callmeemily | Morning of June 21, 2014 [TW: VIOLENCE, KIDNAPPING, TORTURE]

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Morning of June 21, 2014 [TW: VIOLENCE, KIDNAPPING, TORTURE]

Trigger Warning: This thread contains violence, kidnapping, and torture. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to tweet @thestarsplay for clarification. Thanks!

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The beeping of her alarm's incessant - it's got to be to get her out of bed at 3:30am, and that's after it's also gone off at 3:00. Groping to silence it, Raleigh's entirely blurry as she yawns, rubbing a hand over her face.

It's taken a lot to get used to waking up this early; it comes part and parcel with working at a bakery, and even if makes her miserable she's got a job and she really does need it - and honestly, she likes what she's doing. Maybe she's not all that fond of where she works, but she feels like she's found her calling with the bakery thing. It'd been a hobby, but now...

She loves it. Getting ready is minimal on purpose; she showers before bed, so now it's just pulling on jeans and a t-shirt, hobbling until the muscle in her leg finally gives up on it's mission to make her life suck. She pulls her hair back in a ponytail and brushes her teeth, trying to be quiet so she wouldn't wake the other people in the boarding house. It's a delicate situation, that she's got as much of a right as anyone else to be there, but she doesn't want to be the dick that's banging shit at 3:45.

It's 3:50 when she slips out the front door, her hands shoved in the front of her hoodie and her sneakers crunch on the rock driveway as she looks out at the green of pre-dawn and the birds start to sing incessantly loud. It's a little magical (as much as she hates using the descriptor now that she knows about the town a little) with the way it is in the morning, everything untouched and not a soul to be seen. You could almost taste the dew in the air when you inhale, and Raleigh smiles, for all that it's not even 4am.

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The early morning was such a beautiful time. It was quiet and not a lot of people were out. All the late night party people had passed out somewhere and the early risers hadn't quite yet gotten up. It was the perfect time for hunting.

Joseph smiled to himself as he walked along the streets. Sometimes it was just so easy, sometimes people made it so easy. Routines were a blessing to someone like him and early morning routines more so.

Take the lovely girl at the bakery, always there so early in the morning to get things started so that even the early risers had fresh pastries. All by herself, every morning that week, there at the bakery without fail.

So very kind of her. Halfway between where the girl lived and where she worked was a side street that was dark and quiet, between two stores that wouldn't open for hours. Joseph waiting patiently for the girl to walk by.

"Excuse me?" he called out, voice and expression confused at the mouth of the alley. He had a tattered old robe on and shuffled about aimlessly, a frail, confused old man. "Hello, is anyone there?"

Raleigh whirled when she heard someone call out. Her first thought wasn't for her own safety - after all, who would be out this early? Even the couple of weird guys that just hung around town were asleep when she was on her way. She took a few steps towards the alley, her eyes widening even more when she saw the old man.

"Sir? Are you alright?" He looked... lost. She couldn't remember ever seeing him before, and he must have been someone's father or grandfather, maybe too old to know where he was. "Do you need to get home?"

That's right, he was just a harmless old man, no need for the young girl to be concerned for her safety. He was confused and needed help, if you left him alone right now there was no telling what would happen.

"I- I don't remember where I am," he said, squinting at the girl before looking around again. "I'm looking for my son William, he's coming home from the war today you know. I just have to find his letter, I think it's around here somewhere but I'm afraid I'm having trouble seeing."

Oh, god.

The war. "Oh. Oh, goodness. What's William's last name? I can help." She doesn't know if she can, and she actually looks back over her shoulder because she's going to be late to work and her boss has one of those stupid punch-in machine things that records the time she gets in, but....

She's pretty sure there's no letter, but if she could figure out what house he was supposed to be in, then maybe she'd be able to help. Moving closer, Raleigh forces a small smile, trying to be comforting instead of letting herself look as concerned as she felt. "I'm Emily. I can help you find home, okay? Sometimes, we all forget where we are, it's okay."

"Thank you, I'm sure the letter is just back here," he mumbled, turning around a few times before he started to slowly shuffle back into the alley. They didn't need to go far, just a short ways and they would be out of sight of anyone who might come by.

"Emily is a pretty name. You should meet my son William. Just back from Vietnam, he would probably love to meet a pretty girl like you."

"No, no-" She's following him, not because she's helping him find the letter, but because she wants to try and catch his arm, to lead him back to the town center. "What's William's full name? I can help you get home. What's your name?" The compliment just sort of slides off, and Raleigh's unfortunately not much faster than he is, because it's too early for her to have warm muscles in her leg yet so she's not as steady as she'd be in about an hour.

"Do you know your address? We're in Siren's Cove."

"It's right around here somewhere," he said, ignoring the girl's pleas as he stepped just a bit faster to avoid her catching his arm. They weren't quite deep enough into the alley and he didn't want to risk being seen. Just a bit more and- THERE!

Strong arms wrapped around the girl from behind while a hand clamped over her mouth, muffling any screams she might have. If she screamed they would have to kill her and then they would have to find someone else to take and they just didn't have the time to do that. So for expediencies sake, Joseph hoped that they didn't have to kill her.

The scraping of her sneakers on the ground and the muffled sound of her scream - it wasn't loud, because she'd not had a lungful of air to expend. Raleigh struggled, trying to kick backwards, trying to claw at the hand over her mouth but at this point her feet weren't on the ground and while she managed to catch the arm with her nails, it didn't do any good. It was an explosion of activity until she realised that there was nothing she could do. The person holding her didn't seem to care, she couldn't see them - and the things she did, they didn't hurt him enough to let her go.

She was terrified, and when she had no purchase on the ground and she couldn't move she just stared at Joseph, the muffled sounds of panic still muffled as she tried to look around her.

She shoved her hand into the front pocket of her hoodie, mashing buttons on her phone in the hopes that it would call someone - anyone - it's a cheap flip phone that's got actual buttons, and it's all she can think of, her mind frantically whirling in fear.

She should have saved it. She should have saved her phone, kept it hidden, maybe, but she can't even think that far.

The instant the girl was restrained, Joseph straightened, all traces of the doddering old man gone. His eyes were bright and alert, taking in her situation, evaluating and assessing. It was the foolishness of the young that allowed them to think the old were harmless. Even without his companion Joseph was hardly harmless.

"If you use that phone you're so valiantly struggling to dial, we will kill you," he said, taking off his glasses to polish them clean before resting them back on his nose. "My companion will snap your neck. He's quite good at it, although there's always the chance you won't die. You'd be merely paralyzed from the neck down. Unable to eat or drink on your own. Needing someone to help you go to the bathroom. Entirely dependent on the kindness of strangers and the efficiency of machines to keep you alive. Oh yes, we've been watching you long enough to know that you have no deep roots here, no one that would be willing to put up with the burden you would become on the off chance you live. So the choice is yours."

She stared at him in horror, tears streaking down her face as she watched him change - he stood up straight, he was clearly not the senile old man she'd assumed.

Never had she regretted so much that innate gut feeling that said help people that she'd always had. Never. She made a small, panicked noise when he talked about snapping her neck - that, too, was muffled by the hand over her mouth. The crack of her phone falling to the pavement was the only other sound as she didn't even hesitate, pulling her hand from her hoodie and letting the plastic just fall from her fingers.

Clearly, she'd made her choice.

She should have been more careful. She never should have told Jason, should have found some way to leave when she realised that Aoife was in town. Somehow, who she was got out, and this is what happened. This is what happened, and for one insane moment she wondered if anybody would even realise that she was gone, if they'd even look for her or just assume she must have left town. She stared at him, tears in her eyes as she just waited. Waited to hear what he was going to do to her, or take her - the only thing she knew was that he wasn't going to kill her here, because otherwise he would have done it already.

"A wise choice," Joseph said, reaching down to pick up the phone. It seemed as if she had managed to text someone, though by her reaction to the threat it had perhaps been an accident. Either way, the text was gibberish. Scrolling through the phone he read a few of her messages, paying attention to abbreviations and shorthand she used, before sending an apology text to whoever she had reached out to.

Then he flipped the phone over and removed the battery. If the battery wasn't completely out they could still trace the location. They always said you couldn't teach an old dog new tricks, but Joseph wasn't an old dog. Joseph was an old wolf, a hunter, and hunters adapted to their prey.

Without saying another word, Joseph walked to the other end of the alley. His partner carried the girl along until they came to a nondescript van. Joseph opened the door and his partner carried the girl inside. The entire thing took hardly any time at all and he was certain that no one noticed.

Once inside the van, his partner made quick work of duct taping the girl's mouth, hands and legs. Hands bound securely at the wrists, behind the back, and legs at the ankles. The efficiency at which it was all done made Joseph rather proud.

"Now, I'm sure you have questions," Joseph said as he started the van and began driving toward his hotel on the edge of town. "I promise that you will receive no answers. This is not like in the movies. There will be no faking a bathroom break to escape. Your comfort is entirely immaterial to me. If you do not do as I say, there will be consequences. Nod once if you understand."

She wished now, more than ever before, that she wasn't just human. She has no magic; she had nothing that she could do. She watched as he scrolled through her phone, as he texted someone - she doesn't realise she'd managed to even get a text out, just that he pressed a bunch of buttons and then took the battery out of the phone, and she could feel her heart sink even more, tears streaking her cheeks and the back of the hand of the guy who held her.

She was carried to the van and she wasn't struggling because she knew - she knew that the threat about the man carrying her snapping her neck was real. The moment that the man's hand left her mouth she tried to talk, to plead with him. "Please, I didn't do an-" And then her mouth was covered in duct tape, and all the only sound she could make was a low sob as she tried to curl herself up into a ball, nodding when he said he'd hurt her. He'd hurt her, and no one would know. No one would even know she was gone.

It's her worst nightmare. What's happening, it's her worst nightmare. No one will ever know. She'll just be gone. She's just gone.

They pulled up to the motel and parked around back, their rooms on the back of the first floor. Joseph's partner unceremoniously stuffing the girl into a large gym bag before they got out of the van, making sure that she was out of site as they carried her into the hotel room. Once inside she was pulled out of the bag again and carried to the bathroom.

Joseph had stripped the bathroom of anything that could be removed. There was no shower curtain or pole, not even the toilet seat or lid was there. All of it was gone. Not that the cheap motel room had much to begin with.

Pulling out a knife, Joseph cut the tape that held her wrists. A moment later his partner snapped handcuffs on her and looped a chain through them before fastening it around the base of the toiler. It would give her just enough to move around in the small bathroom but only barely.

"Now this next part will be unpleasant, but necessary," Joseph told her as his partner clamped his hands around her ankles, dragging her into the shower before holding her still. Joseph removed her foot and sock then pressed the blade to the heel of her foot. "Unpleasant for you, I should say. This will ensure that even if you get away, you will have difficulty getting very far."

Turning his attention back to her foot, he ran the blade from her heel up to her toes. The cut was deep, but not dangerously so. It would, however, be incredibly painful to walk on.

She tried to scramble back from the knife. That probably was the wrong idea - the rest of it, she'd been in too much shock to struggle, but the knife- that made her make panicked, high-pitched noises as she tried to push back into the person holding her, to kick out, to do something.

The scream of pain that followed was muffled by the duct tape, and she unfortunately didn't pass out. It would have been a gift, to pass out from the pain. Instead she sobbed, her vision blurry as the floor of the shower slowly turned red. He'd sliced into the foot on her bad leg - the tenseness of her muscles made the pain that was always there treble, and she tried to pull away, to curl up in the smallest ball she could.

The kicking always made things worse, he could get a much cleaner line otherwise, but it didn't really matter other than Joseph took pride in his steady hand. He carefully wrapped a bandage around the foot while his partner held her leg still. She'd likely have deep bruising around her ankle and lower leg but that hardly mattered. She would be dead before it fully healed.

"Now, I'm not sure if you're familiar with magic or not," he said as he stood up and turned the shower on. The water was freezing which would help further the shock but what he really cared about was washing the blood away. Later they would clean the room with bleach before they burned the motel down, just to be safe.

"You're welcome to scream as much as you want, the bathroom is sound proofed with spells so you needn't fear disturbing my sleep. You'll be one meal and are obviously free to use the facilities here as you wish. Fortunately for you, you'll only be in captivity for one day since the ritual will take place tomorrow."

Joseph gave a nod of his head and his partner ripped the tape from the girl's mouth. She would cry and plead now, most likely, but it didn't matter. He had everything he needed now.

The water was freezing cold and she was soaked in a matter of seconds. Staring up at him, she listened to what he was saying even though it was far away, even though his voice sounded weird and small and far away and she knew why. She knew how shock worked, she knew from when she'd broken her leg so badly and had been trapped in that basement.

His partner ripped off the tape and she cried out in pain, but she stared up at him. "Why? Why bring me here? Why- What did I do-" She was crying, because she knew - she knew that no one would find her. The only reason anybody'd been able to find Spencer was because Joel already knew about Mark.

"What did I do wrong?" Her voice cracked as she cried, and her foot felt like it was on fire, the wet bandage already starting to slowly stain red from the water wicking the blood. "What did I do!?"

"I'm sure when you think about it hard enough, you'll know what it was you did."

She had, of course, done nothing wrong other than be convenient and someone that wouldn't be missed. That was all there was too it, Joseph wasn't punishing the unrighteous or anything like that. If she thought she had done something wrong though, let her go with that. Perhaps eventually she would think of something and accept her fate. It made little difference to him.

"You can take solace in the fact that despite what you did, neither my partner or I have any interest in... violating you. And as I said, your stay with us will be fairly short."

"I didn't do anything! I didn't- They started following me, I didn't-" She was pleading now, and she was trying to get out, out of the shower, out of the room, out of somewhere because she'd die in here, she'd die in a motel bathroom and that's when he says that he doesn't plan on violating her and it's so absurd that she laughs.

She laughs, a half-hysterical sound, because 'the ritual' was tomorrow, because when that happens, whenever the ritual happens - oh good. Oh, good. "What's the ritual. What's going to happen? What're you going to do?" She knows the answer, she knows it, but she's got to ask.

"You know what you did," he repeated, more sure this time. It was amusing to him that someone was supposedly following her and here Joseph and his partner had gotten to her first. Well, that just proved that the universe had a sense of humor.

"It's short but painful," he said, not mincing words. Lying to her wouldn't help. Neither would the truth, but the truth was simple to give in this case. "You'll be ensuring that I live just a little bit longer, dear."

"I didn't do anything." She said it again, but this time she sounds defeated, her shoulders hunched. "I'm assuming I'm dead by the end of it." The words are oddly flat, and she's glaring up at him, her skin pale white as she's started to uncontrollably shiver. It's the pain, the cold, the wet.

She's going to find some way to get out of here. She has to. He says there's no sneaking out, but she's wondering about the chain already, if she can get her hands out of it, if she can do something because she's got to do something. Because otherwise she'll die in here, and no one will know.

That's always been the sticking point for her, ever since the basement. Ever since she was so sure she would die, deep in the ground, in the dark. That no one would ever find her, and she'd forever just be a missing person - but when you got old enough, people stopped assuming that you were missing. Adults didn't go missing. They left, and so they'd just think you moved on.

"Why don't you just fucking give it up and die?" That's a wish. That's a wish that he'd just keel over and die, although she'd still be chained here. She looks over at the guy who's grabbed her, and her eyes are shiny with more tears. "And you? What do you get? I'm twenty-two. I haven't even lived yet, and great, you're helping him-"

That's when she starts to cry again, when she stops talking and just curls up as far away from them both as she can. The moment of clarity is gone, and all she wants to do is hide. To protect herself, the way a wounded animal would.

"Because I don't want to die," Joseph added simply, even as she began to cry. His partner said nothing. He was a great, hulking beast of a man, sometimes looking more beast than man. His partner said nothing unless Joseph allowed it, and he never allowed it.

"I don't want to die and I'm willing to fight for it harder than most, that's all. A young girl that no one would miss walking alone before the sun is up... perhaps you should have valued your own life more."

With that Joseph turned off the light, left the bathroom, and locked the door.

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Morning of June 21, 2014 [TW: VIOLENCE, KIDNAPPING, TORTURE]

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