As you requested SparrowLilies! :D
The Girl in the Iron Mask
Chapter 3 – A Night to Remember
Flashback…
Ten-year-old Jasmine hurried out the front doors of the mall, her mom behind her desperate to catch up. It had been a long day and she wasn't in the mood for this sort of thing.
"Jasmine quit going so fast!" she called out, trying to reach her and carry three bags of clothes at the same time.
Jasmine slowed to a stop and turned around. "I wasn't even running Mom!"
Pepper soon caught up with her and handed her one of the bags. "That's not the point," she insisted, "You walk too fast sometimes."
"You walk too slow sometimes," Jasmine said as they began to walk down the stairs together.
Pepper rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but smile. "Come on, it's already seven at night. We've gotta get to the airport."
"Oh yeah, we gotta meet Dad," Jasmine remembered.
"And you're going to look so nice when he returns," her mom smiled.
"Yeah," Jasmine agreed, "Next time though, can we keep the shopping time to a minimum?"
Pepper chuckled and then offered her hand. Jasmine took it, and the two walked under the evening sky across the parking lot to where their car sat waiting in the middle. They were looking forward to seeing Tony again after two weeks and then getting home, when Pepper suddenly frowned and slowed to a stop just before getting to the car.
"What is it Mom?" Jasmine asked once she saw the troubled look on her face.
Pepper immediately put her finger to her lips and shushed her. "I don't know," she replied in a low voice, "I just have the feeling that, something's not right."
"You're right about that," a harsh male voice said behind her. Pepper's eyes immediately widened, and – in a split second, adrenaline-fueled reaction – turned around, swung the bag she was carrying, and slammed it into the head of a man dressed in black.
"Mom, look out!" Jasmine shouted. Pepper heard her and swung the bag again, hitting another man in black. She then saw a third one and kicked him in the shin. She even took hold of the hand-held gun from his belt, and pointed it at the first man who tried to attack her, her finger ready to pull the trigger.
The man held his hands in the air.
"You move and I'll shoot!" Pepper said angrily through clenched teeth.
"Okay," the man said, "But what about your kid?"
Pepper, still holding the gun, looked to her right, and saw that Jasmine had been grabbed by one of the men, shouting, "No! Let me go!"
"No! Leave her alone!" Pepper shouted in fear for her.
"Gladly." The second man grabbed her from behind, quickly snatching the gun from her hand. "If you'll come with us."
"Mom?" Jasmine met her gaze with frightened eyes, forcing Pepper to make a reluctant decision.
"Okay," she nodded grimly, "I'll come with you."
"Excellent," the leader said, showing a sinister smile, "Put 'em in the car!"
"Wait, you said it was only me!" Pepper exclaimed.
"I lied," he replied, "Now hurry, get 'em in!"
The men then handcuffed Pepper and Jasmine and forced them into their own car while the leader climbed into the driver's seat. The second got into the seat next to him while the third got in the back with their hostages. Before long, the mother and daughter and their captors were out of the parking lot and on the road, fearful over what could happen to them.
Jasmine leaned over to her mom and whispered, "Mom, I'm scared."
Pepper whispered back, "Honey, just do as they say. Hopefully we'll be out of this soon."
"Hey stop talkin'!" the man sitting next to them said.
Going against the order, Pepper asked, "Where are taking us?"
"Nowhere," the one driving replied, "But I can guarantee you and your kid are gonna make us some big bucks!"
Pepper and Jasmine could only guess what he was talking about.
They all soon arrived at a large and abandoned apartment. It turned out that the three, for reasons unknown, wanted a ransom of fifteen-hundred dollars from Tony himself. They even decided to get a video done to show on the news.
One of the men held the camera and light in front of Pepper and Jasmine, who by now were trembling with fear and terror, while the other two each held a loaded handgun to their faces.
"Okay, go," he said.
"Tony," Pepper said to the camera, trying to keep her voice from shaking, "Honey, listen to me. I don't know where you are or what you're doing right now, but, these men want a ransom of fifteen-hundred dollars."
The man next to her held the gun to her head, as a way of saying, "Get to the point."
Pepper spoke as fast but as clear as she could, "Tony, just, don't call the police, don't try to pull anything. Please, for me and Jasmine just pay the ransom money. All I can say is we're in downtown New York, and you have six hours. Just, hurry!"
"Alright," the man said in satisfaction as he turned the camera off, "You did good."
Jasmine, though still frightened, couldn't help but ask, "Now what?
"Now you stay here and hope Daddy meets his deadline before you meet deathrow," the man holding her said.
They were then roughly pulled up and walked upstairs to a different room, where they were promptly thrown in, both landing on the dusty floor in a painful thud.
"There," the leader said, dusting his hands, "Now let me get this straight. No one leaves this place alive without my saying so. You try and, well I think you know what'll happen."
He then took the keys that were hanging from his belt, locked the door on the outside, and waved at his hostages. "See ya in six hours," he taunted them cruelly. And then he slammed the door shut, leaving the two alone in the dark, dusty room, with only a single window letting the moon cast a small pool of its light on the wooden floor.
It wasn't long after they left that Pepper heard whimpering. She looked and saw tears streaming down Jasmine's cheeks.
"Oh, Jasmine," she said, feeling her own tears come on at the sight, "Please, don't cry."
"We're gonna die aren't we Mom?" Jasmine asked fearfully.
At hearing those words, Pepper suddenly felt a surge of determination and the strong maternal instinct to protect her daughter. "No Jazz," she said in a voice devoid of fear, "We are not gonna die. Your dad would never let anything happen to either of us. But for now, the best thing we can do is wait, and hope your dad will pay the ransom. I just hope he doesn't try to do anything stupid."
A moment of silence passed before Jasmine spoke up, "Or we could try to get out ourselves."
Pepper's eyes widened. "Don't even think about it Jazz. The last thing I want is to see you get hurt."
"It can't hurt to try," Jasmine said, "These guys can't be that smart. I mean, they locked us up in a room instead of keeping an eye on us."
"Honey, I'm telling you, it's too dangerous," Pepper said.
"I don't care," Jasmine said, "We have to do something!"
She then stood up and went to the other side of the room, causing Pepper to stand up as well.
"What are you doing?" Pepper asked.
Jasmine turned around and replied, "Looking for a way to unlock the door."
Pepper strode over to her and opened her mouth to speak, but then decided to go with a different choice of words. "Listen…Okay, if you're so determined about doing this, I'll, go along with it. But you're going to have to do exactly what I say, understand?"
Jasmine nodded.
"Okay then, come on. There's gotta be a spare key around here somewhere."
They then proceeded to search the darkened room. They quickly realized that such a task wasn't easy when you're handcuffed, but they looked anyway in all sorts of places: nooks, crannies, drawers, shelves, etc. Every now and then, Pepper would listen out to make sure one of the men wasn't coming up the stairs, wanting to avoid any type of ill fate that would likely occur should he discover them trying to escape. But after about half an hour, upon realizing that they searched just about every place in the room, Pepper and Jasmine sat back down on the dusty floor, exhausted.
"Man," Jasmine sighed, "Those guys are smarter than I thought."
"Then I guess we'll have to go back to Plan A," Pepper sighed back.
"Or we could improvise."
"Wait a minute," Pepper said, begin to squirm, "I feel like I'm sitting on something."
"Stand up," Jasmine said. Pepper did so. At first, Jasmine couldn't see anything. But once she looked a little closer, she saw something made of metal sticking out from underneath the bookshelf they sat against.
"Hold on," she said as she too stood, "Let me see if I can get it."
She used her foot, hoping she wouldn't shove it back underneath, to pry the small piece of metal out. Soon, seemingly against all odds, she did manage to get it out. She then squatted and picked it up behind her.
"What is it?"
"Oh great it's a key!" Pepper exclaimed quietly.
"Really?" Jasmine asked with the same surprise, thinking it was too good to be true.
"Uh huh," Pepper nodded eagerly, "Come on, let's go try it."
They then hurried quickly, but quietly, over to the door. Jasmine turned her back to the door knob, and grit her teeth, hoping against hope that this key would work.
"Okay, I, think, I've, got it!" she exclaimed once she found the keyhole. She then tried turning it and, to the astonishment of both her and her mom, they heard the lock move.
"We're free!" Jasmine whispered happily.
"Not yet," Pepper suddenly frowned. She then moved in front of Jasmine, used her hands to turn the door knob, and used her heel to open the door. Though such a simple act, it filled both Pepper and Jasmine with excitement and determination. Downstairs, they could see that the three men were watching some TV. Good, they were distracted.
Pepper turned to Jasmine and whispered, "I'll go first."
Jasmine nodded, and stepped back, allowing her mom to go down the stairs, one step at a time. She bit her lip the whole time, biting harder with every step her mom took until she tasted blood.
She breathed a silent sigh of relief seeing her mom at the bottom of the stairs. Pepper nodded at her, urging her to come down too. Jasmine nodded back and, going against her rapidly beating heart, began going down the same way her mom did, one step at a time.
She stopped for a brief second with every step she took. But just when it seemed like she was about to get down too, she tripped slightly. Though she caught herself, the step she landed on made a creaking noise, sending her heartbeat into overdrive and her hopes of escaping out the front door.
"HEY!" one of the men shouted. But Pepper wasn't about to give up.
"Run Jazz, run!" she shouted.
Jasmine did as her mom said, but in less than two seconds, a pair of arms grabbed her from behind.
"Oh no you don't!" the man shouted as he took hold of her, "You're not goin' nowhere!" He then took a handful of her hair, causing her to scream in pain, and forced her face-first to the ground.
"No stop!" Pepper screamed. She too was then grabbed and forced to the floor as well. Suddenly, the sound of a gun being cocked was heard, causing both Pepper and Jasmine to look up and see that the leader was holding the handgun to both of them.
"It's time we finished the job," he said.
"But what about the money?" one of the other two asked.
"Forget that," the leader said, "We're gonna make way more this way."
Pepper and Jasmine immediately looked at each other, for what they thought to be the last time. Neither, especially Jasmine, remembered another time when they felt so low.
"I love you Mom," Jasmine said, tears in her eyes.
"I love you too honey," Pepper replied in an equally sad voice.
The two then closed their eyes and awaited their demise, when they heard, not a gunshot, but the sound of a door being kicked open, causing them both to open their eyes again. The leader fired his gun into the air once he heard the noise, and spun around to see a man dressed in a suit – minus the coat and tie – with a black scarf covering the lower half of his face.
"No one touches my ladies without me saying so!" he said.
Pepper and Jasmine recognized his voice instantly. "Tony!" "Dad!"
"You, out, now!" he insisted.
They both nodded, hurried to their feet, and then ran for the open door as fast as their legs could carry them.
"Hey!" Two of the men tried to lunge for them, but Tony grabbed them and hurled them both to the wall while Pepper and Jasmine escaped. The leader tried shooting at him, but Tony kicked the gun out of his hand before he could fire. The leader then fell to the ground, holding his injured hand, and went to join his men, while Tony took the gun for himself and held it at all three, who were now sitting together against the wall, hands up.
"Hey man," the leader said as calmly as he could after a few agonizing and silent moments, "We don't need to go through this."
"Oh believe me," Tony said, equally as calm, "I'm not gonna shoot you. But you and your buddies try to hurt either of my girls again and I'm not gonna be this nice."
Suddenly, the wild sound of police sirens echoed into the building from outside. Tony only shrugged his shoulders and smirked slightly when he saw the men's startled expressions. "Sounds like it's for all you."
He then took off the scarf so the police would recognize him, and strode out the front door, the gun still in his hand, before seeing and hurrying over to an ambulance on the other side of the road to meet with Pepper and Jasmine, who were both now free from their handcuffs and being examined for any possible injuries.
"Pep! Jazz!" he shouted. The paramedics, deciding to let him reunite with his family, both stepped back.
"Tony!" Pepper instantly threw her arms around his neck and began kissing him repeatedly.
"Dad!" Jasmine suddenly spoke up.
"Oh Jazz." Tony turned to Jasmine and immediately hugged her liked he never hugged anyone. Then, seeing how traumatized she looked, he said, "Come here," and picked her up like he used to do when she was little.
"Oh you don't know how happy I am to see you both safe," he sighed.
"You don't know how happy we are to have you come to our rescue," Pepper added.
"Are you both alright?"
"A little shaken, but not stirred," Pepper gave a bittersweet smile.
Tony smiled back. "Well, it's all over now, you're both safe."
Jasmine took her turn to throw her arms around her dad's neck, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and said in a shaky voice, "Thanks a lot Dad."
Tony rubbed her back in an attempt to calm her down. "You're welcome sweetheart," he said quietly. He then gave her a kiss on her forehead, causing her unexpectedly to laugh and cry at the same time.
They then watched as the three men were pulled out by police and arrested for carjacking, kidnapping, and attempted murder, among other various charges. As Jasmine watched, and slowly let sink in everything that had just happened to her – as well as the emotional toll – she realized that, along with this day, there were two things that she would never forget for the rest of her life: First, her dad was now her personal hero, and second, she would never be the damsel-in-distress again. She too would be like her dad one day. She too would one day be a hero.
End of Flashback…
Reviews would be appreciated.