Olivia’s POV
My dreams were foggy, and all I could see was buzzing like a broken television.
I tried to move my arms, but I couldn’t. My legs, as well, felt stiff. What was wrong with me? Was I paralysed? Was I drugged?
I tried to scream, but no sound came out of my mouth. The fear continued to engulf me. Somehow, my body had stopped working.
I tried to stick out my tongue. However, an invisible barrier blocked it.
What? What was this?
My tongue continued to poke around, and I felt the dry and coarse material. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that it was a cloth. Somebody had gagged!
The shock of it all caused my eyes to fling open.
I stared around, but the darkness persisted; I had never woken up from my dreams.
No, I couldn’t panic. I had to calm down.
I closed my eyes and focused some of my lupine energy, and my sight was slightly better in the dark. My legs were tied with a thick rope while my hands were bound behind my back. I tried to sit up but bumped my head on something that hung slightly above me.
It was then that my ears started to work, and I could hear the revving of an engine. The smell of smoke seeped into my nostrils through the cloth, and I began to cough. I was in a car.
We must have hit something on the road as I was thrown violently from my position on the floor into another awkward position. My body ached from being confined in such a cramped and uncomfortable space.
Slowly, my memory returned to me: the inn, Jonas, Andre. I tried my best to recollect, and then it hit me.
The lady! Then, the house stirred something within me.
Everything had happened so fast, and then everything went black. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t scream.
I tried to sit up again, but I still bumped my head. It slowly dawned on me that I was in the trunk of a car, and we were speeding down a lonely road. I couldn’t hear anything chattering or the noisy city streets.
I listened harder, and I could hear the voices of the men driving.
“Are you daft? Didn’t you see the porthole? Did you forget that we are carrying precious cargo?”
“Oh, come off it. You complain too much. It is just a little bump, and I’m sure she’s fine.”
It no longer was a dream. I was certain that I was being kidnapped, and the lady that I met in the inn had probably planned it all.
My countenance fell. I had been tricked. She had to have known who I was and that I was going to come looking for my father. She faked being a staff member of the inn, and all her running around was just a ploy to lure me into a trap.
But it still didn’t make sense. Why would she do this? Why would she come after me? Did she think that I was the lady in the picture? Did she have some kind of quarrel with her? Was this a ploy for revenge?
Tears streamed down my face as the questions bombarded my mind. There were thousands of them, but none of them had an answer.
I sobbed even louder. Andre and Jonas were probably looking for me, worried, and now they had no idea where I was.
The tears were short-lived, however, and a new instinct rose in me – the instinct to fight. Crying wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I was the Luna, for crying out loud.
I kicked the walls of the trunk as hard as I could with my bound legs, but I could barely make a dent or a reasonable amount of noise.
It slowly crept into my mind that the more I struggled, the faster I would exhaust myself, and I wouldn’t be able to escape.
I lay there defeated and downcast; My instinct to fight was dead. All hope had been lost.
I lay there silently, contemplating my fate, and slowly, the car pulled to a stop.
“Thank God this journey is over. You’re such a bad driver. If you’re driving off again, I’m taking the wheel,” one of the men groaned.
“Shut up. You complain too much.”
I heard footsteps, and soon, the trunk was opened. But just before I could adjust myself to the light and catch a glimpse of the faces that kidnapped me, a sack covered my head, and all went black again.
The men carried me, and though I struggled in their grasp, they were too strong.
“She’s a pretty little fighter, isn’t she? She has beautiful hair, too.”
“I always knew you were dumb. Stop eyeballing the hostage. If she escapes, people might think that you did it because of your lust for her.”
“What? I was only appreciating such a beautiful thing.”
I ignored what the men were saying and sniffed the air. A familiar scent wafted into my nostrils. But just before I could identify it, it disappeared, and every trace of it disappeared. Every second filled me with frustration and fear. What was going on? How did the scent just vanish? Into thin air? But it was ‘in’ the air.
The two men held me still, and then I heard a third pair of feet walking towards us.
I tried to peer through the sack, but the fibres were too dense, and I couldn’t see anything.
The men adjusted themselves and stood up straight. Then I knew that the third pair of feet was obviously their boss.
“Sir, we got her. We got the girl, but she wasn’t alone. There are two men and a lady along with her.”
I heard the footsteps draw closer to me, and the hairs on my neck stood on end.
My entire body tingled, and it felt like the third person was barely inches away from my face.
“Good job. I was almost certain that you two imbeciles were going to let me down.”
When the third person spoke, it sounded muffled, like he had a cloth or mask on. It wasn’t possible for me to recognise his or her voice.
“You shouldn’t have doubted us, sir. We will always get the job done.”
“I’m glad to have that reassurance.”
I felt one of the men’s grips on my arm slacken slightly, but not enough for me to pull away.
“So, when do we start, Sir?”
My heart skipped a beat. Start? Start what?
“Soon,” said the muffled voice. “But if what you tell me is correct, and she did not come alone, then the people she came with are probably tracking her down already. We need to get out of here before they close in on our location.”
“Yes, Sir,” The other two men said together.
They began to drag me back, and I heard the car door click open. I began to struggle violently. There was no way I would be thrown back into that trunk. I was slowly becoming claustrophobic.
The men struggled to hold me down.
“Fucking stay still, you bitch!”
I screamed as loud as the gagging could allow me and kicked and punched in all directions, but I met only empty air.
“Fellas”
The third voice spoke again, and another shiver ran down my spine.
“I suggest that you knock her out to keep her still and mask her sense so that she can’t be tracked. Need I remind you that if we are found, we are screwed.”
The men replied with an affirmation, and suddenly, something blunt and hard hit me at the back of my head.
My breath was knocked out of me, and everything went dark once more.