Part 34

Kidnapped December 13th, 2007 – Thursday – ? am

My head hurts badly when I wake up again and I have to pull all my strength together to not just remain lying down and go back to sleep. The memories of what happened come creeping back to me slowly and my heart clenches painfully when a flash of Michael lying on the floor bleeding hits me. Was Angel able to help him? Or did Billy make sure that he was dead before leaving? "No," I whisper to myself, "you can't be dead, Michael."

I force myself to open my eyes, but it stays as dark as before. I blink several times, but see nothing except more darkness. I try to use my hands to push myself up from the ground and find them chained to something. My fingers feel out for anything that might give me a hint about what happened and where I am. There is a thick iron pipe in the wall that I am chained to. No chance of escape. "Damn it."

I use my feet to get myself into a sitting position as good as possible and lean my back against the wall. Dizziness sweeps over me when I move and I have to take some deep breaths to not just black out again. What time would it be? How long was I out? I glance around the darkness again, there has to be something. Only now, I recognize that it's freezing cold in here and my whole body feels stiff and worn out.

Where the hell am I? It´s not Billy´s apartment, I would recognize it. He has carpet all over in the rooms. I´m sitting on something that feels like cold stones or concrete. Suddenly there is loud noise outside the room. It´s getting louder and louder with each passing second... I know this sound, but from where? I close my eyes and try to concentrate on it. "The subway," I whisper and then panic. Oh my God, he locked me in an underground room! Will he come back or just leave me to starve to death? Nobody will find me here! The sound is over once the subway has passed by. It didn´t stop, that means I´m not near any station. I'm probably in a service room somewhere in the tunnels that have thick steal doors. I know that nobody will hear my screams, but right now I don´t care. "HELP! OH MY GOD! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

I´m hyperventilating with the realization that no one is going to save me. Michael is hurt, maybe even dead. No, I can´t think of that. I'm not ready to deal with it. The only person who knows that I was kidnapped is Angel. But how is she going to find me? She could go to the police, but she hadn´t even seen Billy once. And even if just the mention of the name Billy is probably enough for them to know who she means... he won't just tell him where I am. "I´ll die here." Tears of fear run down my cheek, there is no need to hold them back.

I don´t know how long I've been sitting here in the right now. Seems like hours, but I really don´t have a clue what time it is right now. It took me a while to calm down, to stop screaming and crying. Right now, I don't feel anything and I drift off to sleep every now and then. Some subways had passed by outside, but that's all.

My head snaps up from another doze when I hear a new sound. Different from the one made when a subway passes by. Maybe there is someone outside? Maybe an employee who checks the route, they do something like this, right?

"HALLO? CAN SOMEBODY HEAR ME? HALLOOOOO!" I scream out as loud as possible.

Suddenly I can hear the door being opened. A flashlight is scanning the room and I squeeze my eyes shut and bend down to hold my chained hands up to my face when it's blinding light hits my face. Somebody is here, I think relieved.

A light is switched on, but I still can´t anything. My eyes have to get used to the brightess after hours of sitting in the dark. The person is coming nearer and crouches down in front of me. I lift my head up again and blink several times.

"Look who finally woke up," the man says right at the moment when my sight becomes clearer and my hope of being rescued shatters into a thousand pieces. Billy.

"You can scream and shout as much as you want, bitch! No one is gonna hear you down here."

"What do you want, you wretched sonofabitch? Sorry, I´m not already dead," I snap at him to downplay my fear.

He lunges out and slaps me across the face so hard that my head flies to the other side, but I don´t cry out. I won´t give him the satisfaction. He takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger roughly and forces me to look at him. "Who says I want you to be dead so soon? You deserve to suffer, you little slut. I had no time to do that to your fuckin` dead lover, but it will be my pleasure to torture you."

I avoid looking him in the eyes. He said Michael is dead. Did he make sure of it or does he just think he is? I don´t ask him. The only thing that keeps me alive right now is the hope that Michael isn´t dead. "Go to hell," I growl at him.

Another hit across my face and I slump back against the wall. I try to not black out, but the room around me is moving wildly and I groan from the pain. "Here," he throws something in my lap, then stands up and walks back to the door. He glances back at me for a second and a moment later the room is dark again and I´m left all alone once more.

It takes me a long time to pull myself together. The dizziness is still there, but it´s fading slowly. I feel around my lap until my hands grip what Billy had thrown into my lap before he left. It's a bottle with some liquid in it. I open the top and hold it to my nose to smell it. Nothing. Maybe it's just water. But what if he mixed something in it? Some drugs, sedatives, or whatever. No, I´m not gonna drink this.

From far away, I can hear a sound, but I´m to weak to move or open my eyes. My body is acing badly, I can´t stand another hard punch from Billy.

"Maria? Oh, my God!" Someone rushes to my side and takes my face in his hands. "Maria, can you hear me? Wake up." It's a male voice, but my brain isn´t working very well and I can´t say if I know this voice. "Open your eyes, Maria."

I try to do what I was asked for, but the light is too bright, I can´t recognize anything first. Only after a few more times of opening and closing my eyes am I able to see the shape of someone bent over me. And with another blink my view gets even clearer. "Kyle?" I croak out, my throat feels like a grater. This has to be a dream, I think.

"Yeah," He lifts me up a little and leans my back against the wall.

"What are you doin' here?" My brain still has a hard time grasping the whole situation.

He fumbles around in the backpack he's wearing and gets out a bottle of whatever drink it is. "Here, you have to drink something." He opens the bottle and holds it out to me.

I nod and try to grab it, but it´s too heavy to hold it on my own. He helps me with it and lifts it to my mouth, so that I can take some sips of the liquid. Slowly but surely my thoughts become clearer.

"He hit you hard," Kyle winces, studying my face intently.

"How did you find me?"

"I followed him the last two days and I figured it out."

I frown at him. "But, Billy hasn't been here for a long time."

"He was on his way, but then got a call and turned back. It took me some time to find this room."

"Oh, my God, I´m so glad to see you," I sob when I suddenly realize that someone really had found me. He pulls me into his arms for several seconds and I close my eyes again to let the relief wash over me. Who would have thought that – of all things – Kyle would save my life one day.

Suddenly I remember all the other past things and my head snaps up to look at him. "Where is Michael?" My voice trembles when I ask the question which might turn my life upside down again.

He sighs. "He's not doin' so good, Maria. Your roommate, Angel, found him, applied first aid and called an ambulance, but he had lost so much blood. He's in the hospital and in coma. The doctor´s say we just have to wait and hope that he will wake up again."

"It's all my fault," I cry.

"No, it's not." He looks around the room and at my chained hands. "Okay, listen, I have to get something that I can use to get you outta here. I´ll be back soon, okay?"

"No, don´t leave me here alone, Kyle."

Out of the corner of my eyes I notice another movement. "Don´t worry, Maria, he won´t."

"KYLE, WATCH OUT!" I scream, but in the next moment Billy hits him hard on the head with the flashlight and Kyle sinks down to the ground next to my feet.

"No," I cry out.

Billy just chuckles. "Valenti, Valenti, how stupid of you to just come here." He bends down to pull Kyle´s motionless body to the wall next to me. "Nobody is gonna rescue you two," Billy singsongs, while chaining the other man to the pipe as well.

"Oh, God, my head is gonna explode," I can hear Kyle moan next to me.

"Kyle? Thank God, you´re finally awake."

He groans in response. "How long have I been unconscious?"

"I don't know. Several hours I guess."

"Are you okay?" he wants to know.

"Yeah, I'm just so cold."

I can hear Kyle moving on the floor, but it´s too dark to see anything. "Sorry, I would offer you my jaket, but these damn chains won´t allow it.

"It's okay. You want some water?"

"He left it here?"

"No, but he gave me another bottle before. I think it´s really just water, I drank it, 'cause I was so thirsty and I´m still alive, so..."

"No, thanks, we probably should be spare with it."

"Yeah...um, does anyone know that you came here?" I want to know. He surely told somebody before he got here, right?

"No," he groans, "I tried to call Max before I went down into the subway tunnels, but he was probably at the hospital, 'cause his cell was turned out. He just knows that I was looking around for you, but not where."

I let my head rest against the wall and all the hope I had built up the last few hours fades away again. "Damn it."

He coughs several times. "Maybe the police will find us soner or later. Angel told me that she has to go there to answer some questions, when I met her in the hospital."

"The police," I whisper, "how long until they find us? Whatcha think?"

Kyle snorted. "With all the shit going on in New York... we'll be lucky if they've even started to look for us."

Later... at some time or another...

"Kyle? Are you awake?" I groan.

"Yeah," he replies weakly.

"You think we could drink another sip of the water? I'm so thirsty."

"Okay," he moves around on the ground, "but only a little bit."

We both take a sip of the water before he closes the bottle carefully again.

"Shh, did you hear that?" I ask.

"What?"

"Shh, someone is coming."

"You won't believe what you're gonnal see," someone who could only be Billy says, amused when he opens the door and turns on the light.

"What can be so exciting down here?" Another male person asks.

"See for yourself."

"Maria?" Someone asks, half surprised, half shocked.

My eyes still hurt from the light again, but I don´t have to see anything to recognize this voice, even if my brain is only working on autopilot. Sean.

"Great, another fuckin' bastard," Kyle mutters and gets kicked by Billy for that.

"What are you doin' with them here?" Sean asks Billy. So Billy didn´t even tell the others about our kidnapping.

"What I am doin'?" Billy asks agitated. "Punishing her; she betrayed me, all of us. Sean. She fucked around with a damn Bandit."

Sean lifts his hands to calm him down. "Hey, I was just asking, no offense. And what's with him?" He gestures to Kyle.

"He discovered her here, so I had to chain him as well."

"Surprised what a little coward bastard your leader is?" Kyle hisses.

"Shut up, Valenti, if you don´t want to be knocked out again."

I stay silent, ´cause I´m not quite sure what he really thinks. I´m his family, but Billy is his best friend.

"Alright, let´s go," Billy says, leading Sean back to the door again. My cousin glances back at me and I can see the consternation in his face before the light is turned off again.

****