I repeat my warning from last chapter that there are multiple triggers in this story. Read at your own risk.
And also, my previous Far Cry story was recently published by someone else on a different site. The person changed the OC's name, although they did put in an author note acknowledging this was my work. Please don't do that :) just enjoy the story, it doesn't need to be published somewhere I haven't published it myself.
Hope you enjoy, and thank you for reading :)
There's dust in her nose, and shouts in the distance. Someone is sobbing.
Her wrists hurt, she cannot move her hands. She fights to open her heavy eyes.
Jane comes to.
"Jane?"
Daisy.
"Jane? You ok? Can you hear me?"
"Yeah." Her head is full of cotton wool.
Her hands are tied together. It's nighttime, the tropical heat a suffocating blanket. Daisy and Liza are there, tied up like she is. They're in a cage made of bamboo. Nearby, there are more cages. Here's Oliver, his nose a bloody mess. Riley, Keith. Jason and Grant, in another cage, next to Oliver's.
Men wearing red tops and army boots march around carrying assault rifles. There's screams of pain and terror in the distance. Fires. Dogs.
"What's going on?"
"We're hostages," says Liza, her voice half broken with cries. "We've been here days."
"They're ransoming us," Daisy says. She's not completely lost her cool - you can tell she's going to be a surgeon.
Jane sits up against the side of the cage, her hands still tied tightly together in front of her. She's still dressed in the same clothes she had on when...
"What happened?" She frowns. "Where are we?"
"We're on some island. These guys, these...pirates, they were there when we landed and they caught us and took us here. This is like their main camp or something. They're going to ransom us to our families."
"Or they'll kill us," Liza says. "Or sell us."
"...Sell?" Jane looks around, catches Oliver's eye, then Jason's. "Where's Vincent?"
"He's dead," Daisy says. "His parachute didn't open." Daisy leans forward and returns Jane's horrified look. "It's Vaas, Jane. He fucking messed with Vincent's gear. He killed him."
"Vaas planned it all. He was in on it from the start." Jason's voice is broken, like he's been shouting a lot.
"Why are you here?" Liza asks. "We saw Vaas bring you here, completely passed out."
"I told the police," Jane remembers. It feels like the explanation is more of an assumption than an actual memory. "I rang the police when you guys didn't come back. I asked Vaas about you guys, and I said to him... I told him I'd phoned the police." Her eyes fill with tears as she remembers the chase in the dark. "Him and some guy came and took me."
"He's their boss," Liza says. "We've worked out that much."
"He's completely insane."
And here, for the first time, they don't mean insane as in what a weirdo, look at him with his weird hairdo and his gruesome scar and his pole dancing hobby, they mean insane, as in this is the man who will murder them all, and wear their ears as a necklace.
She hears him before she sees him.
His mad voice cuts through the thick of the air and the noise and the heat and gets straight to her heart, gripping it and holding it tight.
"- I swear I was like fucking- like some fucking Departed shit or something. Matt Damon. I was undercover for WEEKS. Took fucking forever to get in, man. Americans are too fucking careful, they've watched too much Liam Neeson shit. I got in thanks to my nena."
In a blink, he's materialised in front of her.
"Jane," he's smiling through the bamboo bars. "Good morning, baby." It's pitch black out. She's not his baby. "How are you today?"
Jane doesn't answer, her throat too constricted for any sounds to come out intelligibly.
"Huh?!" He shouts suddenly, causing her to jump and whimper.
"N-not good!" She cries.
He chuckles and looks around, hands open, encompassing the dogs and the pirates and the hostages and everything this hellish place has to offer.
"What, is this not a good date spot? Are you not entertained?" He laughs more, looking at her, and Jane doesn't respond. Silence is probably her best chance, everything she could come up with would probably be the wrong thing to say. His smile falls a bit, he crosses his arms. "Ok I know it's not nice here, just a joke. Come here, let's get you inside."
He stands up and gestures for one of his men. They open the cage and Vaas reaches inside and grabs her, hauling her to her feet and flush against him. Jane cries and screams, completely panicked now, trying to kick him and shake him off. Daisy and Liza are shouting her name, and so are the other hostages, but the pirates point machine guns at them. Jane puts all her strenght and desperation into fighting him off, unsuccessfully. She manages an accidental head butt and he jumps, startled, before laughing it off.
He pulls her along, her legs struggling a bit.
"Please, please," she begs, shaking her head, her eyes going over his hard face and the dogs and blood and all the guns, "please, please, please, no, please!". All her Krav Maga has gone out of the window, flying far, far away from this shit show.
He leads her through the camp, and up some steps, to a bamboo shack, inside a room where there is a small, crackling TV, a tiny fridge and a table with chairs.
"Welcome to my crib!"
He sits her on a chair and she cowers on it, trying to make herself as small as possible. He turns away from her and starts rummaging around, returning with two beers, a plate of nachos and an actual fucking candle. He sits, then launches himself forward with a knife in his hand. He cuts her bindings loose.
Sitting back, he picks up his beer and lifts it towards her, waiting for her to toast with him.
"To us," he insists, but Jane just stares at him like he's grown an extra head.
His jaw flexes and he sets the beer down a bit too roughly.
"What's your problem?" He asks, not looking at her
Jane's terror flicks to pure rage in an instant.
" em What's my problem? /em" She repeats. "Excuse me?"
He meets her eyes, and terror returns to Jane, moulding itself with her rage in a sickening swirl.
"Who are you?" Her voice is shaky. "Where are we? What are you doing to us?"
"Who am I?" Vaas says, sitting back, all traces of anger vanishing as he stares whimsically at the ceiling. "That's a really deep question, baby."
"Are you a criminal?" Jane clarifies. "Are you a slaver? Are you a murderer? Are you-are you going to rape us?"
Vaas takes a deep breath and lifts his hand, counting each of his answers on his fingers. "Yes, yes, yes, and no, you all smell like shit right now." When she just stares in horror, he adds: "I'm just fucking with you. You're OK. But really they've been there days, they fucking stink."
He smiles, and starts picking at the plate of nachos.
"I want to go home."
"You can't do that, nena."
"Let us go."
"I can't do that neither, nena."
"What do you want?!"
He thinks carefully about his answer, and somehow comes up with:
"I wanna kiss you, and make love to you, every day, for the rest of our lives."
Satisfied with his answer, Vaas smiles at her, gives her a wink. When Jane just meets this with another stare of utter horror and astonishment, his confidence falters visibly and he leans back.
"Ok not today, I can see you're not in the mood, but maybe tomorrow or-"
"No!" Jane bursts out. "No! No, no, no! Just let me go! I don't want to be here! Just let us go! You- you psycho!"
Clearly, that is a trigger word, because in an instant she is off her chair and against the wall, his face so close to hers she can feel the heat coming from him, like he's feverish. He looks completely unhinged, with his bloodshot eyes staring into her wet ones. He's about to kill her. She doesn't realise she's crying until he says:
"Shh, shh, don't cry, do not cry," his hand is wiping her tears and he covers her mouth with his hand to quiet her sobs. "Look. Look at this. You said it first." He's holding a phone to her, too close for her to see clearly, but she can recognise what it is through the audio alone.
'I think Vaas is really hot'
"You said it, baby. Shit, I thought you were hot, but I never even thought of trying with you, thought you were too good for me or some shit..."
'He's my bloody soulmate.'
"Soulmates, huh? Fuck, I like that. Remember that? You said that. Bloody. Soulmate." When she fails to react he shoves the phone away. "Maybe if I kiss you first. You've had a long day. You just need to remember."
His hand tightens around her face and he tries to press his mouth to hers. Every single muscle in her body contracts at once.
A scream coming from the camp freezes them both. It is followed by a series of shouts and barks. Vaas moves away from her and grabs a gun.
"Stay here," he says, walking towards the open door. A pirate arrives at the same time.
"Vaas! Something killed a hostage and two of our guys!"
"What? Tiger?"
Vaas walks to the threshold and stands there, staring into the chaos outside, with a hand holding a gun and the other stretched out behind him, as if to keep Jane where she is.
"What's going on?" Whimpers Jane.
"Probably some tiger or some sh-"
He's turned his head towards her to answer her question, and something tiny has flown past him and suddenly there's bits of wood everywhere as the door frame explodes right next to his head. Jane jumps out of her skin, but Vaas just swears then starts shooting at something outside.
"Grant!"
Jane recognises Jason's voice, except it's far too serious and panicked to be his, Jason is always so laid back!
Vaas laughs.
Slowly, Jane approaches him, hands clawing at her arms, eyes wide, trying to catch a glimpse of the scene outside. Jason is crouching over a big red thing. In the distance, the cage he'd shared with Oliver and Grant is open, its gate torn out.
"Holy shit, right in the throat!" Vaas laughs. "I got him right in the throat," he says to Jane, pointing at his throat with the hand holding the gun. "Fucking bull's eye." He turns back to Jason, sobbing over his dead brother's body. "What are you still doing here, hermano? Run, you chicken shit! Run Forrest, run!"
Jason sets off running into the dark.
"Let him go," Vaas says to his men. "Tiger will eat this white boy alive. We're not chasing him in the dark. Sort out the fences, can't have some fucking cat eating our hostages and our guys. Fucking pussycat. Which hostage did it get?"
"Blond kid."
"Oh shit, the girl?"
"No, the guy."
"Fuck. FUCK!" He grabs his beer bottle and throws it against the wall. "Fuck, he was fucking rich. Fucking piss head."
He turns to face Jane and she looks down to her feet, feeling her shoulders shake uncrontrollably. Oliver is dead. Grant is dead. Vincent is dead. She's next.
"Can you fucking believe it?" Vaas walks in. "I go inside for two minutes and they manage to have one hostage killed and two others escape, one even stole a gun and made an attempt on my life! Can you believe that? Why are you crying? Stop fucking crying. I don't like that."
"N-I'm not."
"Come here."
The pirate grabs her arm and pulls her to him, flush against his side, an arm around her shoulders. He guides her onto the porch.
"Look at this. Shit! It was fucking close!" He's pointing at the damage caused by the impact of the bullet on the door frame. "If you hadn't spoke to me, nena, I'd be dead. My head would be like a, like a, you know, like those watermelons shit with the elastic bands on and then they explode and shit... Have you seen those videos?"
Jane shakes her head.
"I'll show you."
"Just please let me go," she whimpers.
"No, no, nena, stop asking that. I don't like that. You're gonna sleep in here tonight."
"No! No, no, no, please!"
"No?"
"No, I, please, I wanna sleep with my friends..."
"You wanna sleep outside in a cage?"
"Y-yes."
He's offended, she can sense it.
"Yeah well it ain't happening, baby, there's a fucking tiger outside. You'll sleep here with me. You can have my guest room." He gestures at a beat up sofa in front of a TV. His smile turns wolfish.
"You can come snuggle in with me when you've had enough."
"Ok that's enough time now, how are you not clean yet?"
"S-sorry."
Stalling techniques all used up, Jane has no choice than to accept she will eventually have to come out of the bathroom.
"Please don't hurt me."
"Don't be rude, nena."
Jane doesn't know how the hell she is supposed to take that - rude?!
Slowly, she exits the bathroom (a hole in the ground for the toilet, a bucket, a tap and a mirror for washing - mangoes occasionally fall on the tin roof, making such a racket she quite nearly jumps out of her skin). Vaas is leaning against the door frame, his arm stretched above her head. She freezes, not daring to go past. He's smiling.
"Did you floss?"
She nods. "Excuse me."
With a dramatic sigh and a good natured smile, he takes his arm away and goes to sit himself on the edge of his bed (a shapeless mattress on some bamboo sticks), leaning back on his hands and watching her.
Jane's hands are firmly clasped together as she makes a quick dash for the front room, where her settee awaits. The shack is small though and her legs brush his knees as she scurries past.
"Hey."
Like a deer caught in headlights, Jane turns to see that Vaas is now leaning forward, elbows on his knees. He's not smiling. One of his hands taps the space next to him.
"You said I could have the settee."
"Yeah, but it's not big enough for two."
She just stares.
"I can't let you sleep alone. What if that tiger comes back, huh? I can't do that."
"Will my friends be ok?"
"Maybe," he shrugs. "Tiger's probably full after those two gringos. Come here."
When she fails to move (or breathe), Vaas shrugs and makes a show of peeping behind her at the settee.
"Actually, I guess we could fit on it. It's gonna be a bit of a squeeze. Do you want to be on the top or on the bottom?"
Jane's throat constricts on itself, blocking air and reason and calm and all her Krav Maga lessons until all she can do is squeak out those four miserable (rude?) words from earlier: "please don't hurt me."
"Just come here." His words are soft spoken and his hand flexes gently, but his eyes are unforgiving.
She stays still, because her legs are frozen.
Vaas moves suddenly, and in less than a second he has grabbed her and is pulling her to the bed. He forces her down on it, and as she curls on herself, facing away, and begins to whimper he lets go, messes with his gun and sets it next to his pillow, before lying on his back. She hears him cracking a lighter a few times before the flowery smell of weed warms the air.
"He's not the messiah."
Jane recognises the quote instantly, because of course she does, but keeps her lips tightly shut.
"Hey," repeats Vaas, a bit closer this time. "He's not the messiah."
"He's a very naughty boy," Jane croaks into her fists.
Vaas bursts out laughing, and one of his hands slaps her bum, not hard but given the circumstances you will excuse Jane for crying out. Oblivious, Vaas leaves his hand there.
"Are you shaking?"
"N-no."
"You cold? I can warm you up-"
"No, no. No. I'm scared. That's all."
"Don't be scared, nena, mi bebecita..." He leans over her and uses the hand holding his joint to brush the hair out of her face. "I'll protect you."
His thumb brushes her cheek, the curve of her jaw, edges towards the lips he'd been admiring a couple days prior.
"I'm really tired."
He withdraws his hand, puts out his joint then cuddles up to her, to her great horror, holding her from behind, an arm over her.
"Let's sleep then. Fuck, I could spoon with you forever."
Miraculously, Jane must have slept, because she blinks and suddenly it is dawn.
Vaas stirs awake at the same time, and, of course, he's a cuddler. His arm rubs up and down on her body, and he leans in to press a kiss on her cheek.
"Vaas!"
A pirate has just walked in to the bedroom.
"Carlos, what the fuck, hermano? What if we'd been making love or something?"
"Sorry boss, but that white boy's gone."
Vaas sits up abruptly.
"Really?"
"There's no body anywhere."
"It's only been one night," reasons Vaas, "maybe he is a tough guy, huh? Maybe he'll last till tomorrow. What's his name again?"
It takes a moment for Jane to realise he's speaking to her.
"Jason. Jason Brody."
"Jason Brody. By tomorrow he'll be dead. Saw that white boy manscaping - for sure he's gonna die."
Vaas dismisses Carlos and turns back to Jane.
"¿Donde nos quedamos?"
His hand travels along her side again, his face nuzzling her neck, and Jane slips out of bed.
"I need the toilet."
She spends an unholy amount of time in the bathroom again, weighing up her options. What a bloody idiot she'd been - third boy to show an interest in her, and he's turned out to be people trafficker. It makes the other two guys look like angels, in comparison. What can she do now?
Run? Where would she go? Everyone seemed surprised not to have found Jason yet, and surely Jane wasn't as tough as Jason, the guy had been backpacking before...Jane's own experiences with the wildlife were limited to that one time they'd been camping in France with her family.
Call for help? She'd need a phone, or a radio of some sort.
Play along? Vaas didn't seem like he was wanting to kill her, in fact he seemed like he was keen on growing whatever little bud of a relationship they'd had before - maybe he'd continue being kind to her if she did start playing along in earnest? Could she bring herself to? What would that entail? Jane was no liar. Not a skilled one, at least. He'd see through it. He terrified her, there was simply no way she could pretend otherwise. Did she owe it to her friends, to try and keep him sweet, and plead their cause? Somehow she doubted that would even work. And regardless, judging from his attitude so far, the idea that she may be able to exert any kind of control over her situation seemed ludicrous.
A combination of all three options? Play along, then run and call for help? What would happen during the timeframe when she'd have called for help and the help did arrive?
There is a loud cry outside, followed by outraged shouts, howling laughter and tearful pleads for mercy.
"Are you avoiding me?"
Jane jumps so hard it gives her the hiccups.
Vaas is standing there, he's somehow managed to sneak up on her. She gathers her arms around herself. She can see his reflection in the mirror, like there's two of him.
"No. No, I just- I was just-"
"Don't lie to me. It's either that or you've been taking the longest shits ever. Are you avoiding me?"
Jane swallows hard.
"Yes."
"FUCK!" He punches the air, whirling around, then puts one hand on his hip and the other over his eyes. Jane can see his powerful shoulders from this brand new angle. "Fuck, I fucking knew it. Why?!"
"Because I'm scared."
"Scared of what? I told you I'll protect you."
"Scared of you."
He turns around, his eyes so wide it could have been comical. "Of me?!"
"I'm scared you're going to hurt me," Jane forces out, dropping her gaze to look at the general area below his chin. He's ditched the Hawaiian shirts for a red tank top.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he cooes, stepping into her space and grabbing her face. "I'm going to respect you, and be faithful to you and be honest with you -"
"No, I mean physically. I'm scared you're going to-to hit me, or-or r-rape me or kill me. Probably all three. You're going to have your way with me then you're going to ransom me and sell me."
His hands are still holding her but he's gone very still, watching her. Jane does not dare look up. His fingers are too hot and tight on her face, his breath keeps hitting her lips and she desperately wants to turn away. Should she play dead?
Slowly, he begins to guide her towards him, his hands leaving her face to travel to the back of her head, pulling her in, into his chest, where she cannot smell anything but him, and his head rests on top of hers and he's rocking them, shushing her like a scared child.
"Come on, baby, don't be like that, it's not like that, I don't like that... it's not like that..." He repeats this mantra over and over again, then one of his hands guides her head back, his nose and mouth searching round for hers, his lips finding hers in a stolen kiss, and that is when, finally, finally, Jane's training begins to kick in.
The snap into action occurs abruptly - one second she's a whimpering mess, then the slip happen, and the next second she's in fighting mode.
Her knee jerks up and hits him in the groin. He grunts, stepping back instinctively, and Jane does a decent front kick into his stomach, moving him further away. He recovers a bit too quick, but she's ready: a swift, sharp, adrenaline fuelled punch to the throat has him coughing and crouching as she darts for the door. His hand grabs for her arm but she pulls out of his grasp and elbows him in the temple before running to the front door.
It was a gut reaction and not a clever one, because as she reaches the outside of the shack it's full of pirates and they all stand and see her there, breathless, demented, her eyes wild and scared. She can see Daisy, Liza, Keith and Riley all crouching down in their cages. There are other people around, one man is hanging down a tree from his ankle. He's purple and not moving. Dogs bark at her. The pirate nearest to her is loosely holding his firearm, looking at her with a mixture of surprise and mockery. He points the assault rifle at her but doesn't take her seriously, turning to laugh with another pirate. Jane steps forward, an arm on the rifle and the other swiping wide and hard to hit his temple. He's shorter than most men and closer to her height, the punch landing just right, with the element of surprise playing in her favour. She pulls the gun out of his grasp and holds it. She's never held a gun in her entire life. She tries to hold it how he'd been holding it.
Immediately the tone shifts, all good humour gone as pirates raise their weapons at her and someone - Liza? - cries out.
"Nobody shoot!" Booms Vaas as he runs out of his shack. "NOBODY FUCKING SHOOT!"
Jane whirls around and sees him standing awfully close, his arms raised. He's approaching.
"Don't come any closer! Don't! I'll shoot, I swear I'll shoot!"
"Oh yeah? You're gonna shoot me? Huh? And then what? What are you gonna do after that?"
And what is she going to do? She cannot shoot them all. He happens to be the boss, and he fancies her. It'd be dumb to get rid of him. At least, that's the sensible thought to have, but with adrenaline and terror pumping through her veins, Jane cannot put the gun down, and Vaas is too close now, almost within arm's reach, and Jane clicks what she thinks is the trigger but nothing happens.
Vaas grabs the end of the firearm and pulls it out of her grasp.
"Safety first," he tells her, tapping the side of the gun, where a small switch is.
Pirates laugh.
Jane swings at him as hard as she can, missing by an inch, but he's not expected her other arm to follow suite from the opposite direction and she gets him in the face, though not hard enough to do any damage. He chuckles, shaking his head. She swings at him again and he catches her arm, pulling her forward and wrapping his arms around her middle. Thrashing wildly, Jane stomps on his feet, elbows him, head butts him, but nothing works and eventually he shouts at her to 'stop this fucking shit' before shoving her to the ground. Her legs and hips begin the well rehearsed process of twisting, pushing and hooking in view of wrapping her thighs around his throat, but he's expected it now, and sits himself on her torso, her arms trapped under him. His crotch is pretty much on top of her breasts, and she's going to be sick.
"Don't pull this shit on me. Hey, hey, HEY! Don't fucking pull this shit on me. Look at me. LOOK AT ME!" His hand grabs her face and makes her stay still, look at him. One finger is raises in front of her eyes, as a warning. "Don't fucking pull this shit on me again. Stop this. Look at me, look me in the eye. Stop this."
There's whistling and laughing around, and Jane feels her eyes fill up with tears.
"Stop fighting."
She stops kicking, feeling the fight leaving her, giving way to desperation.
"Ow," she whimpers, because he's heavy and his hand is tight on her jaws.
"I'm gonna let you go now, ok? Don't fucking try anything."
She nods.
Slowly, Vaas stands up, extending a hand to her which she does not take.
"Get back inside."
Defeated, Jane heads back to the shack, ignoring the cries that are distinctly Liza's.
Once inside, she turns around, arms tight around herself. He's right there.
"Sit."
Obediently, she sits on the settee.
Vaas approaches her and crouches in front of her. Gently, at complete odds with the way he's just manhandled her outside, he pulls her arm to him and inspects her scratched elbow.
He looks up at her.
"Shit, don't look at me like that, nena. It's not like that. What we've got is special. Ok you're in shock right now, but you'll come round."
"Don't hurt me, please."
He laughs.
"Am I hurting you? You're the one who punched me in the face. Shit, you punched me in the throat. I've never been punched in the throat before." He chuckles, and when she says nothing he adds: "don't worry, I forgive you. It's a fucking turn on actually. Hey, what were you gonna do outside, huh? Were you gonna wrap your legs around my head, baby? Huh? Can you show me again?"
Jane's mouth moves before her brain waves, and she tries a joke, because jokes have worked for her before.
"I'd buy you a drink first."
He's startled, eyes wide, mouth agape. Then he throws his head back and laughs loudly, and for a split second it's like they're back at the little Mexican place they ate at on their first sort of date.
"There she is! My funny girl! I'm gonna be good to you, don't you worry, Jane. I'm gonna be real good."
On this ominous promise he abruptly gets up and grabs bits of fruit and a bowl of rice which he puts on the table, then gets a bottle of water from the fridge.
"Eat some food. You'll feel less cranky after."
"I'm not hungry."
"Would you prefer some Mexican?" He asks nastily. "Hm? Mexican meat?" His hand goes to hold onto his crotch.
Jane eats the rice and fruit.
Beaten.