Who: Jenny & NPCs. What: Taken from her bed after the power outage, Jenny wakes up somewhere strange. When: Post-Blackout. Where: ??? [Somewhere in the Eclipse] Warnings: Violence, seizures, blood, amateur dentistry, Jenny's bare boobies.
With how she had just spent the last few hours, Jenny was looking forward to nothing more than settling into bed once she arrived back in her room. Things in the elevator had quickly gone from bad to worse, between the attitudes of her fellow stranded guests and the smell of vomit that had been undeniable for the last couple of hours of their entrapment. She could only be positive for so long, especially given their circumstance, and the fact that nobody else had seemed interested in trying to think positive. After the incredibly rude Russian man had snapped at her for trying to look for an escape hatch and Marcus had dropped her to the ground, Jenny had mostly stood and waited impatiently like everyone else, an irritated pout on her face in the darkness.
At least she had tried something, not just grumbled and drank from the back row, putting other people down for making an effort.
She had been glad to be out of there and free of the other people inside, relief had washed over her as soon as the elevator had opened, though for a second the sound of it grinding back into life had made her think the cables were letting go or something instead. Jenny felt much better once they were actually back on a solid floor.
Marcus, who had been more than a liberal in the placement of his hands during their reach for the elevator ceiling, had not so subtly offered to come back to her room with her as they left the elevator, which she had politely denied with a little smile. She was married, after all, and she wasn’t stupid enough to not realize what he kept insinuating; as much as she didn’t want to be all alone on a dark and stormy night. She missed her husband and son during the storm more than anything else, and shacking up with large men who had copped a feel in the elevator wouldn’t fix that. His hands had felt rough, an admitted turn-on, but she was glad to go her separate way in the direction of her room on the third floor.
Her key was in her purse, which she dug out, only sighing slightly as she caught sight of her cracked phone again. It was going to cost a fortune to get that stupid thing fixed, she thought, as she turned the key in her lock and made her way into the dark hotel room. She didn’t even bother to make a grope for the dead light switch, just heading inside and dropping her purse by the bathroom door, already beginning to pull her shirt off to change for bed. She had planned on feeling like reading when she came back to her room earlier, but now it felt too late for any of that, and reading by flashlight always gave her a headache.
With the hall light out, the only ambient lighting around Jenny was from outside; provided very thoughtfully by the occasional stroke of lightning. The window curtains had been left open by the maid service, and the bed had been made earlier that day. Although many of the windows in the Eclipse had been shuttered or taped to protect them from the impending onslaught of weather, this room’s window had been left untouched. Nothing else had been moved while she’d been out, and none of the shadows indicated that someone might be watching, waiting for her to come back. This was largely because nobody was, at that moment. It wasn’t until two hours later that the panel in the wall of room 313 opened and two large figures slipped into Jenny’s room. Asleep, she wasn’t difficult to hold down. A damp, acrid-smelling cloth over the mouth and nose for a couple of minutes would keep her asleep. It was all done quickly, with practiced ease.
Hours later, Jenny would come to with an aching head and an intense, throbbing pain in her mouth. Her quarters were cramped. It seemed to be a box with just enough room to curl or sit up in, but not to stand or stretch out. All four sides were smooth, and hard as stone. The elevator had offered more give. It was pitch black in the box, but there was an edge of very faint light along one side. The dimensions provided by the light looked to be between two and three feet in width. Definitely much smaller than the elevator had been. There was a warm humidity in the air, as well, and a distinctly chemical smell. Someone had recently done quite a bit bleaching on the other side of that crack of light.
Jenny was disoriented, to say the least, when she came to in her enclosure. She very nearly hit her head on the top of the box when she sat up, very slowly, from the crumpled pile she had been curled into upon waking. Pain in her head was the first thing she noticed, even before where she was. Her whole head seemed to throb in time with her heartbeat, a pain she hadn’t ever felt before. When she had been younger, braces had been a pain, but having her braces tightened didn’t hold half a candle to the pain deep in her jaw right then. It was hard to even focus beyond it, but the more Jenny did focus, slowly coming around and realizing what was going on, the more panicked she became.
The intense smell of bleach seemed to fill the whole tiny space around her, and the smell was starting to turn her stomach. It was worse than the smell of vomit from the night before, although the memory of that didn’t do her any favors either. Sick stomach and an agonized jaw didn’t make for a happy Jenny in any circumstance, but realizing that she was trapped was worse. Why was she trapped? Last she remembered, she had climbed into bed, set her phone on the nightstand, and then.. well, she fell asleep, as far as she knew. This wasn’t right. She immediately extended both arms out, though they didn’t get far, she couldn’t even stretch them all of the way; she felt all around her, feeling out the walls of the box, her fingers moving over the smooth walls.
Even though it was warm (she was sweating a little), she was shaking all over. Staying calm and staying positive were her usual answers to anything, but keeping a clear head was proving to be harder in real life than it was ideally. Her fingers groped along the tiny slit of light, but to no avail. Jenny took a deep breath, exhaling shakily, and scooting herself as far back against one side of the box as she could get, struggling to pull her knees up in a comfortable way. She couldn’t see herself very well to tell, but she seemed to be dressed exactly the same as when she had fallen asleep in; a pair of Charlie’s flannel pajama pants, the string waistband tied tightly to stay up on her hips. Topless, and chilled even with her knees pulled up, her bare back pressed against the wall of the box.
She had been avoiding it, but she was trapped without a way out for at least the time being, and she knew that she couldn’t avoid it forever. Something was seriously wrong in her mouth, deeper than just the pain, which in itself was making it hard to think about anything else, even escape. Jenny’s fingers moved over the outside of her cheek, which felt incredibly swollen, but also.. numb, even as she dug her nails in slightly. It only caused her more pain on the other side of the cheek, inside of her mouth. She dreaded to do it, and in her heart of hearts, she knew what was waiting for her in there even before she carefully reached a trembling finger into her mouth. The pain when she touched her gums was immediate, and she didn’t need any better light to see that the finger came back bloody as soon as she jerked it away. The blonde let out a watery little whimper, turning her head and gagging, trying to get a hold of herself.
Nothing, there wasn’t a thing there, not a single tooth. Realizing it, feeling it out blindly even now with her tongue, made it reality and it seemed to intensify her pain even more. She didn’t know where she was, or why, and someone had done something awful to her. All of a sudden, she realized how much her mouth tasted like blood, and her already queasy stomach threatened to revolt.
Sometime later, there was a soft noise at the panel, which opened into a blinding amount of fluorescent light. Three figures, backlit so that their faces were in shadow, stood staring inside at her. The one in the center was the smallest by far; a woman, whose hair was a silvery gray halo around her face in the light. Her voice marked her age, as well. There was a tremor in it, soft and inviting. A grandmother’s voice. “Hello, dear. I’m glad to see you’re awake. You had a bit of very bad luck, and I know it. But you can come out of there now, if you’re quiet about it. Moving’s gonna hurt a lot, so take it slow. You’ve been in there all night.”
The woman then stepped back a little, to give Jenny some room to start coming out. Once she did, the light illuminated her features, revealing her appearance to be every bit as grandmotherly as her voice. A soft, kind face. All warmth and cheer, which was greatly at odds with both the burly men standing on either side of the entryway and Jenny’s situation. The opening was higher up than expected, almost waist height on the men, which meant Jenny would have to reposition herself and carefully get down to get out of the box. After being curled for so many hours, it would be painful, but also probably a relief to stretch her legs.
There wasn’t much chance of her being able to run, weakened as she was from the overnight in cramped quarters as well as the drugs, but that was why the two large men were there. Poised. Watching her every move.
Jenny’s eyes revolted as soon as the light invaded her space, squinting tightly shut against the assault of the fluorescents in the room. Even squinting her eyes shut caused pain in her cheek, making her whimper again as she tried to adjust to the sudden brightness and get a better look at the three figures peering at her. She stayed back, close against the wall, observing all of them cautiously as the woman spoke. Her knees stayed up, covering her bare chest, her knee jerk reaction of modesty being a hard one to fight. She didn’t want them to see her, although they undoubtedly already had, if they had brought her here. She opened her mouth to say something, but it hurt terribly and she quickly stopped. Her throat felt dry anyway, and she had her doubts that she’d be able to find her voice.
This was bad, no doubt about it, and her mind was sluggish with pain but it was trying to catch up with everything, formulate a plan. She had to get out of here now, she had to get home, she needed to get out of this room but that wasn’t looking like a viable option. She wouldn’t get past either of those men, not more than a few steps, if that. They were right, she could already tell, that it was going to hurt like hell once she moved out of her enclosure. She didn’t stand a chance in hell of hitting the ground running, especially with the throb in her head. She wanted to stretch her legs, but she didn’t move right away, staying back, watching them all right back.
Everything she had ever been taught about abduction was to make a ruckus, don’t go along with your attacker, get noticed.. but that wasn’t going to work here. Who would hear her? She couldn’t do anything risky. All night, she had been in there all night. What time was it now? Her entire grip on time was lost, she wasn’t wearing her watch, and they weren’t keeping her anywhere that she could judge by daylight, that much looked clear from what she could see from sitting still inside of the box.
Her body felt as sluggish as her brain, and sure enough, her muscles screamed in protest just as soon as the blonde began slowly moving toward the edge of her enclosure, her gaze still focused on all three of her captor, her expression hard although her blue eyes were watery. She focused on the woman especially, unease gripping her. She was old, probably no more than ten years older than her own mother, who was no spring chicken herself. And though this woman’s face had the same softness, a seemingly kindly old woman, it wasn’t the same. It was only natural, given her situation, but Jenny didn’t trust her. Being called ‘dear’ wasn’t going to win her over.
She hesitated when it came to actually getting down, not to mention exposing herself if she put her knees down, but she managed, wincing visibly all the while she moved. She didn’t want to show her weakness though, she couldn’t break down. “I.. I need my medication, you can’t keep me here,” the blonde finally managed to get out, though it was weak, her voice incredibly raspy and her words thick from her swollen mouth. She doubted, given her current predicament, that these were the kind of people who cared. But it was both true and worth a try. Where had they come from? Were they staff? That didn’t make any sense.
The words were muddied, the hard consonants considerably softened. Without teeth, pronunciation of many sounds suffered, but the old woman seemed to understand her. Kind eyes became icy, narrowing as they fixed on the larger of the two men. “Medication? We can’t keep her if she’s on medication. Vic, you fucking idiot.”
“Hey, I didn’t know! Kenny picked this bitch out. He was gonna go for the fucking actress.”
“Oh, God.” The woman sighed, and squeezed the bridge of her nose for a moment as if to ward off a headache. “This wouldn’t have happened if Alan hadn’t been stabbed by that goddamn junkie.”
“Yeah, no shit.” The largest man sounded irate. His partner stayed silent.
When the woman looked back at Jenny, her expression was apologetic. “I’m sorry, sweetie, you’re right. There’s been a mistake. Our boy Kenny... he is trying, but he’s still young. Partial to blondes, and not very bright. You shouldn’t have been touched at all.”
Her medication did throw a wrench into their plan, Jenny had that much. She honestly hadn’t been expecting them to care, it was a shot in the dark, but it was clear that the woman was unimpressed by the news. They didn’t ask her any details though. And it really didn’t make her feel much better. She wasn’t sure if the woman being angrier necessarily worked in her favor, and the ache in her face and jaw was impossible to ignore. Kindly features or not, they had done this to her, and she wanted to know why.
She watched the exchange between the woman and her burly companions, the blonde’s arms crossing over her chest automatically. Though the room still had that clammy humidity to it, Jenny still felt chilled, felt the need to wrap her arms around herself and cover herself and her dignity, especially when the old woman returned the attention her way. She saw the apologetic look, heard her gentle words, but didn’t buy it. The smell of bleach was still assaulting her nose, and that combined with the taste of blood invading her mouth, Jenny almost retched before she actually spoke up.
“T-There’s been a big mistake, you can’t do this to people,” Jenny replied, wincing as she spoke and having to take a moment to give her jaw a break before she went on, almost like she was breathless as she struggled with her words. “I’m epileptic, I need my pills,” she said, although they still hadn’t asked what was wrong with her. If mentioning the pills had worked in her favor, maybe oversharing more could help. She was pretty sure she had read that somewhere before; telling kidnappers or attackers details about yourself made them feel guilty, it was supposed to humanize their victims to them, to make their crime harder for them to rationalize. She kept going, despite the agonizing pain in her face. “I have a son,” she tried.
She didn’t know who Kenny was, or why he wanted her, but she wished more than ever that she had just stayed home and never went traveling on her own. This woman was right though, she never should have been touched. This was all wrong. She was afraid for her life, still unsure what to do, what she could possibly do, but some things didn’t change; Jenny wanted answers, like she always did. “Why? What did I do?” she asked after a moment, although from the way it sounded, she hadn’t done anything but be attractive to whoever Kenny was, and be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Answers didn’t seem to be forthcoming on that front. The older woman was fixated on something else Jenny had said, and completely ignored the question about what it was Jenny had done. It was obvious that the blonde had done nothing specific, and there was no reason to harp on that point. “A son?” Eyes widened a bit, and then softened in genuine warmth. “Oh, how lovely. Is he young? You don’t need to answer that, dear. Look at you. He must be. I bet he’s your whole world... that you’d do anything for him. You must love him so much it kills you sometimes. I know how that is. I have sons, too. Two of them work here. You might have met them. They’re sweet boys. Good boys.”
A fond, wistful expression flickered across the older woman’s face as she continued. Seemingly mindless of Jenny, and certainly not paying attention to the two large men, who had moved to stand on either side of the blonde, like bookends. “I had a daughter, too. A baby girl. She was so pretty... so perfect. Not blonde, like you are, dear. She had dark hair, like my boys. Like I used to, once upon a time.” She chuckled at that, but then her face fell, looking pained. Sad. “She shouldn’t have been touched, either.”
Jenny had nodded immediately in agreement with having a son, even though the motion hurt her head. She had a son, he was home waiting for her, and she had to get back to him. But she was in a tight bind, one that she still didn’t know how to get out of. She would have stood a chance if she weren’t in so much pain, her legs still stiff and sore, her head throbbing in an incredibly distracting way. Everything about sudden change of tune as their subject matter switched, the warmth on the older woman’s face, unnerved Jenny. It made her worry more about getting back to her own son, to seeing Chase again. She should have tried to call them again, she shouldn’t have waited for Charlie to call her, she should have called them and talked to them as much as she could have when she had the chance.
She had promised, though it had been a promise she couldn’t have kept even if she wasn’t in this room, to be home in just a couple of days. They’d be waiting for her, she wouldn’t keep them waiting. She wouldn’t be late without calling. They would look for her.. but what good would it do? Two days was a long time away, and that was if Charlie immediately assumed the worst. He was always telling her she did that, that she worried too much. He wouldn’t react like she would, but she needed him to. She needed him to be there right now, like he had always been. Charlie had always protected her, but he couldn’t do much for her now. Listening to the woman talk about her children immediately got Jenny riled up, and choked up, her eyes welling with tears that weren’t from pain for the first time since she had woken up.
“H-He is, he’s perfect,” she answered automatically, words still muddled. She had to try, even though the woman didn’t seem to really be paying attention to her concerns or her worries about her son. Both of them seemed individually more invested in their own children, and the older woman was right about her, bang on. Jenny did love him, he was her whole world, and she couldn’t deal with the idea of never seeing him again. What was he going to do? He couldn’t grow up without his mother. That alone was killing her. Who were these people to do this to her, to take her away from her son, even for a little while? Her jaw hurt even more once she started crying, weak sobs making her shake, her eyes squinting shut briefly. She wanted to be strong, but thinking about Chase at home waiting for her got her worked up, she couldn’t help herself. “He’s just ten y-years old, please. He needs his mom.”
Jenny, unlike the woman, was paying full attention to the large men sidling up on either side of her. Even as she pleaded with the woman, her bleary eyes were on both of them. She had a feeling that her time, the time for talking, was running short. If she was going to get out of this, she was going to have to talk fast, and her aching face and slurred words weren’t exactly working in her favor. She listened to the woman talk about her daughter, sniffling periodically, and reaching up to wipe some of the tears from her swollen cheeks. “W-What happened to your daughter?” she chanced, in an even weaker voice, barely a whisper as she watched the woman’s sad expression with a cautious one of her own. She swallowed thickly, before voicing something else she had been wondering. Something she couldn’t figure any reason for, beyond sick torture. “And my.. where are my teeth? Why did you take my teeth?”
Her question about the daughter went ignored, trumped by the more relevant question of why they’d removed Jenny’s teeth. The old woman shook her head, and offered the blonde a smile. “Oh, that,” she said casually, in the same tone of voice she’d use to address a choice of outfit or paint color. “That’s just to make it easier on the boys. We took them out so you wouldn’t bite.”
It was a simple explanation, matter-of-fact. If there was one thing that could be certain, it was that girls with teeth tended to bite. “It’s nothing personal, dear,” the old woman went on to say. “We need a ghost, and the boys need a distraction in the off-season. Well, every season’s the off-season nowadays, but you understand.”
It was a matter of fact that, no, she didn’t really understand. It was an obvious answer and it completely made sense, anyone would bite in a struggle if they had to, why not just pull her fingernails out while they were at it so that she couldn’t scratch their eyes out? She would like to. But whatever it all meant, whatever their plan was, most importantly, it meant that they planned to put her in a situation where she would need to defend herself. Where she would be struggling, where they expected her to bite of all things. Her eyes flickered to the large men at her sides again, and she swallowed thickly. Easier on the boys, she didn’t know what it meant, and she was almost afraid to ask.
The fact that this torture hadn’t been inflicted on her with any personal malice did little to comfort her. It did nothing to stop the pain that was still radiating through her whole head. Her arms stayed folded tightly over her chest as she regarded the older woman carefully. She wanted to get away, badly, but she was smart enough to know that acting impulsively could be disastrous. But standing around and doing nothing wasn’t going to help her either. She had to do something, for her son, to try to save herself. “I don’t understand,” Jenny replied finally, exhaling shakily, and turning her head to look at one of the men beside her before back to the woman. “Ghost, I don’t.. what do you mean a ghost? I don’t-- I’m not being a distraction for anyone,” the blonde went on, trying to be firm.
Though it was near impossible to seem too tough, half-naked and still slurring her words around a frozen, swollen mouth. But she didn’t want to find out what a distraction meant exactly, and she sure as hell didn’t want to be one. Things were bad enough.
“Well, no, of course not. Not right now,” the woman agreed. The only distraction that Jenny was providing at the moment was to her, and she had plenty on her plate already. While the generator was functioning perfectly well down here, the rest of the hotel was still a chaotic mess. Everything that could go wrong seemed to be enthusiastically doing so, and that simply wasn’t fair. After so many years of smooth operation, that now could bring about such utter ruin was difficult to believe. She sighed. “And you won’t be. We’ll have to find another girl.”
“Fuck that,” Vic spat. “We’ve got cops here, keeping tabs. They’re already tearing the place apart... We can’t afford to grab another one. I put the work into this bitch. At least see how long she lasts without her fucking meds.”
“I don’t want to hear about the work you put in,” she hissed back at him, clearly irritated that he’d spoken up at all. “Sam told me there are guests overdosing. While the fucking cops are here. Or is that Kenny’s fault, too?”
That managed to shut Vic up efficiently. Apparently, that fault was his, at least partially. He glared at Jenny, as if his error could be attributed somehow to her. Maybe if he hadn’t been occupied with trying to do Alan’s job, he wouldn’t have fucked up the food.
After glaring at him for a beat, just to make sure the point had sunk home, the old woman flicked her attention back to Jenny. “I’m so sorry, honey. I made you some soup, if you want it. It takes a couple weeks for the mouth to fully heal, so I’ll understand if you’re too sore to eat. Some girls don’t like to eat for the first few days. If we weren’t in such a hurry, I’d tell you some stories... but Vic’s right about the cops poking around. We just don’t have a lot of time. Are you hungry?”
Jenny honestly wasn’t sure how long she would last without her medication; she had never needed to find out, had never wanted to find out. Since she had been a teenager, taking her pills every single day had been like second nature, like clockwork. They would be waiting for her in her room, already sorted, for eight o’clock in the morning. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, lowering her head, as she thought about it. She had no idea what time it was, her entire concept of time was still shot, but what if it was already getting late? In her situation, she found a seizure was surprisingly low on her worry list. She had survived them before. A situation like this..
And another girl, she didn’t like the sound of that much either. Just like that, they were ready to go after someone else? She hadn’t been first, and now she wouldn’t be the last. She still didn’t entirely understand what these people were doing, or why they were doing it, even after the few questions that the woman had actually answered for her. Whether it was the pain in her head dulling her thought process and fogging her brain, or something else, she was just as confused as when she had first climbed her way down from the box. She flinched a bit at the exchange between them, the tone of the old woman’s voice as she reprimanded the man, but Jenny’s eyes widened a bit at what they said.
“Overdosed?” she managed to splutter out. Cops being in the building was only half news to her; she had suspected it to be true, after the day before. But people overdosing was news.. unless they meant the body in the pool. “That guy.. someone drowned, did he overdose?” she asked, looking between the men and the woman, unsure if they would even bother to answer her. For some reason, this question earned a snort of laughter from the larger of the two men. The one that the woman had called Vic. But that was it. No further explanation was given. It seemed her questions were hit or miss; the woman answered and told what she wanted to tell, from what Jenny could judge.
She was surprised by the woman's sudden apology, even if she didn't take it to be genuine. Her arms stayed close to her body in that same way, protective, maybe a little skittish despite trying to stay undaunted as she eyed the woman over and heard her offer. Soup, really? That was what she offered her, after all of this? The blonde's brow furrowed a bit. She couldn't imagine opening her jaw, just the minimal involuntary swallowing that her mouth did naturally was proving painful. There was no way she could eat, especially with her stomach still rolling. "N-No," she answered, shaking her head and closing her eyes, trying to steady herself. "Not hungry."
Jenny didn't have any interest in staying in this place for days or, god forbid, weeks. Healing, weeks of living in a tiny box, in agony, distracting the boys in the off season. Whatever that entailed. Just the thought drained what little color she had left in her face. But the sudden rush that they were putting on her wasn't any better. She could feel time ticking away, but there was no strength in her to stop it. She couldn't get weepy again, not even when she wanted to. Tears weren't going to help her. "I.. I won't tell anyone," she bargained, her last ditch offer, and a blatant lie. If she got out of here, the first thing she would be doing would be finding the police, someone. Someone had to stop this. "If you let me go, please. You're.. you're a mom, too. Like me, you understand. He needs me. I won't tell."
“I know you won’t, dear,” the woman said, and the two men took that as their cue to grab hold of Jenny. Vic clapped his hand over her mouth, mindless of causing her pain by doing so. Perhaps trying to cause her pain, to make up for all the work he’d put in that was about to be wasted. His silent partner stayed quiet, but when he took hold of her legs his grip was no less certain than Vic’s. The expression on his face was detached, like someone performing a task that was so routine it barely registered anymore that they were doing it. He might as well have been pushing a broom or stacking chairs for all the emotion he was showing. Vic at least had the good manners to at least pay a little attention to Jenny as a person, even if it was to be annoyed at her.
For a fleeting second, Jenny heard what the woman said to her and hoped that it meant good things for her. Maybe she had some sympathy after all. But the split moment of hope was just enough time to distract her, for the men to grab her, one of their hands closing tightly over her face and mouth, and his rough grip on her face and cheeks amplifying the pain in her head tenfold. Despite the pain it caused her, the blonde let out a scream, muffled effectively by the palm of his hand. Biting him was useless with no teeth, and even if she could do any damage with just her gums, the thought of actually using them to put pressure on anything was too agonizing to consider. Just as the woman had explained, it was making things easier for the boys apparently.
Jenny’s thoughts after that point went to panic, her eyes snapping open and widening, a mixture of surprise and fear reflected in them. Vic’s hand over her face not only hurt like hell, but it also made it hard to breathe, most importantly of all. She hated having anything over her mouth or her nose, that suffocating feeling, the inability to take a properly deep breath, even if only for a moment. Her mind was racing, and as soon as the silent man grabbed her legs, she made her best attempt to kick; another muffled scream behind Vic’s hand. No one was hearing her, and it hurt her raw throat, but she had to try. She couldn’t just give up.
Staying calm was ideal, she knew that, it was all great in theory. Don’t make any rash moves, don’t do anything dangerous to antagonize your attackers. But as this point, they were beyond that, and she had to fight. Her eyes, still wide, found the woman, stared her down as she continued to try struggling with the men. But she was woozy and weak, in pain and still stiff from her entrapment, and her kicks were nothing at all for a grown man to hold still, even as she tried with all her might. The blonde tried to pull her legs away, struggled and squirmed with her upper half, but it all seemed to be no use against the sure grip that the two burly men had on her as they hoisted her.
The old woman wasn’t shy about meeting Jenny’s eyes, but she offered no help or sympathy. As the men took hold of the blonde, the woman just stepped aside to pick up a roll of duct tape. She instructed the two to, “Hold her steady,” before approaching. Their grips tightened obediently, and the larger man -- Vic -- began to maneuver so that the woman could have better access to Jenny’s hands. Her movements were fast and sure, yet another sign on the growing pile of evidence that this had all been done countless times before. Once the wrists were bound, she did the ankles, which put an effective end to Jenny’s kicking. It was all very practiced and efficient. During the process, she told the blonde in a cheerful voice: “It’s all right if you scream, dear. Nobody important will hear you.”
This couldn’t be happening, it couldn’t actually be happening. Things like this didn’t happen to her, to people she knew. Things like this always happened on the news, somewhere else, to someone else. But everything about this was real, to the flare of pain in her jaw to the tears slipping down her cheeks, the sound of duct tape tearing from the roll, wrapping her up and leaving her bound. This couldn’t be happening, she repeated the mantra, but there was really no denying it. She tried to thrash as best she could with both her arms and legs held, but again, it was no use. If she hadn’t stood a chance while she had been free, she was done now.
Trying to run, she should have done that right from the beginning. Maybe she would have made it, been able to do something. She had wasted her one opportunity.
Nobody could hear her scream now, the older woman was right. She was just straining her throat for nothing, as much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself. The blonde kept staring at the woman, her eyes still as wide as dinner plates, breathing heavily through her nose. It started suddenly, the familiar but unfamiliar feelings. In the tips of her fingers, the numbness, working up her arms. Dizziness, the nausea, always the nausea like everything she had eaten was just suddenly sitting in the back of her throat. With the smell of bleach still heavy in her nose, taken in with every panicked inhale, she was sure that she might throw up. She closed her eyes tightly, but there was no stopping it now, it had been years since she had seized, but she could already feel the tremors beginning in her legs and taste in her mouth, metallic. Like licking change.
In the grip that the men had on her, Jenny went rigid. Her eyes stared straight ahead before the lids fluttered briefly, sporadically, then her eyes were rolling back into her head and the tremors in her legs immediately intensified, becoming convulsions that shook her entire body. Her jaw was clenched tight, something that should have caused her immense pain, but she was actually grinding what should have been her teeth, oblivious to the agony it should have been causing. On the front of her pajama pants, pilfered with care from her husband’s drawer to remind her of home, a spreading stain of wetness. Wherever the blonde was now, it wasn’t anywhere in the Eclipse, at least not mentally.
The two men had been expecting a struggle, but not a seizure. When she went rigid, Vic almost dropped her. As she started to convulse, he did, letting her fall unceremoniously to the hard cement floor with a meaty thud. “The fuck?”
His partner followed suit, equally baffled. Certainly not any more helpful. He looked askance at the old woman, hoping that she’d be able to somehow fix this. Finally, he broke his silence. “She pissed herself! What’s wrong with her? What’s she doing?”
“Oh, for the love of... it’s a seizure, you idiots.” The woman frowned down at Jenny for a moment. At least now they knew how essential the medication was. A seizure disorder wasn’t altogether the end of the world, really. Some girls went tepid early on in captivity, barely making a sound for weeks at a time. The occasional seizure would potentially liven things up... and it wasn’t as though the resulting brain damage was going to be a huge issue, all things considered. Still, even if it wasn’t a fatal condition untreated, it meant the blonde was unpredictable. She couldn’t be cowed or lured into silence by false promises, and it would only take bad timing on the part of an inquisitive officer for the police to find her, banging her head or jerking about in the dumbwaiter. That simply wouldn’t do. So she crouched down over Jenny, barking at the other two to try and hold her down while she slapped a last bit of tape over her nose, cutting off the air supply. With any luck, she’d swallow her tongue as well. Either way, the decision had been made. Within minutes, it would just be a matter of what to do with the body.
There was no real response from Jenny as she was dropped to the floor, though there was a crack from somewhere, possibly in her arm or shoulder. Nor was there any response when the woman and men hunched over her, attempting to hold her still long enough to seal off her last source of air. Her eyes stayed rolled back, her limbs still trying to fight against her restraints, but to no avail, just thrashing herself on the floor as much as her bonds allowed.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly but shallowly as she gasped for air that wasn’t available even in her unconscious state, her body continuing to convulse against the hard ground, until eventually everything all at once seemed to trail off. No more fight, no more shaking, no more thrashing, not even the twitch of an eyelid, no more movement period, finally still after several long minutes of struggle.