Carly groaned her way to consciousness. Her head was throbbing, centralized at a spot on her forehead. Then it came back to her. Sam and her commands to run, that there was someone after them. The door coming to crack her in the head. Then nothing.
Beyond the pain in her head, nothing else seemed to be damaged. Though she could tell without even opening her eyes that her limbs were secured. Wonderful. This was just what she needed.
Carly slowly opened her eyes and blinked. The room was dark, save for the light that came out of one window. A very high window, she noted. High enough that, even if they were able to get free of their bonds, both women were probably too short to reach it. Great. Just another thing to add to the list of things that were completely unnecessary in making her life worthwhile.
She groaned, and was thankful that her mouth wasn't taped. Which had to mean that she was being kept in some place that was remote. A warehouse somewhere? Possibly. Some place where it didn't matter if she screamed. This list of unnecessary was getting to be extremely long.
Carly squinted, and she could make out Sam across the room. She was in the same predicament, obviously. Tied to a chair, arms behind her back and legs strapped to each leg of the chair. But unlike Carly, she wasn't awake. She didn't see any blood, though, so at least she didn't appear to be hurt. Maybe she'd run into a door, too.
Carly groaned, then whispered, "Sam." Nothing. She didn't want to be too loud, just in case their captor was nearby. Carly didn't want to be tied up to a chair, but if it meant she didn't have to see the person who'd kidnapped her face to face, then she'd sit quietly in the room for as long as possible. It would have been easier to do, though, if Sam were awake.
Groaning again, Carly tried to scoot her chair forward. It tottled a bit, but didn't go far. "Great," she muttered. She called out to Sam louder this time, in a normal voice. She still didn't answer her. "Sam!"
This time her head moved. Sam moaned. Her eyes started to twitch. Carly called her name again, and slowly, Sam came awake. Only she didn't wake up as slowly as Carly. She came awake with a start. She flailed in her chair, rocking it back and forth. Yeah, that was really going to get them somewhere. Though, Carly guessed it did get Sam somewhere. It got her on the floor when the chair came crashing down on its side.
"Dammit!" Sam shouted and groaned. "What the hell—"
"Nice way to make a lot of noise." Carly rolled her eyes. "And now you're stuck down there."
"Don't give me shit, Carly. I'm not in the mood." She tried to push her chair back up, but it wasn't working. Maybe if it were a smaller chair, she'd have been able to get her knees beneath her and push up, but these were big chairs. Big, solid wood. Going to her knees only pressed the chair on her head, and she had to roll to the side to alleviate the pressure. Sam grunted. "Ugh. Where are we?"
"Thought maybe you'd know since you were conscious longer than I was."
"Great thinking, by the way. Let's run in a building, then get smashed in the face with a door. Way to go, Carly."
"Hey! I saved you for a little while! That guy had you and—" Carly shook her head. "Ya know, when we're not being held prisoner, this little bicker thing is kinda fun. But when I'm tied to a chair? Not so much."
"Fine, whatever." Sam groaned and her eyes closed for a second. When they opened again, she sighed. "Jason's gonna be looking for us. I got him on the phone before that guy attacked us. I told him where we were going."
"Which means that he's with Lorenzo. And five'll getcha ten they went straight for Sonny."
"I really wish that life without Sonny could always be life without Sonny." Sam groaned. "If they go after Sonny, that's less time that they're looking in the right direction."
"And what would the right direction be, huh? Do you really think either of them are going to sit and try to figure out who they pissed off to get us in this mess? I love Lorenzo, but he'd rather something be my fault than his."
"And Jason just acts." Sam sighed. "You know why she put us across the room from each other, right? She's not a moron. A bitch and a jackal, but not a moron. 'Cause I don't know about you, but I'm not usually in the business to just stay kidnapped."
"Unless it's Sonny that kidnaps you." Carly rolled her eyes, then groaned. "Forget I said that." There was a lot that the two didn't talk about, mostly because it made their already tentative friendship a lot easier. In the end, Sam was still the woman who'd had an affair with her husband and had been pregnant by him. What a case of Stockholm Syndrome. "Look, we've gotta figure a way to get out of here, alright? We'll probaby end up dead by the time Jason and Lorenzo find us and—" Carly stopped and shook her head. "Wait a minute, you said she."
"Yeah. She." Sam rolled onto her knees and tried to push the chair back up again. She only managed to topple to the floor. She screamed in frustration. "Dammit! I hate this!"
"You're the one that knocked yourself over. Now, let's get back to this she thing. You know who took us?"
"Of course I know who took us. Unlike somebody I know, I didn't go running into an opening door."
"Sam…"
"Fine, whatever. I didn't see her, but I heard her voice, and that alone should be enough to tell you—"
She stopped talking, and Carly's mind was already gone into the land of enemies. The countless women she'd pissed off, and she knew that there was only one that she and Sam had in common. That she and everyone else had in common, too. The realization was enough to make her shout, "That bitch!" It was also enough to make her lose track of exactly what was going on, and the reason that Sam had stopped talking in the first place.
A large man came in the room, someone Carly didn't know and from the look on his face, didn't care to know. He was big and burly, and his face was all mean business. She'd seen that expression on the faces of Sonny's bodyguards more than once. Enough to know that she didn't like it, and she hated when it was turned on her.
"Um, could you help me up?" Sam looked up, rolling her lips. "I fell."
The man grunted and sat the chair upright easily. That was a bad sign. It was a pretty heavy chair by the looks of it and the sounds of Sam's grunts while trying to push herself up off the floor. If he could pick it up like it was a child's plastic chair, that meant that this guy's muscles definitely weren't just for show. And if he was standing at the door, if he was their sole guard, then when they managed to get free, going out the door was definitely not an option. So far, the only option was that damned window.
"I'd say thanks, but I really don't want to, since you're kidnapping me and all." What was she doing? Was she purposely trying to get under this guy's skin? Carly sighed. Probably. She would have done the same thing, too. Neither were the most willing of victims. "If you're not gonna let us go," Sam said, "you can go now."
He stood there, staring at her in shock. Carly grunted, then shouted, "Get out!" He looked to Carly, then back to Sam. "What the hell? Get out!"
"Why, Carly! Why are you and Sam being so mean to my pretty and very strong boy?" And in she walked. That devil woman. That witch. That psychotic bitch. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, leaving her face clear. The light from the hallway illuminated her. Yeah, she would walk in a glow, as though she were some kind of saint. "You should be happy that you're tied to a chair. I could have just killed you."
"But, I'm sure that's what you're planning to do, right?" Carly asked. She looked at Sam and sighed. "Gonna kill us and what… Toss us on Lorenzo's step? Dump us at Jason's penthouse?"
She shrugged, then laughed. "Maybe. Or maybe I'll just keep you here and let you grow old together. You two are BFF, right?" She laughed again, finding way more humor in the situation than necessary. "Gotta live together, love together, and die together. Just… think of it as a fairy tale. Think of it as Sleeping Beauty, except that for the time being, I'm letting you be awake. You're waiting for your princes to come and rescue you, to wake you and let you live. Too bad, I'm Maleficent and I've got a hell of a lot more than a forest of thorns waiting to stop them."
And then, with a maniacal, cackling burst of laughter, Faith Roscoe walked out of the room, taking her bodyguard with her, leaving Sam and Carly in the dark once again. With just the light from that really little window that was really high up on the wall.
"I really hate that bitch," Sam muttered, pulling against the bonds that held her arms. Her movements were smaller this time, though. Didn't want to hit the floor again.
"Join the club," Carly told her. She looked up to that solitary window and grunted. "And as soon as we figure a way out of here, I plan on letting her know just how much I hate her."
"Join the club."