KIDNAPPED!-
"So who do you believe?" Agamemnon demanded, as soon as he had finished telling his side of the story. "His story or mines?"
"Well..." Menelaus pondered, reluctant to tell Agamemnon that he believed Hector's story more.
Agamemnon decided to play the big brother card.
"Don't tell me that you don't believe your own brother!" he gasped. "Your own brother who has been there by your side always?"
"Not always," Menelaus replied crossly. "And do you mean to say that I have to depend on you to live? Is that what you're saying?"
Agamemnon was at a loss for words. Menelaus had never dared to speak to him like that.
"Hector, I want to speak to your cousin," Menelaus barked.
Hector smiled and turned to beckon Briseis. Except she wasn't there.
Hector's eyes widened. She had just been standing there a second ago. Covering the phone, he called her name once, twice, and then three times. A sudden feeling of heavy dread grew in Hector's chest as he noticed that Achilles too was gone.
"Hector?" Menelaus's voice asked from the phone.
Hector ended the call and turning stiffly to Paris, said,
"Let's go.""But what about Helen?" Paris squealed. "We can't just let her stay here with him!"
"Who matters more to you?" Hector demanded, exasperated. "Your cousin or your current fling?"
"She's not my current fling!" Paris shouted. "I love her!"
Even Agamemnon threw Paris a doubtful look. "Oh really?"
"Yes, really!" Paris cried. "I'm not leaving without Helen!"
"But Briseis has been kidnapped!" Hector sputtered. "By that L'oreal shampoo model!"
Paris blinked. "Briseis was kidnapped? When?"
He looked around and gave a gasp. "Oh my gosh! She's gone!"
Hector thought about banging his head on the wall.
Finally, he said through gritted teeth,
"Fine, we'll get Helen and then, we go find Briseis, ok?"
Hector did not like this plan at all. Who knew what that Achilles would do to her?
'How could I have forgotten about her?' he wondered. 'How could I have forgotten that he was standing only two feet away from her? How could I have forgotten what a monster he was? How could I have left her unprotected against him?'
Engrossed in his regretful thoughts, Hector did not notice Agamemnon slip a hand into his fur coat and pull out a small, black pistol.
"To get to Helen," Agamemnon said, smiling and raising the pistol to aim for Paris's forehead. "You'll need to get past me first."
IN ACHILLES' CAR
Briseis wasn't exactly in a most comfortable position. Who would be if they were tied up and gagged in the back seat of a very dangerous and deranged madman? She squirmed, trying to let the tightly tied ropes around her lithe body slide off. Never had she dreamed of being kidnapped. In her mind, there had always been a safe, sheltered world around her. There had always been Hector and Paris (who wasn't very useful, but his presence was at least assuring).
'I fooled myself,' she thought. 'I've been protected too long.'
When you hear all those stories about kidnappings, it's like a sad fairy tale. You can feel sympathetic, but you think of it as a fairy tale and you reassure yourself that it will never happen to yourself because you're normal. You tell yourself that normal people aren't kidnapped and what a lie that was!
Achilles wasn't paying her struggling the least bit of attention. He finally turned sharply into a stretched out driveway that led to a building that resembled an Italian villa. It was all like a one-story ranch made of creamy columns and a flat roof. Two huge, black pots stood on either side of the doorway with long, leafy plants flowering out of them.
As she stared at Achilles' home, she felt that slight tinge of nostalgia. And she suddenly longed for their old home, a large, comfy ranch. She wanted to lie down on soft, green grass again and she wanted to be able to walk around a home without a serving tray and a waitress's nametag.
'I hate where we live now,' she thought bitterly. 'I hate Café Troy!'
Why had Hector traded their perfect home for the café?
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Achilles flung open her door and ordered,
"Get out of the car."
She started to yell back a retort, but her gag allowed only muffled shrieks. Achilles watched, amused for a moment, and then tore out her gag.
"I obviously can't get out while I'm tied down!" she screamed furiously.
Sighing, he bent over to untie her only to have her bounce away from him.
"Do you want to sleep in the car tonight?" Achilles demanded and his hand dug into his pocket and pulled out a pocketknife.
Her eyes focused on the blade's sharp gleam and she froze. Achilles cut her ropes curtly and then strode toward the villa. Sitting in the pile of shredded rope, Briseis was still frozen, unsure of whether to run or follow.
'He's not even watching me,' she told herself. 'I could easily run off.'
And taking one last glance at his back, she fled out of the car and from the villa. She ran as fast she could, glancing back to make sure there was no golden-haired kidnapper after her. She had almost reached the gate at the end of the quarter-mile driveway when the gates slammed shut before her. Gripping the gates and helplessly shaking the long iron bars, she knew that it was a dead end for her.
And suddenly, something, hard and heavy, smashed into the back of her head and she toppled to the ground, her vision black.
And Achilles who stood behind her, regretted that action. Then, he slowly bent down to pick her up and carried her into his house.