Page 114 of Hide and Seek
It’s rough against my skin, kind of like burlap, and instantly makes the air around my face feel hot and sticky as everything goes pitch-black.
Ohgodohgodohgodohgod.
This can’t be happening. Not again.
More hands grab me, then I’m being dragged across the floor. My feet are trailing behind me, and I desperately kick and twist.
I don’t manage to get free, but my feet catch on random things as they keep dragging me. They have me by the arms, and I reach out blindly with my hands to try and grab something, anything I can to leave a trail or some sort of evidence of what happened.
“Never let them take you to a secondary location. Fight dirty and do whatever you can to get away.” I can hear Jax's voice in my head as my brain repeats one of the lessons he gave me when he was teaching me how to use my new knives. “If you can’t get away, then be the biggest pain in the ass that you can. Make a mess, leave a trail, scratch and bite and spit to get theirDNA on you and yours on them. Do whatever you can because your chances of surviving go down exponentially if they take you somewhere else.”
I might not be able to get away, and I have no idea if the mess I’m making will be helpful at all, but I can be a giant pain in their collective asses and make them regret kidnapping me. Or at least make it harder for them to get me out of the building.
The gag and sack over my head make it impossible to scream, even if I wasn’t winded, and a sharp hit to my temple momentarily knocks me senseless as the weirdest sensation fills my head. Like a blast of cold, followed by blinding pain that makes lights dance and flash in front of my eyes through the dark of the sack.
The entire world seems to phase in and out a few times, and when my head finally clears and I’m able to think again, I can feel the rhythmic thud of my feet sliding off steps and landing on the one below as my attackers carry me down the stairs.
All too soon, there’s the slamming of the back door being thrown open, then the cool bite of the night air as it moves over my exposed skin.
I want to fight and do all the things I’m supposed to do, but my head is pounding and I can barely think straight as they pause long enough to get me on my feet and frog-march me across the grass.
I fall into step with them so I can try to come up with a plan without them roughing me up again. I’m pretty sure the hit to my head just stunned me and didn’t give me a concussion or anything, but another would scramble my brain and then I’d be completely at their mercy.
A strange sense of calm settles over me, and all the static and noise that was making it impossible to fully take in the situation fades as my sense of self-preservation kicks in.
I might not be able to see the guys who have me, but I can hear and feel them. From what I can tell, there’s one on either side of me, their grips on my arms strong and tight. Another is behind me and holding my arms behind my back. The fourth is in front of me, leading the way, and I can’t be sure, but it sounds like there’s at least one other walking with us.
There’s no way in hell I can fight my way out of this. Even if they weren’t wearing all that gear, including what looked like bulletproof vests, I’d be no match for even one of them on my best day, let alone a whole crowd when I’m gagged and blindfolded.
My only chance to escape is to outsmart them, and I can do that by lulling them into a false sense of security by obeying and doing exactly what they say.
That was a piece of advice Jace gave me when he was teaching me how to use the taser and pepper spray. He said they’d assume I was obeying out of fear, and that would make them more likely to drop their guard and make a mistake that I could exploit and use to escape.
The biggest advantage I have right now is that my hands are free. Being as covert as I can, I interlock my fingers to make sure I don’t move my hands too much and remind them they didn’t tie them together.
We walk for a few minutes like that, and even though I can’t see anything and have no idea where we are or which way we’re heading, I know something is wrong because I can’t hear anyone walking around. It’s Friday night, and the paths and roads should be packed with students, but I can’t hear anyone at all, not in our immediate vicinity, and not in the distance.
The group stops with no warning, and I crash into the guy in front of me. They obviously weren’t expecting that, and I get bobbled around as they simultaneously try to stop me and pull me back. But since everyone is tugging me in a differentdirection, I just end up smashing into all of them over and over again like I’m the potato in a game of hot potato.
In the confusion, whoever is behind me lets go of my arms and grabs my shoulders to steady me. The one holding my left arm also lets go and grabs my waist, but before he can get a good grip, I yank my right arm as hard as I can and throw myself to the side, using my body weight for extra momentum to break his grip on me.
My arm slips free of his grasp, and I use their confusion to pull off my hood and look around to try and orient myself.
It’s darker than I thought it would be, but I don’t waste a single second and dart between two of them as they grab at me. As soon as I’m free of their little circle, I take off toward the woods and run right through the tree line. The steady thud of footsteps pounding on the ground behind me rings out in the nearly silent night as my captors chase me into the woods.
25
JAX
“Well, that was fun.”Jace tosses his bag on his bed and rolls his neck in that way he does when he’s pissed.
“Yeah,” I agree and drop my bag on the floor beside my bed.
We got notice from our dad that he wanted us to come home for the weekend and help him with some business. He didn’t say what it was, just that it was a good learning opportunity for us.
We were already in the air when we got the message that he had to cancel because he and our uncles had to leave town to deal with someone, and the jet was forced to turn around and bring us back to school.
It’s not the first time something like this has happened, but it would be nice to have gotten the message before we wasted half of our day.
