Hey friends... I'd appreciate some reviews if you have it in you... Going through the trouble to post this here without anyone saying anything back makes me anxious.

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CHAPTER 2

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Holtzmann pouted as she watched Patty disappear around the corner in front of her. The man still holding tightly onto her arms and leading her down the alley had requested that the older woman walk ahead of them, probably because he knew she wouldn't try anything knowing Holtzmann was in danger behind her.

Part of Holtzmann wanted Patty to run away while she could, to save herself... A stronger, more selfish and scared part of her was grateful that she wasn't left behind in all this, that if this man tried to hurt her, Patty might able to save her from him. Holtz had spent great portions of her life pretty much on her own when she could have really used a friend. The thought of going through something scary and traumatic like this by herself, with no one to support her in any way, was positively terrifying.

"Come along, dear." The man spoke softly as he pulled her down the alley, seemingly unfazed by the fact that she was stiff and practically dragging her feet the whole time.

She frowned as they turned the corner and she came face to face with a second man. The first one shoved her toward him. She stumbled forward and he grabbed onto her with large, rough hands around her upper-arms.

"I thought we were just taking this one." The man grabbing her arms noted, nodding down toward Holtzmann.

"That was the plan." The first man exhaled. "She usually goes out alone... Patricia came with her tonight and I didn't want to wait 'til tomorrow. We've gotta get this done. We'll make it work. It's not a significant change. Might actually work better this way. Give 'em each motivation to cooperate knowing the other'll suffer if they don't."

Holtzmann felt her heart pounding in her chest as she glanced toward Patty, who looked quite worried as she stared back. No one was holding onto the taller woman. They must have trusted they didn't have to. As long as Holtzmann was confined, Patty wasn't going anywhere, and they knew it...

With fear in her heart, Holtzmann breathed in and out shaking breaths. Living humans were sometimes so much scarier than ghosts... At least with ghosts, she had a general idea of what she was dealing with, what they were capable of, and how to get rid of them... She didn't know what to do in this situation.

Without much movement other than her eyes, Holtzmann looked cautiously around, trying to get a good read on her surroundings. The second man held her arms in hard fists, pretty firmly, but with no weapon to convince her to play nice. The first man had put his knife away after passing her off to his friend. No one was too close to Patty. If she was going to attempt escape, now would be the time to do it.

She glanced toward Patty, staring for a long few seconds, silently telling the woman with her eyes that she was about to go for it. She wondered if Patty could read her expression and understand the message she was trying to convey. Either way, she was going to do it... She was going to make her move. There was no other option. She just hoped Patty knew to take the opportunity to run too. If Holtzmann escaped without Patty, that just wasn't going to work. They had to get out of this together.

With an angry, yet sort of shaking growl in her throat, Holtz stomped one foot down on top of the foot of the guy holding onto her arms, then brought her other leg up between his legs, hitting him as hard as she could. She heard him groan as he let go of her arms and she stumbled back slightly.

Before she had a chance to make a run for it, she felt a hard fist slam into her ribs, followed by a second strike against the side of her face. Holtzmann crumpled to the ground with a pained gasp, holding one hand against her cheek where he'd hit her and the other against her ribs. The punch to her side had been pretty hard. Hard enough that she was wincing more than breathing at this point.

She heard Patty screaming something, followed by the first man's angry voice. But she couldn't focus on anything but herself at the moment. Patty should have run...

Holtzmann dragged herself to her feet, tripping to her hands and knees as she struggled to create distance between her and her attackers. She made eye contact with Patty again as she half-crawled, half-stumbled away. The older woman looked terrified, but made no move to intervene. It was then that Holtzmann realized the first man was aiming a gun at Patty. That's why she was so still and silent.

It made Holtzmann freeze too, long enough for the second man to reach her. She felt a hand grab her arm, pull her back, and spin her around to face him, followed by a rather harsh slap across her face.

"Stop!" Patty's urgent voice cried as Holtzmann whimpered and brought her arms up to cover her face. She felt hard hands on her arms, hauling her up off the ground as she thrashed her body in an attempt to escape.

"Get off of me!" Holtzmann screamed, kicking out and twisting her body.

"Let her go!" Patty screamed almost in the same moment.

Holtzmann felt herself fall back against the hard ground as her jerking movements payed off. She shrunk down, trying to scramble away as the man reached toward her with an angry stare. "Get back here you little bitch!" He growled.

"No!" Holtzmann gasped.

The first man sighed as he tucked his gun into his belt and pushed past his buddy. "Lenny, you drive. I'll sit with them in the back." He grabbed at Holtzmann's arms, but she wasn't having it. She didn't care that this one hadn't been violent yet. She wasn't going with him.

"Patty, run!" She screamed. The guy reaching for her now was the one who had been holding the gun on Patty. He was focused on Holtzmann now. They both were. Patty could make a run for it.

"Holtzy, baby... don't fight with him..." Patty urged. "We'll go with you... Just don't hurt her. We won't argue or fight anymore, right?"

Holtzmann frowned, but stopped trying to get away. If Patty wasn't going to run, there was no point in fighting to the point of distracting both men. Her heart wanted Patty to save herself even knowing she'd be left behind, but she understood why the woman chose not to. Holtzmann wouldn't have left Patty behind either. They were in this together. One wasn't escaping unless they both did.

She sure as hell wasn't going to escape both of the men anyway. The second guy, Lenny, was pretty harsh, and very strong. The first guy, whose name she still hadn't caught, had at least two weapons, and rather strong, hard hands. She let him haul her up off the ground by her arms.

"She kicked me!" Lenny reminded his friend. "I should break your fucking arm for that, little girl." He growled, stepping toward Holtzmann, who shrunk down against the other man.

"She's just scared. You won't do it again. Right?" He stared down at Holtzmann.

"Yeah..." She breathed, then frowned. "Wait... I mean, no..."

"No you will? Or no you won't?" Lenny growled, taking another step forward.

"Yes..." Holtzmann swallowed nervously. She'd lost track of the wording surrounding this promise. Obviously she wanted to let him hear what he wanted to hear... but what exactly had he asked? She also wasn't going to just sit back and let the guy beat her up. If she had to defend herself, she would.

Lenny frowned. "You gonna kick me again or not?" He rephrased.

Holtzmann breathed in a calming breath and nodded. "If you attack me again, yes. Probably, I will."

She swallowed and shrunk down further as Lenny scowled, squeezing his hands into fists and looking very much like he wanted to punch her.

"Holtz, come on..." Patty exhaled from several feet away. Obviously Patty wanted her to just make the verbal agreement that she'd play nice, regardless of her actual intentions.

"Then I won't..." Holtzmann pouted. But it was a lie. If this guy attacked her again, she was very much going to kick him.

"How about we all agree to to be a little more calm from here on." The first guy compromised. "You two ladies won't fight with us. We won't hurt you. Win win."

Holtzmann frowned, but nodded. That would have to do for now.

She allowed the un-named man to lead her toward a car. Lenny got into the driver's seat. Patty squeezed into the back, followed by Holtzmann and the guy still grasping her arm in a somewhat painful grip. She figured he held her so tight because he knew she might take any chance given to escape... but it still hurt, and she wasn't too happy about it.

"I need your phones." The man sitting next to Holtz requested. "I want to trust that you girls won't do anything dumb, but Jillian, you've already been fighting us a lot more than is wise. I need both of your phones." He held out his hand.

Patty quickly offered hers up. Holtzmann frowned. She hadn't brought a phone with her. She had two dollars. Nothing else. She went out for chips, not to get kidnapped.

The man stared at her with a raised eyebrow. Holtzmann shrugged. "I don't have it..." She said in a small voice, fearing he might do something mean if he thought she was lying or attempting to be difficult.

He frowned.

Holtzmann swallowed nervously, shrinking down against Patty as the car was put into drive and began moving slowly down the street.

"She doesn't usually have it on her." Patty spoke up in her defense.

"We'll see." The man shook his head and reached out.

Holtzmann yelped and, out of instinct, slapped his hand as he grabbed toward her thigh. She immediately gasped and bit her lip, raising her hands in defense. "I'm sorry..." She breathed, staring wide-eyed back at the guy. Obviously smacking him wasn't the greatest idea, but she hadn't expected him to grab out at her leg like that. She didn't like the idea of him putting his hands on her. "I really don't have it... I promise..." She breathed, shrinking even further against Patty.

"Don't do that again." He growled. "I can't trust you, so I'm gonna have to check myself." He told her, reaching toward her leg again, feeling her overall pockets and then moving his hands up, sort of patting her down as though he was a cop and she was a criminal... except that they were both presently awkwardly squished into the back seat of a car.

Holtzmann held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut as she felt his hands move up her sides. She squirmed and stuck her lower-lip out in a pout as his hands pawed around her back and then back down to her legs.

"That's cute, Honey." He smirked as he noticed her pout.

Holtzmann felt her lip tremble as his hands continued to roam, patting her down much more thoroughly than seemed necessary. She was pretty sure he was just trying to make her uncomfortable at this point.

"Alright, Handsy. That's enough." Patty sounded mad. Holtzmann glanced up toward her, seeing that she looked pretty mad too. "She said she didn't have it. You can feel her up all day and you still aren't gonna find it."

He laughed and gave in, letting Holtzmann shrink down against Patty's side as he focused on the older woman's phone.

"You want to call Abby or Erin?" He asked as he scrolled through her contacts. "Or the office?"

Patty shrugged as she put her arm around Holtzmann's back, resting her hand on the smaller woman's arm and pulling her as close as physically possible. It made Holtzmann feel safer, but still not completely out of harm's way.

"Try Abby first, I guess... It's early... She might not answer." Patty frowned.

"Alright." He found her number and hit send, putting the phone on speaker and holding it out in front of him. "Remember not to do anything dumb. You're gonna want to tell her cops and any shit like that's gonna be rewarded with pain for one of the two of you. Maybe both."

Patty nodded. Holtzmann could swear she felt the older woman's heart pounding in her chest... Or maybe that was her own heart.

Holtzmann's breath caught in her throat as she heard Abby's voice answer the phone. "Hello?" She sounded really tired. "Patty, it's four thirty in the morning..."

"Hey, Abby..." Patty started. "Listen, I've got a job for you and Erin, and it's pretty important..."

"It can't wait until morning?" Abby complained.

"No... Not really..." Patty spoke. "I've got a name and a list of places... and you guys need to try to find a specific ghost and get information from him..."

Holtzmann glanced up toward the man next to her as an awkward silence filled the car. Obviously Abby was going to tell this man the same thing Patty had - that finding specific spirits and interrogating them wasn't their forte.

"Abby?" Patty frowned.

"Yeah... I heard you... Just... You know that's not how we usually do these things, right?" Abby sounded like she was frowning too.

"Well, we're gonna do 'em this way this time though." Patty told her. "I'm here with Holtz."

"Hey, Abby." Holtzmann spoke up.

"And two men who say you need to find this guy's ghost and get him to give you the info they want... or else they'll kill us." Patty offered a nervous laugh.

"Seriously?" Abby's voice sounded a bit nervous.

"Yeah, seriously." The man spoke up, seemingly losing patience.

"Who's that?" Abby wondered.

"Um... We don't know his name, actually..." Patty answered.

"I'm the guy that's gonna start breaking fingers if you don't cooperate." He answered, obviously happy to take over Patty's half of the conversation. "You need to find the spirit of a guy named Leroy Hayes. Ask him where the money is. Tell him 'M' sent you if he doesn't get it, but he should get it."

"M?" Abby's voice asked. "The letter 'M?'"

"Yes." M, apparently, growled. "And if I suspect anyone's up to anything or see any trace of the police sniffing around, I'm gonna have to hurt someone, starting with the little one."

Holtzmann gulped and felt Patty's grip around her shoulders tighten. Why did this guy keep threatening her specifically? Of course, she'd rather herself get hurt than one of her friends... but it was still scary to have the man continuously saying he planned on causing her pain.

"No... Don't do that." Abby's voice was increasingly concerned. "We'll find the guy... Don't hurt them. J-just give us time, okay?"

"I'm gonna read off a list of locations where you might find him, so write this down." M continued.

Holtzmann focused on Patty as their captor read off his list of addresses. The older woman seemed to be paying attention to what the man was saying into the phone. Holtz didn't see how it could matter, since they were the ones being held hostage here. What was Patty going to do with that information?

As she stared up at Patty's thoughtful face, Holtzmann realized just how exhausted she felt. She wondered if Patty was tired too. The older woman wasn't used to staying up as late as Holtz. Why had she stayed up so late anyway? Just to keep Holtzmann company?

She felt tears stinging her eyes as she stared silently up at her friend. It was her fault Patty was here right now. These guys were going to just take her. Apparently they had paid attention to her daily habits enough to know she made regular early-morning Pringles runs. They knew she was usually alone at that time. Patty was never supposed to be put in danger here. When Holtzmann said she wanted to go out for Pringles, Patty had suggested she wait. She remembered the older woman commenting about the streets not being safe so late at night. Patty was tired and didn't think they should go... Holtzmann had insisted, and now, she wanted to cry knowing Patty definitely would have avoided this if not for her.

As she stared up at Patty, the older woman must have felt her gaze, because she glanced down and immediately frowned.

"Aw... Baby, don't cry... You're gonna be okay." Patty whispered, hugging her tighter.

Holtzmann closed her eyes and shook her head. She wasn't worried about herself. Well... she was... but she was more worried about Patty. If Holtzmann put herself in danger by going out all alone into the New York streets at all hours of the night, that was her own fault... She could live with that... but Patty was careful. Patty was much more smart about things like this. She would have never been in a position where some weird men could kidnap her if not for Holtzmann's stupid Pringles craving.

Patty had even advised that they should keep walking when this guy approached them. It was Holtzmann who had decided to engage. This was double-her fault. Patty was suffering from Holtzmann's reckless decisions.

"Just stay calm." Patty urged in a low voice. "I won't let them hurt you."

Holtzmann frowned and reached up toward her shoulder, grabbing Patty's hand in hers and squeezing lightly. She knew what Patty said was true - that the older woman would do whatever possible to protect her... Holtzmann hoped she could reciprocate the gesture and keep Patty safe too.

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