pigs. Heavy bastards filled with profanity and violence.

Oh god. My wrists hurt.

The tears swell and fall, dripping down her pale cheeks that were now beet red in exhausted escapes of breath and voice.

And strength and faith and hope.

Bang. It's the sound of a head hitting the floor of a large metal van. She gets a bigger headache. It's so dark in here. There are only windows in the front of the car. It's too late at night to see anything outside anyways. Too late for anyone to be walking on the street. It's just a van driving down the street—too ordinary for anyone to pay attention to.

That's how they got her. She wasn't paying attention. The worst is that she wasn't even drunk tonight. She hadn't even made out of the neighborhood.

Her phone! Maybe she could somehow (in some godforsaken miracle) use her phone. Oh…no use. Her hands were tied behind her back. It won't be until later that she'll realize she doesn't have it.

Inside she's screaming. She's begging someone out there to figure out what's going on. There's a teenage girl in this damn van! There are scary men in here and she doesn't know where this vehicle's headed.

The hogs, filthy sons of bitches, are speaking English. Sayu knows the language. Her father made sure she learned it a long time ago. No good was it now, though. These kidnappers were being awful eerie and vague in words. Even had they been more detailed, what was she supposed to do about it? Magically spring up and…and then what? Nothing. All the things she heard and tried to figure, it'd do nothing. Who would she tell? Who would ever know?

Stop acting like you're gonna get out of this, she tells herself. Stop acting like you're going to be saved. You're going to die, Sayu. You stupid, wicked girl. You lied and cheated and now you're getting what you deserve.

Never in her life had her mood, her mindset, ever been so changing all of a sudden. Just a few minutes ago, she was happy. Or she thought she was happy, at least. She was going to see Tarou—she was going to see her "friends." She was going to get away with it for another night.

Now what?

Then she hears it. In the midst of her panic, her anxiety, her fright and disorientation, her guilty conscience and self-attacks—she knows what she hears.

It's about a plane. A scheduled time. A location in another place.

They're taking her far, far away from here—to a place where no one knows her.

This is your own fault. This is the end.

000

The lean blonde guy, clad in tight red and black leather, slowly makes steps around the distressed form of the girl in the chair. She's tied to it. Her mouth is taped shut. The only noise in the room and the only light is the television in the background and the shallow mutters and chuckles of the other people scattered about the room.

"Interesting," he observes. Sayu sees him pull out a chocolate bar.

A bald man walks up from behind him. "Did you make the call to them damned Japanese?"

Leather man bit another piece of chocolate. "Yes. Leave it all to me." The bald man grins and leaves the room. Leather man pulls out his phone and snaps a picture of Sayu—who's still scared and screaming as best she can while she sits constrained, helplessly to this uncomfortable chair with this itching rope.

"What's that for?" one man in the background inquires. Leather man rolls his eyes.

"It's for the Task Force. Let them know she's here and alive."

Alive. Sayu's lungs race and brain pounds at the word. How much longer is that going to be true?

"Ms. Yagami, is it?" he asks. There's a dangerous smile on his face that Sayu does not find settling at all. "Wonder if anyone cares enough?" He stalks away, smirking to himself. "Move her to the set room we had. Get her out of that chair."

The henchmen yank her from her place and drag her to another room. This whole place is sinister and secret. The walls are just concrete and steel. The ground is just cement, decorated with a smudge of oil, footprint, or used cigarette. Sayu can see men coming in from another hallway, carrying cases of white substances. Others bring weapons. Hell, there are even some hookers down here.

A stench of smoke, metal, and brutality leaks off the structure and suffocates anyone who is unfortunate enough to be trapped inside this circle of hell. She can see it in all their eyes. They're stuck here for life. Escape, and death is the price—the price for abandoning something that would turn its back to you any day. Crime has no friends. No allies.

Oh god. Sayu can feel the bruises on her arms worsen, the sinking feeling in her gut deepen.

The new room is even more secluded than the other one. It has a few lights. One door. No chair. Nothing. There might as well have been no room at all.

The blonde guy has long left. Only the bald man and henchmen are with her. He strictly says, "If her father does not get here in the space of time that I instructed, I don't care who does it. Kill her."

It just gets worse, doesn't it?

They leave a man in there with her. He stares at her—the way his eyes are moving and his smirk is glowing makes Sayu want to scream and run.

Since she can't perform the latter, she presses the former until her lungs want to give out.

The man in there with her is not happy about this at all.

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Mmm. Yup. Unhappy Sayu. Won't someone rescue her?

Thanks for putting up with me! Reviews are wonderfully appreciated.