Chapter 5: A Light in the Darkness

A few months before

They abandoned the child, saying that the brat had served his purpose. Maya was desperate, she feared that her nephew would be hurt, being abandoned at night in the middle of nowhere all alone. But soon she realized that the fate was the far better of several evils laid out in front of them now, and so ceased to argue her nephews abandonment.

She of course begged to be allowed to go free with him, but it was useless. Here kidnappers seemed to have a very specific reason to continue to keep her captive, and she shuddered at the numerous possibilities her terrified mind helpfully presented her with. For herself she feared it was hopeless, but for her nephew she preyed he would be found by far kinder souls than her captors. At least away from them he might stand a chance.

After two hours they stopped near an abandoned house, there was a woman bound and gagged inside of the house.

"Hello Lizzy, did you miss us?" The older brother taunted the terrified woman.

The woman, Elisabeth, was a very similar age, height and build to Rachel. She also had brown eyes and hair like Rachel, though hers was only shoulder length. By way of general attributes they were quite similar, but you'd never mistake them up close.

Still, upon seeing the tethered stranger who bared her similar physical traits, Rachel got an even sicker feeling in the bit of her stomach than the one that had been there since the whole thing started.

Her heart went out to the poor woman, another poor stranger who had been dragged into this because of her, she was sure.

Just then, Jason turned and approached Rachel with a knife; He had several knives, and he seemed to have an unhealthy attachment to all of them. He immediately grabbed Rachel by the hair and set about using the sharp blade to ruthlessly cut chunk of it away.

Rachel didn't protest, not only was she sure injury by the hastily moving blade would swiftly follow her movement, but her hair was the least of her worries right now. And right now she was more concerned by the fact that the action seemed to confirm the sick feeling she had gotten when she first entered the room and set eyes on her slight doppleganger.

The evil man who had clearly enjoyed viciously cutting her hair too much, then proceeded to deliberately made a cut on her arm when he was finished. She watched him soak a handkerchief with her blood and put it in his pocket. "Pity that I cannot cut your clothes off too… " He drawled lasciviously, his eyes undressing her up and down.

Rachel knew the man had plans, and the sick interest that was clearly visible in his eyes was clearly not first on his agenda, though she'd bet it was on it. She could tell because he seemed to be restraining his desires…just. And he did not strike Rachel as a man to be restrained in his sick and selfish desires ever.

Rachel began to understand what they were planning, the handkerchief deliberately stained with her blood and kept was a clue, Elizabeth herself was a bigger one, along with the violent and lacklustre attempt to make there hair also seem the same. And unfortunately, the maniac's next words confirmed Rachel's already dawning suspicions.

"Take your clothes off, Doctor!" Ordered Jason

"There's no way I'll do it!" Answered Rachel stubbornly. Unlike when his eyes were undressing her for purely personal pleasure, a taste of what he planned would come, now he had himself under control and was all about his plan again.

The order to remove her clothes, though terrifying still, had more to do with the continued endeavor to create the terrified strange woman as her. Though that didn't mean the bastard wasn't enjoying every minute of the show he was forcibly directing. Rachel wasn't sure she could obey the order and keep her last meal down, as sickening was the notion of undressing before these evil men was.

The younger brother still held Maya, and Rachel watched as Jason walked over to her and this time put a gun to Maya's head. "Do what I say, or I'll blow her brains out right now." He stated impatiently, as if she were an errant child having the consequences of her misdeeds laid out before her by a cold and harsh parent.

He had already used Maya before, to get her cooperation. Rachel knew she had no alternative but to do as commanded. She had known it before she refused actually, but still the refusal had been instinctual.

Rachel started to slowing strip herself of her garments, she felt so horribly exposed. Tears threatened, but she held them at bay. She would not give these monsters the satisfaction of seeing her cry from the humiliation they were causing her.

She thought about her friends, the people she hoped were still her friends, or would be…could have been…one day. She thought about Tom. She thought about how he wound find her, humiliated, abused and…

She forced herself to put all thoughts of such aside. They would not help her get through this, especially with her dignity intact. And those thoughts made heavy sobs threaten mercilessly.

And she darn't even hope that rescue was fast approaching at this time. They had gotten her out of the hotel cleanly, and driven for hours. It would have been hours, at minimum, before an alarm would have been raised. And that was only if her absence at the gala was missed at all. It might easily be assumed that she was too ashamed to show her face at such a prestigious event after her so recent disgrace.

Putting such unhelpful thoughts aside, she continued to obey her captors despicable order. Soon she stood in only in her flimsy bra and panties. At that point Rachel stopped and prayed that she would not be required to disrobe further…at least yet. Jason looked at her smiling malevolently, in a way that made Rachel's blood run cold in her veins, but he thankfully did not order her to keep going.

Mercy of infinitely small mercies. She thought to herself.

During a violent situation, one person may keep their cool; another may panic, while a third might faint. Three different ways to deal with the same situation of intense stress, demonstrating three different temperaments, three different stories and three different lives.

Rachel had experienced difficult situations before, had worked in war zones, these experiences gave her more resilience to deal with her current situation. Not that she wasn't scared of course, on the contrary she was terrified and she knew that this situation was already vastly out of her control. But no good would come of showing and giving her captors the satisfaction of knowing her true deep fear.

What she hated most was the harsh reality that the lives of these other two woman were in danger that she was also helpless to relieve them from, also because of her.

Maya barely spoke, except when the kidnappers had abandoned her nephew, but every human being had their breaking point, and their captors were pushing Maya particularly close to the edge of hers.

Jason, clearly thoroughly enjoying everything about the current situation, three helpless woman at his non-existent mercies, harshly kissed Maya's on the lips, Maya reacted kicking, scratching, biting, but was restrained quickly and easily.

Rachel could do nothing with Nick pointing a gun at her, and it was like that was exactly the reality that Jason was taunting her with.

Jason untied Elizabeth before forcing her at gunpoint to dress in Rachel's clothes, and even put on all her jewelry.

"Perfect, they will never notice the difference." Said Jason, observing Elizabeth in her new outfit.

"Put that on!"Jason ordered, throwing Rachel a simple cotton dress, the one Elizabeth had been wearing.

Rachel followed that order quickly, overly desperate to be clothed again, and she knew her desperation showed. Though she had barely got the dress over her head when she was shoved into the chair Elizabeth had vacated and tied to it.

No sooner was she secured than each man took a woman each and left. Rachel screamed after them, fruitlessly begging them not to do the no doubt despicable thing they planned to with the two helpless woman who had been caught up in this.

They ignored her, save for laughs and promises to return and have their fun with her later. Left alone and very much not wanting to be here when the men returned to fulfil their promise, Rachel visually examined the space she had been left in. It was a small room, there was a table, two chairs, a sofa against the wall, books on a shelf, it was probably once the office of the old house. The place had a very well used feel to it and everything she gazed upon was well worn at best, and quite decrepit and dirty at worst feel about it.

From what she had seen coming in and the fact that all their cries had been met with silence, Rachel was fairly sure there was no one else anywhere nearby, either potential friend or foe. Bad news, no help to be had. Good news, she could be as loud as she wanted getting the hell out of here.

She sought for something that she could use to escape her bonds. She had a gag over her mouth and her hands were tied behind her back, some testing confirmed that the ties had been unfortunately very well executed. She would never pull or struggle herself free.

Then she saw something, a knife sticking out from under the couch, only the handle was visible. It must have fallen when Maya attacked Jason. In her excitement at an actually plan, bad plan, but plan nonetheless, Rachel shook the chair from side to side a few times to gather momentum and then used all her weight and force to throw herself and the chair on the floor in the direction of the knife and the means of salvation.

She landed hard. Very hard.

Great! Just what I lacked…a concussion. Rachel thought.

She managed to awkwardly maneuver herself to where she could just grasp the knife. She began to try and use the blade to cut the ropes, but ended up cutting herself just as much in the process. After several attempts, she finally managed to cut the ropes around her hands free, but her wrists were a mess, though thankfully nothing dangerously deep. She quickly used the knife to unbind her legs, they had been bound tightly as well and she had to struggle to get her ankles free. They were not released unscathed either in her struggles but eventually she was free and made her first attempts to try and stand.

She soon realized her self sarcastic diagnosis of a concussion was actually right on the money. Though she could pick which head injury had caused it. The world spun and Rachel cursed. So much energy she had put into unbinding herself that she had thought no further and right now she felt like it was all she could do to keep from hitting the floor again.

She was tired, faint, bleeding and had an unbelievably splitting headache. Rachel barely managed to stand for a few seconds before the world spun, nausea rose and she lost her footing while attempting to stand still. She tripped on a leg of the upturned chair she had just escaped from and fell, hitting her head again, on the nearby table. Rachel fought to remain conscious but lost the battle barely before she had begun it.

LSLSLS

The woman woke confused, with a horrible throbbing pain in her head, and the rest of her body not feeling much better. Looking around at the unfamiliar and shabby room she found herself in, she shuddered with dread for a reason she could not name. She felt a deep urgency to leave the place she found herself. Even without knowing the reason for her fear she found herself fleeing the house and venturing headless into the dark unlit night.

Outside she found the faintest silhouettes of many unfamiliar trees, but little else. She really appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, though it was admittedly hard to tell. She had the thought that she risked getting lost, venturing away from the only structure she knew and into the darkness alone, but she quickly discarded the notion of returning.

The seemingly endless blackness was an infinitely better option that returning to the only indoors she remembered…though again she didn't know why that was, but know it she did. So she continued to walk, 'away' from that place was her only plan, and as fast as she could walk too, not that that was very fast.

She stumbled much, partly for the darkness, and partly for her own imperfect condition.

As she walked she did note that she was not well at all. Her body was injured and abused, her head throbbing to a terribly painful tune, several times she stopped and wretched, her stomach that had held little to start with was empty before long.

Try as she might she could not recall how her body had come to be in such a state, which left questions as to how her mind had come to also be so lacking…

After walking for many hours, she was stumbling more often than not. Her legs were tired and weak. She had even more scrapes and bruises from her many impacts with the ground and unseen trees and shrubs. The pain in her head reaching unbearable levels, the wrenching had not helped it, and tears of both pain and desolation were streaking down her cheeks now.

She was getting more and more dizzy, going on was getting more difficult with every step. And yet onwards further was what the remnants of her faculties ordered her to do.

She had to keep going, but she surmised that she needed some rest, had no choice but to rest, but for just a few minutes…

Just a few…

Only a few…

Then she would go on…

She would keep going…

She had to keep going…

Dropping more than sitting, headless of where she was planting herself, she curled herself into a fetal position. Instinctively seeking to preserve her body heat and protect her battered form from further harm. She fell into unconscious, be it to sleep or something else, almost instantly.

Much more time than minutes had passed when she awoke. It was day was the first observation her sluggish mind made, the second was that she was being licked in the face by a large dog.

LSLSLS

"Duke, come back boy, what did you find?"

Jake approached his wayward dog, and was shocked to find him crouched beside a hurt and frightened woman.

Though her legs trembled, he watched as the woman struggled to her feet.

"Easy, I will not hurt you. My name is Jake, what's your name?"

The woman was silent, just staring at him for several long moments. Her attention seemed split, she seemed to be considering herself as much as she was him. Eventually she seemed to come to the decision to answer him, though apparently she had not been able to find the answer she was looking for within herself.

"I…I do not know…I… don't remember." She rubbed her bloody head, confused at her own inability.

Jake pondered the strange woman for only a moment before enacting the only course of action that he could possibly take, given the reality that his morning walk had presented him with.

"Why don't you come with me, Lass? My wife Elena is a nurse, she can take care of you."

She looked at Jake with caution; the dog came over again and licked her hand. He was a chocolate brown Labrador, with soft, intelligent eyes. Instincts had got her as far as they had, and while some might say spending the night sleeping in a ditch was not the wisest course for an injured woman…or anyone for that matter, she…whoever she was…was happy with her decision to abandon that horrid place that was the first memory she could actually remember.

Her instinct told her now that she could trust in this dog's owner. She had naught else to go on, besides the seeming genuineness of that man and his kind eyes, so she decided to listen to her instincts. Besides, the throbbing in her head that had returned with a vengeance the moment she had first moved told her that perhaps medical treatment was not such a bad idea.

She nodded her head very gingerly in agreement and slowly they made their way to Jake's house.

When she tired quick, she even allowed the strange man to support her as they walked. She had the thought that she was being too trusting with this strange man, and at a time when she felt it likely than a man had been the one to hurt her to start with…not that she could state her reasoning.

But between her instincts and her very limited number of options, she decided to stick with her decision and hope this man was genuine in his offer to help her…she really did need help right now.

It helped that the dog she already felt an affinity with stayed close by her side the whole journey.

TBC