Kidnapped
By: Moon Baby
Rating: PG
E-mail: MoonBabyGirl16@yahoo.com
Authors Note: Okay. It's finally here. Sorry I got really busy with school and my other story. I wanted to finish it but I kept getting one ideas right after another. So I'm keeping it going. N E Ways, here it is. Andrew knows they're missing, Darien and Serena got away. No, they didn't take the gun. They didn't have time. They didn't even grab they're shoes. Enjoy.
They escaped. The cabin was remote, with no light to guide their way across the small clearing that lay behind the cabin. Several times they stumbled before plunging into the forest that surrounded the clearing.
Trying to force her eyes to adjust to the darkness, Serena looked at the sky. Tree limbs just leafing out for the summer practically blocked the pale moon from her sight. The faint light provided gave little assistance in crossing the rocky, uneven ground. The black clothes Darien wore made him blend in with the darkness. She was very obvious in her light khaki pants, denim jacket, and light blue shirt.
Her thin socks were torn and she was sure there was a deep cut on her right foot. Afraid that their captors would be right behind them, with shoes, guns, and flashlights, she just tried to ignore the pain and kept moving. Despite ignoring it she couldn't help but stumble. She would have fallen if Darien hadn't caught her. 'Why is it easier for him. Was he accustomed to walking almost barefoot on rocky grounds.' "Do you think they're chasing us?" she asked breathlessly.
He helped her cross a fallen log. "They just won't let us get away like that. They need us to get whatever it is from Andrew. We have to keep moving."
"Can we-" She winced when she stepped on a pinecone. "Can we find a road?"
He didn't slow down as he answered her. "They're properly patrolling the road. Our best bet is to get as far away from them as we possibly can. They don't know what direction we went, so it won't easy for them to follow us."
"But-"
"Serena. Don't talk. Move." He put his hand on her back to help support her and urging her forward. Biting her lower lip she kept moving.
It was a hell of a journey. Rocks, fallen branches, pinecones, and other debris stabbed her already cut feet, while tree branches slapped her face. Deep holes and sheer limestone bluffs made their passage more hellish.
Staying very close to Darien, Serena locked her jaw and kept going. She was exhausted, winded, and in a lot of pain. But she refused to give in to her pain in front of Darien. As long he moved she would to. Or die trying. 'The latter seems more likely to happen first.' (The latter means the last thing said. 'Or die trying' is the latter) A loud gasp escaped from her when she twisted her ankle on a rough patch of ground. But she get going.
By the time Darien tugged her to stop she was in a zone. Moving without thinking, without feeling, without looking from side to side, without caring. Swaying, she blinked at him barely able to focus on him. She mainly concentrated on his midnight blue eyes.
"Are you all right?" His voice sounded different. Muffled, hollow, distant.
"I'm fine." Her own voice sounded even stranger to her than his did.
"You need to rest. It should be safe. I don't hear anyone following us."
"I can keep going. I'm fine." She starts walking again.
He grabs her wrist. "Then I need a rest." He looked around for a moment, then pulled her to sit on a rock with him. "We'll sit here for a while, okay?"
"Fine." They settled carefully in the large rock beneath a tree. The rock was rough and very uncomfortable but it was a great relief to be off her feet Serena didn't even think to complain. She leaned on the tree behind them with a weary sigh. That sigh quickly turned into a gasp of pain.
Darien's head quickly snapped to face her. "What's wrong?"
"My feet," she gasped out as she was consumed by more pain. Spears of pain shot up from the soles of her feet to her legs, up her back, and moved all the way to the back of her neck. Every part of her body hurt, but most of the pain centered in her poor abused feet.
Darien slid off the rock and hunched in front of her and picked up her right foot. He lightly rubbed his fingers down her foot. Even though his touch was as light as a feather she still winced when he brushed a deep cut. He put her right foot down gently and picked up her left. "Your bleeding from several cuts on your feet. There's properly dirt in them, and tiny pieces of gravel in the cuts. Also you have some bad bruises and scrapes. No wonder your hurting."
"Well, aren't you hurting? You don't have any shoes either."
"I have some cuts, but not many. My feet are more callused then yours."
'Of course they are.' With her head against the tree, Serena closed her eyes and swallowed a moan. 'I hate looking so weak in front of this tough, strong, and very self-sufficient man, but I just about reached my limit.'
"Anybody ever tell you you're tougher than you look?" Darien asked as he set her left foot carefully on the ground.
A lone tear escaped from her eye. "There's no need to flatter me now."
"I'm not. I'm just stating facts." He moved to where he was sitting before. Then put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him. "Get some rest," he said gruffly. "We're safe, now." 'For a while.'
'Safe? We're sitting in an unknown forest on a pitch black night, three armed men are chasing us, no lights, no food or water, no way to get help, and we don't even have shoes. We are nowhere near safe,' Serena thought as she sat stiff against Darien, but she slowly found herself relaxing against him. Her breath came out in a long, tired sigh. Allowing herself to float on the waves of pain that ran through her body. She closed her eyes and tried to block out those thought. 'I'll be stronger later, now I need to rest.'
Darien didn't know if Serena was sleeping just drifting. Her breathing was deep and even, her body warm and limp against his. Remembering the condition of her feet, or at least what he could tell in the dark, he wouldn't blame her is she was whinnying right now. 'She's definitely tougher than she looks.'
Sitting very still so he wouldn't disturb her, he took an assessment of his condition. His face was a little sore from the other guy's fist, the heavy cuff was still dangling. He lost the hairpin at the cabin. 'It's properly in the bed. I must have dropped it when I jumped up to attack that guy.' But the annoying weight on his wrist was the least of his problem right now.
Serena sighed and shifted against him. Guessing her position was keeping her from resting well, he pulled her more snugly into his shoulder. She muttered something into his shoulder, then nestled closer to him, hiding her face in his throat, as if to her hide from everything that threatened them. 'No one is getting to her without going through me first,' he vowed. He loosened his hold on her a little bit remembering that he was here to protect her, for Andrew. 'I don't think Andrew would appreciate my efforts so far. I antagonized her sister, bored her into locking herself in her room with paperwork, insult her, almost kiss her, then carelessly got us captured. I hadn't been careful enough, hadn't been vigilant enough, even though I sensed something was wrong. I should have listened to my instincts, kept my guard up. Instead I got distracted by....well things I had no business noticing.'
A strand if Serena's hair tickled his cheek. Without thinking, he reached up with is right hand and brushed it back and nearly hit her with the swinging cuff. He caught it in time, 'Great I can add, almost conking her on the head with a cuff to the list,' he spent several minutes yelling at himself for almost causing her more pain.
He'd tried to tell her he was not a bodyguard, not anymore, 'I'd say our present circumstances is proof of that.'
********************************
It was still dark when Darien woke Serena. "We should start moving again," he whispered.
"How long have we been sitting here?" she asked groggily, lifting her head from his shoulder.
"I'm guessing about an hour or so. I haven't heard anyone coming after us, but I know they are. We can't just sit here and wait for them to find us."
She took a deep breath and pushed herself upright. Just the thought of standing made her want to groan, but she clenched her teeth and accoutered Darien's hand when he rose and extended it to her. She almost did groan when he battered feet protested to her weight, but she bit it back and took a few practice steps. 'The pain is very intense, but I can handle it because I have no choice.' "Which direction?" she asked.
Darien ran a hand lightly over her disheveled hair in what seemed like a gesture of approval. "Do you want to hold on to me arm for support?"
"I might need it later," she admitted, "but I'll try to make it on my own for a while, okay?"
His nos was barely visible in all the gloom. "Then lets get moving."
She took some small comfort on the fact that Darien was limping, too. While it was reassuring to believe that Darien was totally in control of the situation, it was also a little nice to know he wasn't completely immune to the weaknesses affecting her.
She forged on, following him deeper into the forest, trusting him to make choices on her behalf. For now.
She started counting her steps. 'One, two, three, four....' the silent cadence was the only thing that kept her moving. She told herself that if she could just take ten more steps.... then ten more... she would survive. They made it over the rocks and fallen limbs that blocked their way, through heavy brush that appeared in clusters to tangle their feet, along the edge of the many bluffs that filled the mountainous regions. "Darien, do you know where we are?" she asked at one point. "Do you know how to get us to a road or a phone?"
"No. At this time, I couldn't even say which state we're in. I'm guessing it's either Arkansas or Missouri."
'So we're lost. At least we aren't handcuffed to an iron bed frame, at the mercy if three kidnappers. Ten more steps,' she thought to herself, 'ten more steps, one, two, three......'
Again it was Darien who brought them to a halt beside a small stream they could easily step over. He knelt and scooped a handful of water in to his mouth.
"It isn't safe to drink from the stream like that," Serena pointed out.
"Well, I don't have any purification tablets on me. Do you?" He raised an eyebrow.
Because she knew it was rhetorical, she didn't answer.
"Have a drink," he urged, "a small amount won't hurt you. I don't want you to dehydrate."
Images of microbes and pollutions crossed her mind, but she was to thirsty to care. Just the sound of the water made her mouth feel dry. She knelt beside him and dipped her hand in the cool water. The water shimmered black in the moonlight. The night air was cool blowing lightly across her face. She might have felt cold had they not been running for their lives.
She brought the water to her lips. It tasted a little metallic, but felt good sliding down her throat. An owl hooted above her as she swallowed another handful. She hadn't really been aware of the nightlife that was in the forest around them. From the occasional brush of leaves, flapping of wings, or distant cry, she heard it all, but hadn't paid all that much attention. Nor had she worried before about any wild animals the might encounter. But the predators that frightened her the most tonight walked on two legs not four.
Darien helped her back to her feet. "You need to rest again," he said putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Is it safe to rest?"
"I think so. We've put a great deal of distance between us and our kidnappers. Plus, I've been changing directions very often. It won't be easy for them to track us."
'I hadn't even notice he changed direction.' "Can we find someplace to hide so we can rest?" She didn't like the idea of sleeping again and have him be wrong and their captors find them.
"Exactly what I was thinking." He winked at her. He helped her over the stream, then led her a short distance farther to a bluff that rose above them.
'He doesn't expect me to climb, does he?' He pushed a low-hanging branch to reveal a darker area on the shadowed face of the bluff.
"A cave I spotted when I bent down to drink from the stream."
'Apparently he night vision was better than mine, which doesn't surprise me.' She eyed the dark hole wearily. "What if there is a bear or a lion or a snake in there?"
"I'll check it out." He bent down and picked up a big stick at his feet, the moved in. "Wait here, okay?"
She nodded as she watched him poke around the hole. She held her breath as he moved farther into it. She didn't like having him out of her sight, even for a short time. She was relieved when he reappeared in front of her. "It's clean," he said, "and it's well hidden. We should be safe here for a while." When she hesitated he smiled at her. "Have I led you wrong so far?"
'That's the first time he actually smiled, not one of those half smiles but a real smile. He picked a hell of a time for it,' she thought with a shake of her head. Yet the smile relaxed her enough to move towards the cave.
Cave was an overstatement, she discovered when she went in, hole was more like it, an indention, even. There was just enough room for the tow of them to sit side by side with their legs in front of them. The back wall of the cave was a bit damp and slimy, for all she knew there could be creepy- crawlies all over the wall. She didn't care. She leaned back and sighed. Her body going limp against the rock. Shoulder to shoulder, she and Darien sat silently while they let their breathing and heartbeats slow from the strenuous hike.
She couldn't see him at all now. No light penetrated the opening. Serena was glad their shoulders were touching, 'just for the reassurance that he was still there. No other reason of course,' she told herself, closing her eyes. 'Right?'
Done. I know it's a little short but I wanted to get it up so I cut it short. I hope you like it. I know I like it. So just review and tell me what you think. Moon Baby
Authors Note: Okay. It's finally here. Sorry I got really busy with school and my other story. I wanted to finish it but I kept getting one ideas right after another. So I'm keeping it going. N E Ways, here it is. Andrew knows they're missing, Darien and Serena got away. No, they didn't take the gun. They didn't have time. They didn't even grab they're shoes. Enjoy.
They escaped. The cabin was remote, with no light to guide their way across the small clearing that lay behind the cabin. Several times they stumbled before plunging into the forest that surrounded the clearing.
Trying to force her eyes to adjust to the darkness, Serena looked at the sky. Tree limbs just leafing out for the summer practically blocked the pale moon from her sight. The faint light provided gave little assistance in crossing the rocky, uneven ground. The black clothes Darien wore made him blend in with the darkness. She was very obvious in her light khaki pants, denim jacket, and light blue shirt.
Her thin socks were torn and she was sure there was a deep cut on her right foot. Afraid that their captors would be right behind them, with shoes, guns, and flashlights, she just tried to ignore the pain and kept moving. Despite ignoring it she couldn't help but stumble. She would have fallen if Darien hadn't caught her. 'Why is it easier for him. Was he accustomed to walking almost barefoot on rocky grounds.' "Do you think they're chasing us?" she asked breathlessly.
He helped her cross a fallen log. "They just won't let us get away like that. They need us to get whatever it is from Andrew. We have to keep moving."
"Can we-" She winced when she stepped on a pinecone. "Can we find a road?"
He didn't slow down as he answered her. "They're properly patrolling the road. Our best bet is to get as far away from them as we possibly can. They don't know what direction we went, so it won't easy for them to follow us."
"But-"
"Serena. Don't talk. Move." He put his hand on her back to help support her and urging her forward. Biting her lower lip she kept moving.
It was a hell of a journey. Rocks, fallen branches, pinecones, and other debris stabbed her already cut feet, while tree branches slapped her face. Deep holes and sheer limestone bluffs made their passage more hellish.
Staying very close to Darien, Serena locked her jaw and kept going. She was exhausted, winded, and in a lot of pain. But she refused to give in to her pain in front of Darien. As long he moved she would to. Or die trying. 'The latter seems more likely to happen first.' (The latter means the last thing said. 'Or die trying' is the latter) A loud gasp escaped from her when she twisted her ankle on a rough patch of ground. But she get going.
By the time Darien tugged her to stop she was in a zone. Moving without thinking, without feeling, without looking from side to side, without caring. Swaying, she blinked at him barely able to focus on him. She mainly concentrated on his midnight blue eyes.
"Are you all right?" His voice sounded different. Muffled, hollow, distant.
"I'm fine." Her own voice sounded even stranger to her than his did.
"You need to rest. It should be safe. I don't hear anyone following us."
"I can keep going. I'm fine." She starts walking again.
He grabs her wrist. "Then I need a rest." He looked around for a moment, then pulled her to sit on a rock with him. "We'll sit here for a while, okay?"
"Fine." They settled carefully in the large rock beneath a tree. The rock was rough and very uncomfortable but it was a great relief to be off her feet Serena didn't even think to complain. She leaned on the tree behind them with a weary sigh. That sigh quickly turned into a gasp of pain.
Darien's head quickly snapped to face her. "What's wrong?"
"My feet," she gasped out as she was consumed by more pain. Spears of pain shot up from the soles of her feet to her legs, up her back, and moved all the way to the back of her neck. Every part of her body hurt, but most of the pain centered in her poor abused feet.
Darien slid off the rock and hunched in front of her and picked up her right foot. He lightly rubbed his fingers down her foot. Even though his touch was as light as a feather she still winced when he brushed a deep cut. He put her right foot down gently and picked up her left. "Your bleeding from several cuts on your feet. There's properly dirt in them, and tiny pieces of gravel in the cuts. Also you have some bad bruises and scrapes. No wonder your hurting."
"Well, aren't you hurting? You don't have any shoes either."
"I have some cuts, but not many. My feet are more callused then yours."
'Of course they are.' With her head against the tree, Serena closed her eyes and swallowed a moan. 'I hate looking so weak in front of this tough, strong, and very self-sufficient man, but I just about reached my limit.'
"Anybody ever tell you you're tougher than you look?" Darien asked as he set her left foot carefully on the ground.
A lone tear escaped from her eye. "There's no need to flatter me now."
"I'm not. I'm just stating facts." He moved to where he was sitting before. Then put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him. "Get some rest," he said gruffly. "We're safe, now." 'For a while.'
'Safe? We're sitting in an unknown forest on a pitch black night, three armed men are chasing us, no lights, no food or water, no way to get help, and we don't even have shoes. We are nowhere near safe,' Serena thought as she sat stiff against Darien, but she slowly found herself relaxing against him. Her breath came out in a long, tired sigh. Allowing herself to float on the waves of pain that ran through her body. She closed her eyes and tried to block out those thought. 'I'll be stronger later, now I need to rest.'
Darien didn't know if Serena was sleeping just drifting. Her breathing was deep and even, her body warm and limp against his. Remembering the condition of her feet, or at least what he could tell in the dark, he wouldn't blame her is she was whinnying right now. 'She's definitely tougher than she looks.'
Sitting very still so he wouldn't disturb her, he took an assessment of his condition. His face was a little sore from the other guy's fist, the heavy cuff was still dangling. He lost the hairpin at the cabin. 'It's properly in the bed. I must have dropped it when I jumped up to attack that guy.' But the annoying weight on his wrist was the least of his problem right now.
Serena sighed and shifted against him. Guessing her position was keeping her from resting well, he pulled her more snugly into his shoulder. She muttered something into his shoulder, then nestled closer to him, hiding her face in his throat, as if to her hide from everything that threatened them. 'No one is getting to her without going through me first,' he vowed. He loosened his hold on her a little bit remembering that he was here to protect her, for Andrew. 'I don't think Andrew would appreciate my efforts so far. I antagonized her sister, bored her into locking herself in her room with paperwork, insult her, almost kiss her, then carelessly got us captured. I hadn't been careful enough, hadn't been vigilant enough, even though I sensed something was wrong. I should have listened to my instincts, kept my guard up. Instead I got distracted by....well things I had no business noticing.'
A strand if Serena's hair tickled his cheek. Without thinking, he reached up with is right hand and brushed it back and nearly hit her with the swinging cuff. He caught it in time, 'Great I can add, almost conking her on the head with a cuff to the list,' he spent several minutes yelling at himself for almost causing her more pain.
He'd tried to tell her he was not a bodyguard, not anymore, 'I'd say our present circumstances is proof of that.'
********************************
It was still dark when Darien woke Serena. "We should start moving again," he whispered.
"How long have we been sitting here?" she asked groggily, lifting her head from his shoulder.
"I'm guessing about an hour or so. I haven't heard anyone coming after us, but I know they are. We can't just sit here and wait for them to find us."
She took a deep breath and pushed herself upright. Just the thought of standing made her want to groan, but she clenched her teeth and accoutered Darien's hand when he rose and extended it to her. She almost did groan when he battered feet protested to her weight, but she bit it back and took a few practice steps. 'The pain is very intense, but I can handle it because I have no choice.' "Which direction?" she asked.
Darien ran a hand lightly over her disheveled hair in what seemed like a gesture of approval. "Do you want to hold on to me arm for support?"
"I might need it later," she admitted, "but I'll try to make it on my own for a while, okay?"
His nos was barely visible in all the gloom. "Then lets get moving."
She took some small comfort on the fact that Darien was limping, too. While it was reassuring to believe that Darien was totally in control of the situation, it was also a little nice to know he wasn't completely immune to the weaknesses affecting her.
She forged on, following him deeper into the forest, trusting him to make choices on her behalf. For now.
She started counting her steps. 'One, two, three, four....' the silent cadence was the only thing that kept her moving. She told herself that if she could just take ten more steps.... then ten more... she would survive. They made it over the rocks and fallen limbs that blocked their way, through heavy brush that appeared in clusters to tangle their feet, along the edge of the many bluffs that filled the mountainous regions. "Darien, do you know where we are?" she asked at one point. "Do you know how to get us to a road or a phone?"
"No. At this time, I couldn't even say which state we're in. I'm guessing it's either Arkansas or Missouri."
'So we're lost. At least we aren't handcuffed to an iron bed frame, at the mercy if three kidnappers. Ten more steps,' she thought to herself, 'ten more steps, one, two, three......'
Again it was Darien who brought them to a halt beside a small stream they could easily step over. He knelt and scooped a handful of water in to his mouth.
"It isn't safe to drink from the stream like that," Serena pointed out.
"Well, I don't have any purification tablets on me. Do you?" He raised an eyebrow.
Because she knew it was rhetorical, she didn't answer.
"Have a drink," he urged, "a small amount won't hurt you. I don't want you to dehydrate."
Images of microbes and pollutions crossed her mind, but she was to thirsty to care. Just the sound of the water made her mouth feel dry. She knelt beside him and dipped her hand in the cool water. The water shimmered black in the moonlight. The night air was cool blowing lightly across her face. She might have felt cold had they not been running for their lives.
She brought the water to her lips. It tasted a little metallic, but felt good sliding down her throat. An owl hooted above her as she swallowed another handful. She hadn't really been aware of the nightlife that was in the forest around them. From the occasional brush of leaves, flapping of wings, or distant cry, she heard it all, but hadn't paid all that much attention. Nor had she worried before about any wild animals the might encounter. But the predators that frightened her the most tonight walked on two legs not four.
Darien helped her back to her feet. "You need to rest again," he said putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Is it safe to rest?"
"I think so. We've put a great deal of distance between us and our kidnappers. Plus, I've been changing directions very often. It won't be easy for them to track us."
'I hadn't even notice he changed direction.' "Can we find someplace to hide so we can rest?" She didn't like the idea of sleeping again and have him be wrong and their captors find them.
"Exactly what I was thinking." He winked at her. He helped her over the stream, then led her a short distance farther to a bluff that rose above them.
'He doesn't expect me to climb, does he?' He pushed a low-hanging branch to reveal a darker area on the shadowed face of the bluff.
"A cave I spotted when I bent down to drink from the stream."
'Apparently he night vision was better than mine, which doesn't surprise me.' She eyed the dark hole wearily. "What if there is a bear or a lion or a snake in there?"
"I'll check it out." He bent down and picked up a big stick at his feet, the moved in. "Wait here, okay?"
She nodded as she watched him poke around the hole. She held her breath as he moved farther into it. She didn't like having him out of her sight, even for a short time. She was relieved when he reappeared in front of her. "It's clean," he said, "and it's well hidden. We should be safe here for a while." When she hesitated he smiled at her. "Have I led you wrong so far?"
'That's the first time he actually smiled, not one of those half smiles but a real smile. He picked a hell of a time for it,' she thought with a shake of her head. Yet the smile relaxed her enough to move towards the cave.
Cave was an overstatement, she discovered when she went in, hole was more like it, an indention, even. There was just enough room for the tow of them to sit side by side with their legs in front of them. The back wall of the cave was a bit damp and slimy, for all she knew there could be creepy- crawlies all over the wall. She didn't care. She leaned back and sighed. Her body going limp against the rock. Shoulder to shoulder, she and Darien sat silently while they let their breathing and heartbeats slow from the strenuous hike.
She couldn't see him at all now. No light penetrated the opening. Serena was glad their shoulders were touching, 'just for the reassurance that he was still there. No other reason of course,' she told herself, closing her eyes. 'Right?'
Done. I know it's a little short but I wanted to get it up so I cut it short. I hope you like it. I know I like it. So just review and tell me what you think. Moon Baby