Title: One Year Anniversary
Author: Stress
First written: April 18, 2002-May 12, 2002
Edited and replaced: August 9, 2005
Summary: Part III of the Soul Mates Series; When Jack and Stress reach their first year anniversary, Stress tells a friend the story about how they almost didn't get together at all.
. August 8th 1899 .
At the DistributionCenter
Because Jack was anxious to mend his relationship with Stress, today was the day of Martini's "brilliant" plan. They figured if this didn't work, nothing would.
Martini, Blink, Stripes, Spot, David and Grace all arrived at the distribution center early so they could be the first ones to buy their papers and split up before anyone else arrived. While Spot, Blink, Martini and Stripes were to go get ready for the "brilliant" plan, David and Grace were to get Stress to sell with them so that they would be able to lure her into the trap they were setting her up for. Jack was not selling today, instead spending the whole day at the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House, preparing it for his part of the plan.
When Stress arrived at the distribution center with Bittah, Gip, Reeny, Midnight and Holiday, she was surprised to see that only Grace and David were waiting for the rest of the girls outside of the gate. Normally all of the newsies waited together until they split up into groups to sell their papers.
As she entered the gates and got on the line to buy her stack of papers, Stress tried to ignore the pangs she felt upon noticing that Jack was not at the distribution center. "What did you expect? You told him yesterday that you hated him. Did you think he wanted to sell with someone who hated him? I think not!" the little voice in Stress's head spoke up. Oblivious to the crazy looks that Bittah and Midnight were exchanging behind her back, Stress answered the nagging little voice. "You shut up. I don't hate him and you know it. No matter what I say, I still love him. But I'm gonna forget about him." She shook her head as she paid for her papers and accepted her stack. "Forget all about him, that's what I'm gonna do," she continued as she walked down the stairs and passed Grace and David.
As she walked passed, lost in her own little world, Grace winked over at David. "Heya Stress, ready to sell with us today?" Grace called, lengthening her stride so that she was walking side by side with Stress.
"What? Uh-- actually, I was hoping to sell alone today," she responded, snapping out of her daze.
Grace and David exchanged a worried look. It looked like their plan was failing. Their plan was not allowed to fail. It was their job to make sure it didn't.
It was David's turn to try and salvage their plan. He stepped in front of Stress, causing her to stop in her tracks. "I'd really like it if you sold your papes with me and Grace today. What do ya say, Stress?" he added, giving her a "sad puppy-dog" look.
Stress began to feel guilty. She at least owed David that much after all she had put him through those last few days. She slumped her shoulders and nodded. "Sure Dave, why not? Let's go."
Walking to Tibby's
Grace could hardly contain her excitement. She and David had spent their entire morning occupying Stress so that the others could set up everything they needed for Martini's "brilliant" plan. Now it was time to actually put phase two of the plan into action. "Ya know what, girls? I'm kinda hungry. Ya wanna go to Tibby's to get some lunch?" David asked, right on cue.
Sensing Stress's hesitation, Grace jumped in. "Sure, sounds good to me." She grabbed Stress's arm and began to drag her in the direction of the restaurant. After Grace was positive that Stress would actually follow them to the restaurant without running off to someplace else, she let go off Stress's arm, opting for David's hand instead. Content that their part of the plan was going smoothly, the couple walked off a little quicker, creating a distance of a few feet between themselves and Stress.
Stress couldn't believe that she was actually tagging along as the third wheel on David and Grace's date. "I should just go on back to the lodging house and leave these two al--" she stopped mid-thought when she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being followed. She scolded herself for her insecurities when a quick look behind her told her she was wrong. There was no one out of the ordinary behind her at all.
She increased her pace to catch up with Grace and David, remembering that there was always safety in numbers. "Good, only three more blocks 'til we get to Tibby's." She stopped again as the sickening sensation in the pit of her stomach grew even stronger. This time, though, she didn't turn around to see who was behind her, instead walking a tad bit quicker, just in case. "Only two more blocks now. C'mon, why are you so paranoid today, anyways?" she asked herself. "I just need to cross this here alleyway an I'm there." As she went to walk past the entrance to the dark alley on her right hand side, she squealed as a hand reached out and pulled her into the alley.
With one arm wrapped around her waist and the other clamped tight over her mouth to muffler her screams, Stress was dragged into the alley. She heard someone follow her and her captor into the alley and, with the help of the faint sunlight in the alley, saw that there was two figures along side her in the alley-- both dressed in head to toe black with matching masks which prevented her from knowing their identities.
While the shorter of the two kept his hold on her, no matter how hard she struggled, the taller one took a bottle and a dirty rag out of his pocket. Rapidly dousing the rag with a mystery liquid, as it splattered every where, the taller figure approached Stress.
As the taller one approached her, with the hand clutching the soaked rag outstretched, Stress felt the shorter one remove his hand from her mouth. Before she had the chance to let out a scream, the taller figure clamped the rag over her mouth. Stress tried not to breathe in any of the substance that was on the rag, but after thirty seconds of holding her breath, she exhaled the carbon dioxide and breathed in the fumes of the wet rag.
The last image Stress saw before blacking out was the two figures shaking hands and congratulating each other on a job well done.
All Black Around Her
"Where the hell am I?" Stress wondered as she woke up, feeling groggy, cranky, disoriented and really pissed off. It was pitch black outside, but she didn't think that she had been knocked out that long. It took her a couple of minutes before she realized that it was only that dark because her eyes were covered with a blindfold. She sat there for a few moments and suddenly, when she realized that she was sitting there blindfolded, she jerked as she remembered what had exactly happened. She was scared out of her mind and began to scream like a banshee. When all that came out of her mouth were muffled yells instead of piercing screams, Stress realized that she had also been gagged.
When she realized that the screaming wasn't going to help her at all, she stopped, trying to conserve her energy in case she needed to escape. As she tried to calm down and think rationally, she focused on where she could possibly be.
She could tell by the way that she was positioned that she was tied, though not too tightly, to a high-back chair. As she thought about what kind of situation she could be in that would merit her being bound, gagged and tied to a chair, she did the only thing she could think of, no matter how little it helped: she screamed continuously.