Disclaimer: See chapter 1.
Warning: Violence
Olivia was floating in the darkness before she saw the tunnel of light. She went to the tunnel and opened her eyes. She saw that she was gagged and strapped to a chair. She tugged at her restraints and found that they were too tight to wiggle out of. She finally looked around the room she was in.
There was a bed in the corner and a toilet on the opposite side. She was in the middle of the room facing the door with a small window in the back, not big enough to climb out of, but just big enough to let a little light through.
Her head snapped up at the sound of the door opening. She came face-to-face with her captor, the same man who had called to her in the parking lot. That's when she felt a little sharp pain in her side from where he had tased her.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," he said, "How'd you sleep?"
She glared at him.
"Oh, yeah."
He took the tape off her mouth. She gasped at the pulling of her skin.
"Now, you can answer," he said.
"What am I doing here?" she asked.
"I would think you'd already know. You're my prisoner. We're going to have some fun while I destroy your partner."
"You leave him alone!"
"Hmm, let me thinkā¦no!"
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because he killed my wife!"
"Elliot hasn't killed anyone!"
"He killed her! He caused her to take her life all because he couldn't catch the bastard who ruined her!"
Olivia was taken aback. This man has a vendetta against the man she loves because his wife took her own life after being assaulted.
"It wasn't his fault! It was the fault of the bastard who raped her! Go destroy him!"
"Oh, I did already."
He held up a picture of a bloody scene. What looked like the body of a man lay in the middle of a room; the floor around him was soaked with blood.
"I cut him so shallow and tortured him over and over before the bastard finally died. Did you know he begged for me to let him live? After what he had done to my wife, he begged for me to let HIM live!"
"He had no right to do what he did, but you have no right doing what you're doing now. Let me go and we can work this out."
"No! No, I will destroy Stabler's life, but first, I'm going to break his spirit."
The man had an evil grin spread across his face and Olivia knew that she was in trouble in more ways than one. He stepped forward, brandishing a knife at his side. Olivia's eyes widened in fear.
"How will he care for you when I cut that pretty face?"
"Get away from me."
The man smacked her across the face, hard. Her head flung back at the impact. When she looked back at him, her lip was bleeding.
"That's just the beginning. I have big plans for you."
He stepped toward her again. She tugged at her restraints again and again. They wouldn't come loose. He sliced the rope at her ankles before walking around the chair and slicing the rope at her hands. She took off once her hands were free, but she didn't get far because he had flung the chair at her ankles. The chair caught her and she fell forward. He chuckled.
"You have spunk. I like that. Don't worry, you'll break soon enough."
"I'll never stop fighting you."
"Oh, I think you will."
He grabbed her up off the floor and held the blade to her throat. She whimpered slightly but then steeled herself. He shoved her to the bed. She fell onto it and sat up to run again before he struck her again in the face. She fell back into the mattress and blacked out. He smirked and left. It wouldn't be too much longer. He grabbed his camera and snapped some more pictures. He developed them and left them at the front desk of the 1-6.
Elliot was trying to work on the paperwork in front of him, but he was having no success. Munch had come back from the lab. There were no fingerprints, but there were some fungus on the photos consistent with a damp, dark place. That narrowed the search down to warehouses and shipyards. Fin searched everywhere for the kid, but he couldn't find him. They were staring at the screen with the pictures on it, the ones of Olivia and the ones of the kid. An officer walked into the squad room.
"Detective Stabler?" he said.
"That's me," Elliot replied.
"This was left for you," the officer said as he handed Elliot the envelope.
Elliot took it and ripped it open to find more pictures of Olivia. In these, she was on the mattress, her lip bleeding and her cheek bruised.
"Who left this?" he asked.
"A man dropped them off about fifteen minutes ago," the officer replied.
"What did he look like?" Fin asked.
"Um, about 5'10, brown hair, green eyes, average build. He had a mad look in his eyes too and he had a tattoo on his wrist of a flower," the officer said.
"Okay, you need to get to a sketch artist," Munch said and walked with the officer.
"This prick is messing with me," Elliot said, "I gotta find her Fin."
"We will, Elliot," Fin said.
"Yeah, but alive?" Elliot said, "He's already started hitting her. Who's to say he won't kill her right out when she pisses him off?"
"He wants you to suffer and right now, he's succeeding. He knows you can't go after her and he's relishing that fact. He wants you broken and to do that he's going to try to break her."
"I don't know what I did to put her in this position. Why he chose me through her? Why hurt her when I'm the one he wants. Why not just come straight to me?"
"It's a power trip and a game to him. He's playing with you and once he has you where he wants you, he will strike hard, but we're going to get him before he can do that. We're going to find her alive and you'll be able to be together."
"I hope you're right. I can't live without her, I won't."
Elliot looked at the photos. Fin put his hand out for them.
"I need to take them to the lab."
"It's just going to tell us what we already know."
"Maybe he slipped up this time."
Elliot handed him the pictures. Fin placed his other hand on Elliot's shoulder and Elliot nodded his thanks. Fin walked out and Elliot almost slung everything off his desk, but he stopped himself. He was going crazy just waiting around for results. He needed something to do. That's when he noticed the note on the floor, half-hidden under his desk. He picks it up.
'She's running out of time to live, Stabler. What's your move?-K'
He started to crumble the note before he realized there was some writing on the back. It was a name, Emma Carlson. Why would he give him an intentional lead unless he wanted Elliot to find him? Elliot sat down at his computer and pulled up everything he could on Emma Carlson.
AN: Hope you enjoyed! Happy Easter!
