mavericka

In Bloom

Part 2

My pounding heart



Leetha woke to a steady pounding noise. She pulled on some black jogging pants to go with her Bob Marley shirt and went to look out the peephole in her door. There was someone out there, someone in black. Her door knob started to jiggle and the first lock came undone.

"My God, they have keys." The pounding got faster, it was almost like a heartbeat. Leetha's heart was racing as fear took over. The pounding was coming from Mr. Manchez's apartment, he was pounding on the door it sounded like. Why couldn't he get out? Mr. Manchez could only speak in a whisper, the result of a construction accident years ago. Then she heard Ms. Bishop, "Hey whats going on?," Leetha could hear her trying to get her door open.

The intruder had gotten all but the last bolt unlocked when she thought to do something besides wring her hands, she grabbed the old chipped baseball bat she kept by the door, her only protection, and waited for the door to open. The banging changed to an occasional loud thud, as Mr. Manchez threw himself against his door trying to bust it down.

The door opened, and there stood the strange bald man. Someone was with him, but she only got a glance, she pulled back the bat and closed her eyes as she swung. Just as she had playing baseball back in school with eyes closed she hit nothing but air.

The bald man easily grabbed the bat from her and threw it aside. He grabbed her up around the waist and headed out into the hall with her. Suddenly she knew him to be a big man, and she felt like a doll. Her fear was a physical pain in her chest. She started kicking and slapping and screaming her lungs out. But his grip on her was like iron, just enough to hurt, and he must have been slapped around quite a bit in his day because none of her efforts seemed to faze him.

"Fetch, get the car started," the bald man said to the fellow with him. The other man was short, and very thin with spiked blonde hair and bug eyes. He also had brown freckles high on his cheeks.

Fetch squeezed passed them on the stairs and out the door, the bald man was quick to follow as Mr. Manchez finally succeeded in busting open his door. His face seemed set in stone, eyes ablaze as he stormed after them. She was thrown into the back of a black car, with the windows blacked out. Instead of seeing into the front seat there was black window there as well. She felt the car pulling off and driving fast. She checked both doors to find them locked then started banging on the window that separated her from the front seat. Until now she had been too scared to think, but she found herself in the back of this car with nothing else to do, and now that she thought about it she was very pissed off. Who the fuck were these people? What did they want? Where they going to take her somewhere and kill her? or worse? She didn't want to think about it but what else was there to do.

"Hey assholes!"she banged as hard as her small first could against the front window and it slid halfway open.

"Good evening Lee. Sorry to interrupt your sleep. You can call me Reap, and this as you may have noticed is Fetch,"the bald man, Reap, made a gesture towards the driver. Fetch didn't seem concerned with anything but the road. "We will be your hosts for the next few days. This trip will take about an hour so do try to relax, I wouldn't want you to bloody your pretty little fists. " The window slid back up. And then slid back down. "Oh yes," said Reap. "And just in case you get clever, I will shoot you." he turned and was going to roll the window back up when her voice stopped him.

"How do I know you have a gun?" each man reached down and then raised their hands, in both fists, of both men were guns, barrel up.

"Ok" she said, hoping Fetch would put his hands back on the wheel. Reap laughed, a hacking sound, like a cough.

Reap held his twin Glocks facing forward, and then crossed his hands over his chest with them. He clearly enjoyed just holding the guns.

"Ok," she said in a stronger voice. "I hate guns you can put them away now Mr. Kidnapper." Being a brat helped her hang onto the anger, and it was so much better than the fear. Hopefully it wouldn't get her killed.

Reap grinned with half his mouth, the right half, and put his guns away. Then he smiled with his whole mouth and turned to reply to her sass. Just then Fetch hit the radio, and dark metal screams filled the black car. Fetch was looking straight ahead, and Reap shot him a glance and then turned around and had the separating window close again.

When the car finally stopped Leetha stretched, she'd not been able to find a comfortable position in the backseat, or maybe it was she was so tense. The door opened, and she saw Reap holding it. Climbing out of the backseat, she noticed she was still in the bad side of town. Only instead of being in Kansas City Missouri, she was now in Kansas City Kansas. She found herself on the curb of a small two story red brick house. It looked very old, but the yard was tidy.

Fetch head up the walkway and to the steps, and Reap gestured for her to follow. As she took the steps Reap put his large hand on the small of her back to steady her. She shrugged him off. She was scared again, she didn't know what was about to happen.

"What is this place?" she asked. It looked like someones home.

Fetch opened the rusty screen door and knocked. Three little raps with the knuckles of his right hand.

"Ms. Victim, this is where you will be staying for the duration of this little adventure. And you are not to use that smart mouth on Lacey." Leetha was going to ask him who Lacey was when a woman opened the door. She had carrot orange hair, with white streaks, and big painted on red lips. Like most gingers she was very freckled but this was hidden by her thick make up.

"Hurry and get inside,"lacey said briskly.

Reap tried again to "aid" Leetha as she walked through the door, and she quickened her step to get out of reach of his hand. His laugh was weezy. His whole upper body moving with it.

It was a nice little house even if the wallpaper was peeling. Leetha hugged her arms around herself as she looked around. Lacey didn't seem that dangerous. This place didn't look like a slaughterhouse from the movies. What was it they wanted from her? What would bring men with guns to her door?

"Lacey this is Lee,"said Reap. Lacey came over and took Leetha's hand. Leetha thought she was going to shake it, but she just gave it a squeeze instead. Lacey's hands were cold, even though the house was a little warm.

"Lee your room is upstairs. Why don't you go up and get some sleep. It is very late." Lacey smiled warmly.

"My name is Leetha."she said as she started up the stairs. "Please." she added, remembering Reap's warning. She didn't let many people call her Lee. She had let her little brother, when he wasn't able to pronounce her name. And she had let Alan.

"Does this have to do with Alan?,"she turned and asked from halfway up the stairs. It made sense somehow.

"Go to bed!" shouted Reap.

She flinched and finished making it up the stairs, they were covered in navy colored carpet and creaked with every step. Upstairs there were two rooms, a bathroom, and the bedroom she was meant for. The room was a faded blue, very drab, with a single bed, closet and dresser. The was a window, and she walked and looked out and found an empty backyard. Empty except for rose bushes under the window. Thorns if she jumped. The window was nailed shut. It was so small she would barely fit out it if she broke the glass and tried. She might kill herself on the glass getting out. And then what?

She went to the dresser and opened the draws, one by one. They were full of mens clothes, even socks and underwear. Did Lacey have a son? Looked about old enough to have grandkids as well. She felt around inside the drawers looking for secrets, but found nothing there.

Leetha opened the closet. There were more clothes in there. A few shoes. The shoes got her attention and she knelt to see if they would fit her. There was one pair of grey tennis shoes she was pretty sure would fit, they were pretty shredded. But she had no shoes at all, she needed something. Before she stood she noticed scratches on the side of the closet, on the inside. There was only one light in the room, and none in the closet, so she could barely see. She felt with her fingers. It felt like there was a letter R scratched into the wall. Other letters followed but she was too tired from lack of sleep to play the game of figuring them out.

She then went and looked under the bed, no boogy man. It occurred to her that she should check every inch of the room for a weapon or something to help her get out. She kept replaying the night from the moment they grabbed her and wondering what she could have done differently. Was there a way that she could have helped herself get out of this dangerous situation? There had been a few times she could have bolted, but they were armed, and she wasn't sure how quick they would be to shoot her. How valuable was her life? Was she just as good dead? What was the plan?

There was nothing under the mattress either. She laid down on the bed, out of places to explore and stared at the ceiling. She left the light in the room on, it had been on when she'd entered. The dirty bulb didn't offer much light, but she did not want to wake up in darkness here.

It was creepy in this little room, and she had already been afraid. She tried to remember the happiest time she could. The most recent one that came to mind was her birthday. It was just going to be another day for her. She didn't have any family to speak of. Just her little brother, and he never remembered holidays. Her parents had died in a motorcycle accident a few years back, they hadn't been wearing helmets. Other than that she just had one great uncle living in Tulsa. They had never met.

Alan had showed up that day, and she had felt shy about telling him. He had been all over her that day from the moment he stepped in the door. He had wasted no time doing all the little things that drove her crazy. He had actually growled at the knock at the door, Leetha answered it to find Ms. Bishop and the boys, with a basket of apples.

"I remembered you said they were your favorite," smiled Ms Bishop, her blond curls bouncing. She always seemed to talk with her hair.

"Happy Birthday!" cheered the boys, bouncing up and down and running to hug her. They had gotten her one apple of every kind at the store. She thanked them kindly, Ms Bishop had been quick to say goodnight when she saw Alan in the background. She had talked to Ms Bishop about Alan many many times.

Alan had a weird smile on his face when she entered to place the basket on her kitchen counter. He looked like he was in pain. She moved to go to him, but as she watched he pulled out his cell phone and turned it off. She couldn't believe what she was seeing until she heard the swish it made before going dark. She turned to hide the shock on her face.

"So what does the birthday girl want to do?" Alan asked as he walked over and tucked some stay hair behind her ear.

They had folded up the couch and cuddled watching Gone with the Wind. Thirty minutes in Alan fell asleep, holding her there, his hot breath puffing out onto her neck. But she didn't care, he had turned his cell phone off. That dreadful black thing that now sat on her dresser begging to be smashed for once and for all.

Alan had problems with his back, so when the movie finished she woke him and undressed him a bit, and made out the bed for them to lay down. She hadn't thought he'd really woken up through the whole thing, he seemed so groggy. But when the got back in bed he clumsily pulled her close, and told her Happy Birthday ten seconds before he started so snore.

That is what she fell asleep remembering. She awoke to find Fetch standing by the bed staring at her. He didn't look that interested but staring none the less. She jumped back a bit, startled, and hit the wall the bed was against.

"Go away,"she said confused and frightened, it was all coming back to her, being snatched in the middle of the night. These men with guns.

"Come down for breakfast,"he said and turned and left the room.

Not wanting to wear the same clothes again, she looked through the clothes in the drawers guessing if the shoes fit so would the clothes, and they did, barely. The shirt was too big, and the jeans weren't made for a womans curves. The clothes were faded and very worn. But she was grateful for being able to change clothes.

She went downstairs to find the men sitting around a dinner table, they had already started eating, and a plate had been made for her. Scrambled eggs, with bacon and sausage.

"I'd say good morning dear but I'm sure thats the last thing that your thinking today,"Lacey's said then smiled with the big red lips. She pointed at Lacey's place at the table and went back to scrubbing the pan she'd cooked with. Fetch and Reap we're seated, eating, and Reap seemed greatly amused at the site of her.

"No one will ever confuse you for a boy,"Reap said and laughed loudly as his own joke. He pointed at her with his fork to Fetch, but all Fetch cared about was eating.

"You'll eat everything on your plate, don't want to go hurting Lacey's feelings." instructed Reap, talking with food in his mouth. Tucking it in one cheek to have his say.

When Leetha sat the jeans she had borrowed stretched tight through the seat, it was very uncomfortable but she wasn't about to complain. Maybe they were too tired to kill her last night, but we're going to today. Or whatever it was that the had planned, sell her into slavery perhaps? It couldn't be good.

Worrying made it hard for her to eat, it all seemed like tasteless cardboard as she shoveled it into her mouth and mechanically chewed.

"Your hands are never that steady, I'm the one to do it."said Fetch, continuing a conversation they must have had before she entered.

"There's nothing wrong with my hands,"said Reap matter of factly. Fetch's comment seemed to have hit a nerve as he started scraping the plate as he finished the last of his eggs. He was eating aggressively.

She'd eaten everything but her sausage, it was her least favorite breakfast meat. It looked like a burnt hockey puck. She looked at it for a moment preparing to dive in with knife and fork to make it edible. But Fetch reached over and forked it onto his plate, without a word.

Leetha had been given orange juice as well, in a small glass with daisys on it. She finished the juice, Reap had already finished eating but Fetch had quite a bit on his plate still.

"It always takes you forever to eat anything, and now your eating hers as well."said Reap, reaching into his pocket for a cigarette.

"Not in the house," scolded Lacey, who had finished washing and was watching them eating. She went over and patted Fetch on the back. "This one loves his sausage, and you should always chew your food 20 times each bite."

Reap gave Fetch an odd look and laughed, that chuckle that was beginning to become nails on a chalkboard to Leetha. She thought Reap to be such an ass, even without the guns and kidnapping.

Reap was sitting across the table from Leetha. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair, he then began to stare at Leetha. And he didn't stop. At first she looked back at him, expecting something. Then she looked away, uncomfortable. She looked back to find him still looking at her, and she raised her eyebrows in question, he raised his as well. He was mocking her, his eyes twinkled with it. Her lips got tight and she glared at him.

"What??"she demanded, truly pissed at last.

"Done," said Fetch, he put his utensils by the side of the plate, and scooted back his chair. His hands went in the air to as proof of his statement.

"Alrighty then,"said Reap, and he stood and headed toward Leetha. She stood, fear flaring in her chest and she started backing away.

"Whats going on, wait!"she tried to put the chair between her and Reap. But Fetch had risen as well and he had already reached her and was grabbing her by the shoulders. Fear rippled through her and she tried to push Reap away when he came at her, but he was a wall.

"Don't! Stop!" Leetha shrieked. Lacey was clearing dishes off the table like nothing was happening. She started to hum Dance of the Sugar Plum Faeries.

Reap laughed "Don't worry baby, we won't stop." using her words against her cruelly. He grabbed her arm and spun her around roughly, and then bound her wrists with some black rope he already had in pants pocket. He tied her so tight she couldn't move her arms at all. Trying to do so made the rope dig in painfully into her wrists and her shoulders ache.

"Don't do this," she begged Fetch, but he was looking at her blankly, like he was waiting for something.

Reap started running his fingers through her long hair, combing it back from her face.

"Get off me!" she said desperately. It always made her get goose bumpy when someone played with her hair. She tried shaking her head to get him off, when suddenly he was gagging her with some rough black material that made her mouth get dry. She could feel Reap's body heat behind her, he leaned in against her back and put his chin on her shoulder, nuzzling her neck. She could feel his lips moving when he spoke and the stubble from his cheeks.

"This isn't the part you have to worry about."
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So whatcha think? Special thanks to We3_pirate, Egocentric, He who shall not be named, and a random old white woman.