Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.
Revenge of the Wolf
Chapter 6 – Run Like Hell.
Note, up to now the chapters have been switching forth between the past and the present. This chapter will be all flashback, taking place about 2 and a half weeks ago. Tori and Jade have traveled to Prague and have finally found the building they have been looking for.
No One's Pov.
Time: about 2 and a half weeks ago.
Jade smiled grimly, at the sight of her destination. The building where she had guessed the woman nicknamed, Blondie, once lived. Not wanting to waste one second longer she started for the building and its blue door, when Tori grabbed her arm.
"Hold it!"
"What?" Snapped Jade Impatiently.
After giving her a brief but nasty look, Tori pointed to a small sidewalk café across the street from the building. "Before you decide to bash down any doors, why don't you start there. If blondie lived in that building, it's a safe bet, she probably eaten there a couple of times. It looks small, but nice. Someone may know her and your mate is getting hungry. The sign says they're serving breakfast. I'm crabby enough as is, me being hungry only makes the wolf in me, even crabbier."
Jade relaxed, realizing that it was a good idea and probably even a better one, to not antagonize her mate any further. "Good idea."
The pair walked over to the small café and sat at one of the half dozen or so small tables and sat in front of the café.
They quickly ordered a two breakfasts which consisted of Kolachi Nut rolls, with sausage, eggs and coffee.
While they waited for their food, they observed the building but there was nothing really to observe. No one came and no one left. It simply looked like one of the many apartment buildings all over the city. It was a stone building, 3 stories tall with an ornate blue wooden door with a carving of a dragon on it.
One thing did catch their attention. It was a sign next to the door.
"Apartment for rent. Inquire within."
"That apartment for rent, could give us an in." Said Jade.
It was at that moment, the waitress, a woman of about 30 with brown hair and a round face delivered the food. However as she noticed them looking at the rent sign she made a distinct frown.
"Ladies are you thinking of renting that apartment?"
Tori and Jade looked at each other, then to the waitress.
"We were thinking about it." Said Tori. "Why?"
The waitress lowered her voice slightly. "In the last year or two, 3 young women have moved into that apartment building. I'd see them in the café. But after a few months they just stop coming around. Then that sign appears again. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's kind of odd. I told my boss, he just said, mind your own business. That sign went up yesterday."
"Why are you telling us this? You don't know us." Remarked Jade.
"Call it a feeling. Maybe its best if you just move on."
"Do you know who owns the building?"
"No. But I can tell you an old woman manages the building; Mrs. Janda. She's nice, rarely eats here though. She used to have a dog, I'd see her walking it. Snoopy was its name; little thing. I think it's dead."
Tori pulled out the photo of Blondie and pushed it forward. "Have you ever seen her before?"
The waitress picked up the picture and studied it for a moment. "She used to come around here and eat once and a while. Not very talkative. I haven't seen her in some time, year at least. I think she moved out."
Jade chuckled. "You could say that."
Tori shook her head and turned to the waitress. "Can you tell us anything about her?"
The waitress narrowed her eyes. "Why do you want to know?"
Jade casually put a 100 euro note on the waitress' tray. "Let's just say, simple curiosity."
The waitress smiled. "She didn't talk much. She'd come in every week or so, order dinner and quietly read the paper or do something on her phone. She was always alone. She tipped well, always paid in cash."
"Do you know where she was from, her name?"
"I heard her answer her phone once, she said, Gerda here. She wasn't a local, though. All I can tell you is that she spoke with a German accent. Sounded like a southern one, Bavaria maybe. I can't say for certain. I don't really know much else. Sorry."
Tori gave the woman a gracious smile and another 100 euro note. "You've been a great help, thank you."
The waitress looked to the building with some apprehension then to Jade and Tori. "Just be careful."
"We will."
The waitress left and Tori and Jade at their breakfast in silence as each pondered what the next move should be. However near the end of breakfast, Jade with a thoughtful look said.
"Vega, you know I love you. Right. You're everything to me."
Tori quickly sighed and briefly took Jade's hand. "I love you Jade. With all my heart and soul, but sometimes we hurt the ones closest to us the most. Now is not the time to discuss this. What do you want to do?"
"I think we should see about the apartment. Tell Mrs. Janda that we met this Gerda on the train a few weeks ago and she recommended this apartment. "
Tori took a drink of her coffee. "If Janda is mixed in with this, she probably knows that Gerda is dead. She'll know were lying."
"I know, she'll get nervous, perhaps tip her hand. We can handle ourselves. I think it's the best way."
"Fine."
The pair finished their breakfast, paid and then rang the bell, next to the door marked, "M. Janda. Mgr."
A few moments later a kindly looking woman, who appeared to be about 70 with grey hair, a black dress and grey shawl, answered the door.
"Yes, Can I help you?"
Jade smiled and immediately broke into a southern accent. "Hi Yah. I'm Patricia Soltysik and this is my best friend, Camilla Hall. We saw your sign and wondered if the apartment was still for rent. We're both students taking a year off from school and were looking for some long term accommodations. Are you Mrs. Janda."
The old woman immediately seemed to light up. "Yes I am and it's still available. Please come in."
They followed the woman inside a small but neat hallway. There was a stairway going up, a door on the left, a door on the right and a door at the far end. Mrs. Janda took them into the door to the left to a large apartment furnished in what appeared to be rather expensive furniture.
"Sit please. I'll put on some water so I can make you tea."
Sitting down next to Jade, Tori smiled. "That would be good, thank you."
Mrs. Janda left and went through a door they assumed was the kitchen. As soon as she did, Tori frowned. "The things I do for love."
"Vega relax."
Mrs. Janda reappeared and for several minutes they asked about who they were. Using her acting skills, Jade spun a story about how they were both nursing students from the University of Alabama who decided to take a year off and live in Europe, with the possibility of attending school there? Jade even gave them backgrounds, hobbies and family members. They chose to speak in English and not use the translation stones. Mrs. Janda spoke English, so that was no problem.
They found Mrs. Janda to be pleasant and attentive. They held off any questions until Janda seemed to be more relaxed a rapport had been established. Mrs. Janda said she was a widower and spoke of how she used to love to travel with her now dead husband.
The tea came ready and Mrs. Janda served it and they continued their conversation. She spoke for a bit about the apartment itself, saying it was a nice apartment and rather inexpensive. After giving more details about the apartment, Mrs. Janda asked Jade.
"So what do you think of our city?"
"Lovely. I love this section of town. I'm so glad this place was recommended to us. I think we'll love it here."
"Recommended?" Replied Mrs. Janda, with a look of slight puzzlement.
Tori answered, "Yes, we were touring Germany about a week and a half ago and we met this fantastic woman on the train. In fact she saved us. I had dropped my passport, she happened to see me do so, ran up and handed it back. So to pay her back we bought her some drinks, we talked and after we said we were looking for a place to stay, she recommended not only Prague, but this building. Said the rent was cheap, but very nice."
Mrs. Gerda tilted her head slightly and took another sip of tea. "Who was it?"
"Blonde woman with a bob haircut. Said her name was Gerda and she had lived here up to about a year ago. She told us to look you up. She also says hello and wonders how snoopy your dog was doing?" Jade said with her custom smirk.
For an instant Mrs. Janda froze, a look of terror on her face. She then smiled widely, in what was obviously, a very poor attempt to cover it up. "Oh….that's nice. I haven't heard from her in a while."
The old woman got up and quickly grabbed Tori and Jade's tea cups. "Here let me get you some more. Then I can show you the apartment. "
As soon as Mrs. Janda vanished into the kitchen, Jade whispered to Tori. "You see her, she about shit her pants."
"Just be careful Jade."
Mrs Janda soon returned with two full cups of tea and put them down in front of Tori and Jade. "I like you two. I think we'll be very good friends. Drink please."
Jade being a werewolf, had a sense of smell far superior to humans. In her human form it was about 5 times better, in her wolf form it was about 15 times better. Normally it was something she disregarded, as sometimes the various scents could get distracting. But as she raised her glass to drink it, her superior sense of smell, noticed the ever so faint smell of bitter almonds. Had she been a normal person she would have never been able to detect it. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see, Tori noticing the very same thing, judging by the uncomfortable expression on her face.
"Please drink up." Said, Mrs. Janda, who looked more and more nervous.
Jade frowned and pushed her glass across the coffee table towards Mrs Janda. "Why don't you have some?"
Janda pointed to her own cup in front of her. "I have some dear. That is for you. Drink."
Jade leaned towards the woman and grinned. "Is that why you put cyanide in it?"
Mrs. Janda suddenly bolted from her chair and ran into the kitchen. Jade and Tori immediately followed.
Jade who was first in the door, didn't get two steps before Mrs. Janda, with great force, smashed her upside the head with a cast iron skillet, stunning her.
Tori who was directly behind her, saw her mate fall, and charged the woman who had grabbed a butcher knife. She quickly stabbed Tori in the chest with it, but was more than surprised when Tori yanked it out and the wound immediate started to heal.
To her horror, Mrs. Janda realized she was probably dealing with a werewolf.
The old woman, not waiting one second longer, ran out what appeared to be a back door and into the alley, with inhuman speed.
Tori looked back to see Jade, alive but slight stunned. Knowing her mate was all right, she instinctively turned into a wolf and charged out the back door. Only in her wolf form would she be able to keep up with Mrs. Janda, though only barely.
Tori chased the old woman as she sprinted down the back alleys of Prague. At least twice the woman managed to elude her, only to have Tori pick up her scent and reappear right on her tail.
After several minutes, the woman appeared to be slowing down and as she did, she frantically, pulled out what appeared to be a potion from her pocket and drank it. Mrs. Janda promptly sped back up and Tori continued the chase.
After a few more minutes of chase, Mrs. Janda started to slow again, to the point Tori was starting to gain on her. It was the, Janda then ran into a 10 story high, apartment building and ran up the stairs.
Chasing her, Tori followed the old woman up and onto the roof. The old woman now appeared to be franticly smashing her cell phone with a brick.
Tori turned back into human form, putting her hands on her hip. "Ok, Mrs. Janda you're coming with me. I have some questions for you. Like who you work for?"
"Damn you." Cursed the old woman, as she suddenly turned and jumped off the roof.
Tori rushed to the edge to just in time, to hear the thud of Mrs. Janda slamming head first into the cement below. She had landed in the alley, a small pool of blood now around her smashed head.
Not wanting police involvement, Tori quickly scooped up the extremely smashed phone and shoved it in her pocket. Rushing down to the alley, she confirmed that Mrs. Janda was quite dead and carried nothing else on her.
But Tori found herself with a problem. If she left, the body will soon be discovered and police would quickly go to Janda's apartment. That would not give them them time to search anything. So she took the body, and tossed it in a nearby trash dumpster. The blood and brains she washed away with a nearby hose. That done, she ran back to the apartment where she found Jade, sitting at the kitchen table, holding an icepack on her head.
"You ok, Jade?" Tori said, as she rushed over to examine Jade.
"I'm fine, she just stunned me. It's just a bump. Man was she strong." Grumbled the Goth.
"You realize that if you'd had been a normal person, that blow would have caved in half your skull, not to mention that wench stabbed me. Ruined my shirt. Some plan that was." Tori quipped rather cynically.
"Where's Janda?"
"In a dumpster, with a smashed head!"
Jade shot up out of her chair. "What?"
"She had some potion, that gave her super speed, strength too. It didn't last long and when I was about to catch her, she ran up onto the roof of some 10 story building. Once on top, she jumped off it. I dumped her body, so we'd have time to search. But they're bound to find her sooner or later. Then the local cops will show up. I don't want to be here when that happens.
Jade clenched her teeth and put down the ice pack. "So Janda was just another flunky. When you cornered her, she offed herself, so she couldn't talk."
Jade got off the chair and walked back into the living room. "Come on let's look around."
They searched the woman's apartment, but found little. She seemed to not have much in the way of personal papers anywhere around. As far as the owner they only found an unpaid bill for having the plumbing fixed, directed to something called the DGR Group. They did find a bank book indicating Mrs. Janda got a large sum of money deposited into her bank account on the 1st of each month. They also found a key hidden in her bedroom that appeared to fit no lock in the house. It wasn't the master keys for the apartment building ,as she had them elsewhere and they were clearly marked.
The apartment itself consisted of a large living room, filled with expensive antiques, a large master bedroom, a smaller guest bedroom and a full bath. After they finished the search of the apartment, they found a doorway heading into the basement.
"What's down there, I wonder." Pondered Tori.
"Open it and let's find out."
Jade opened the door and looked down into the dark space. She smelled, but initially detected only the normal smells one would find in a basement.
Flipping on the light, Jade walked down and they found themselves in what appeared to be a normal basement. Furnace and water heater in once corner, a work bench in another and piles of old boxes that appeared to have little of interest in them.
Jade looked around and shook her head. "Nothing."
Jade then turned into a wolf and started to sniff around. Soon enough she detected, Mrs. Janda's scent, but along one wall, it was stronger. Plus she detected the recent scent of someone else. The trails led straight to the wall and abruptly stopped.
Jade turned back into a human and started to feel the wall. "I think this is fake. Help me search."
The pair felt around the wall for several minutes, until Tori found a hidden button. As soon as she hit it, the wall glided seamlessly open.
Beyond, was a space that looked like something out of sondage weekly. The walls were blood red and a large four poster, bed with red silken sheets and hand cuffs on each of the corners. Along one wall was a huge cabinet full of all kinds of bondage outfits and sex toys. Next to it was another cabinet, with video recording equipment and dvd's. Each dvd had a date on it. One had a date of the previous day.
Jade grabbed the dvd from yesterday, walked over to an entertainment center that faced the bed and put the dvd in. Hitting play, an image of Mrs Janda in a leather bondage outfit and strap on, having her way with a young brown haired girl, who appeared to be unconscious or drugged, came on the screen. Mrs. Janda appeared to be enjoying the fact, that the girl was unresponsive.
Tori quickly turned it off. "Uggggh…that's revolting."
Jade looked away and grimaced in disgust. "I see two doors to the left. Let's check them out."
The first door was on the left and locked. On a hunch, Tori tied the key they found and the door opened. Inside was a small room, with a chair and a desk and what appeared to be closet door.
They decided to go back into the main room and check out the second door. They found it led down a long underground passage way. They followed it and discovered that it ended at a locked door in the basement of an empty warehouse. They guessed it was some sort of secret entrance or exit.
They went back and checked out the room with a desk. and found a written note on the desk.
"Janda,
The boys will be around to pick up the girl at 10:00 am. On the 17th. They'll come in the back way as usual and let themselves in. You don't need to be there, just have her ready. As always , you can have our way with her until then. Be careful, you left a mark on the one last time and the boss was less than pleased. That reduces the price they get. But considering the good work you've done up to now, they chose to overlook it.
R"
Jade with a serious look, took the key and unlocked the closet door that was in the corner. Inside was a young woman, wearing only undergarments. She had brown hair and was tied up and gagged in the corner. She looked horribly afraid and cowered as soon as they flipped the light on.
Tori rushed over and pulled the woman's gag out. "Relax, you're fine. Everything is going to be ok. We're setting you free."
Jade who had pulled her scissors from her boot was already cutting the ropes. "Who are you?"
"I'm Anna." Said the frightened woman, in accented English. "I moved in here 3 months ago, the rent was so cheap. I'm from Poland and came to work in Prague. I came home the other night, all my stuff is gone and my apartment empty. I run down to Mrs. Janda and she says my apartment needed urgent repairs and all my stuff had been temporally put in storage. She gives me some tea and next thing I know, she's got me on the bed and…"
The woman then broke down in sobs and Tori quickly hugged her, to calm her down.
As Tori was comforting the girl, Jade much to her increasing disgust, realized what was going on. "She's renting the apartment to young woman, drugging them and I think selling them to someone. Like that, Taken movie with Liam Neeson."
"Oh god, Was that going to happen to me." Wailed Anna.
"Not anymore. I'm Tori and this is my girlfriend Jade. We're here to help you. You'll be out of her in jiff." Tori then turned to Jade. Go upstairs and see if you can find some clothes or a robe that Anna can put on."
"Sure", Jade said as she vanished.
Moments, later, Jade returned with an old dress that though a little too big, Anna was able to get into.
"Jade what do we do?" Asked Tori.
Jade didn't' answer initially, but then opened one of the drawers of the desk to reveal some rope. "10:00 on the 17th, Tori, that's this morning, in fact, its 18 minutes from now."
"So. We need to get out of here."
Jade smirked, as a plan formed in her head.
"Tori, Then you wipe the surface of everything we've touched. Then you tie me up and put me in this closet. I'll let them take me to where they take these girls."
"Jade! That's insane." Hissed Tori.
"It's the only way. Besides, they're going to get a bit more than they bargained for. You can track me through my scent and follow. Then we bust up this sick operation and find out who's behind it."
"Jade!"
"Now is not the time to argue Vega. Come on, get with the program! They'll know that Janda's dead soon enough and they'll crawl into the woodwork."
Tori briefly grumbled, but quickly relented. "Fine. I get you tied up. Then I put Anna in a cab and send her to the local Polish Embassy. She can get help there. But Jade…"
Feeling supremely confident, Jade cut her off. "Everything's going to be fine…trust me."
The two names Jade picked, Patricia Soltysik and Camilla Hall were both members of the violent revolutionary group, The Symbionese Liberation Army, in the 1970's. They were the group that kidnapped and brainwashed Patti Hearst. They also murdered two people,committed bank robberies and other acts of violence. Soltysik and Hall, who were actually lovers, were both gunned down by police during a gun battle with members of the group in 1974. By the late 1970's almost all members of the group were dead or in prison.
The chapter title refers to the Pink Floyd song of the same name.