Roxanna Fielding (bang_a_drum) wrote in nevermore_logs, @ 2014-10-09 02:02:00 |
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Current mood: | tired |
Entry tags: | jameson kemp, roxanna fielding |
Who: Roxanna & Jamie, plus a gang of thugs
What: Remember how I said 'no one plans to get kidnapped'?
When: Tuesday afternoon
Where: NY street, pizza place, warehouse
Warnings: Kidnapping, violence, language
"Yeah, I'm down at Alice's dorm for the night," Roxanna told Jamie, wedging her phone between her shoulder and ear. "But I should be back tomorrow afternoon."
"Try not to get to attached to the place," Jamie joked. "I know how much you love it."
Roxanna snorted. "Yeah, I don't think that'll be a problem," she answered. "Besides, the food down there is crappy."
"Oh, I see how it is," Jamie said, laughing. "You only love us for our food."
"You know how patently untrue that is," Roxanna snorted. "But I did kind of move out from our room unexpectedly, and we've been friends for a while. So we're going to hang out, have pizza, watch bad movies."
"I know it's not," Jamie assured her. "But yeah, have fun, we'll see you tomorrow, etc."
"Righty-o, Captain Awesome Hair," she replied. "Adieu." She hung up the phone and shoved it back into her purse, heading into the pizza shop to pick up the order she'd called in. She'd offered to buy dinner, because she still had a bit of lingering guilt about leaving Alice so abruptly. Alice had told her she understood, because they'd gone out for dinner a few weeks ago, and Roxanna had spelled out all the reasons she'd wanted to move. The list had been a bit lengthy, but Alice was not one of the reasons. Roxanna didn't have very many girlfriends, and the two of them had gotten close pretty quickly during their time as roommates. It was hard to hold back someone's hair after one too many shots, and not bond at least a little.
She gave her name to the cashier, took her order and paid, then headed back out to the street. She'd found a shortcut from spending her time in the area surrounding campus, and even though the sun was starting to set, and it was rather secluded, she took it anyway, picking up her pace to get through it more quickly.
She was halfway through trying to text Alice with one thumb, when a strong arm seized her around the abdomen, and one hand clamped over her mouth. "Struggle, and you'll just make it worse," a voice hissed in Italian. Roxanna kicked backward reflexively, and got a punch to the temple for her trouble. Her vision swam, and she sagged in her captor's grip as everything went black.
When she came to, she was cuffed to an old pipe, her back rubbing uncomfortably against a brick wall. Her head was pounding, and she could feel something sticky drying on her face. She reached up her free hand, and her fingertips came away coated in blood. Her heart started to hammer in her chest, and she sat up as much as she could, fully alert now.
Just in time to have three men enter the room, looking like they walked straight out of a B-level mobster movie. Roxanna couldn't help it, a hysterical giggle slipped out as she looked up at them.
"Christ, Vinnie, how hard did you hit her?" the one in the middle asked. "If you scrambled her brains, Heath won't pay up. No one wants a damaged kid."
Heath?
It took Roxanna far too long to remember that Heath was Hermes' mortal alias, and that these idiots had fucking kidnapped her to try and extort or threaten him. She almost wanted to laugh, because they were wasting their time. Hermes didn't give a damn about her beyond a passing curiosity, so she was pretty sure he wouldn't pay whatever ransom they wanted.
"Hey, girlie," the one in the middle said. He seemed to be the leader. "Girlie. You hungry?"
Roxanna shrugged. "I could eat. But doesn't that sort of go against the whole...mobster thing? Since you're just going to kill me later anyway."
Their leader actually had the gall to look wounded. "Girlie, if your pops pays up, I'll be more than happy to see the back of you. Once he's learned his lesson, of course."
She raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh," she said. "It might take a bit more teaching than you're used to. Just FYI."
He laughed. "We're very good teachers. Now, how 'bout we get some pizza? Since Vinnie stepped in your last one." Vinnie rolled his eyes behind the other man's back. "We'll be back soon." He left the room first, Vinnie and his other lackey flanking him as he left.
Roxanna slumped in her bonds. Their leader might be putting on a polite facade for the moment, but Vinnie and Stiff Neck (as she'd dubbed the silent one) looked like they'd have no qualms with hurting her, or worse, purely for fun. She had to get out of there, but unless she learned to pick locks in the next 20 minutes, her options seemed depressingly limited. Even though she knew it was futile, she tried yanking at the handcuffs. Of course, nothing happened.
The men appeared a while later, bearing a pizza box and some bottles of pop. They set the box near Roxanna, who was able to feed herself one-handed, if clumsily. The three of them sat around talking for a while afterwards, as Roxanna watched the sun set from the tiny window. Once it was dark, they left her alone, with a thin blanket draped over her.
A tremor ran through her body. It wasn't horribly cold during the nights quite yet, and for that she was grateful. But the walls were cold, made of brick and concrete, and the heat seemed to leach out of the space. She tugged the blanket up further with her free hand, trying to relax as much as she could.
And since there was nothing else to do, her mind wandered. How long would it take for them to notice she was missing? Would her father pay up? Would he even care? He was a god, a criminal, and he had lots of other children to look in on. She was well aware of her place in the pecking order, and it wasn't very far up from the bottom. Still...gods knew she didn't want to be stuck here forever.
"Hermes, draw near, and to my prayer incline," she murmured, the Greek coming stilted, but correctly, from her dry lips. She'd traded drum lessons to a Greek exchange student, to get him to teach her the language. You never knew when something like that might come in handy, and with her natural aptitude, she was picking it up pretty quickly. "Messenger of Zeus, and Maia's son divine..."
A flicker of movement caught her eye, and she turned her head to see...nothing, at first. But even as she watched, a shade materialized from out of the darkness. Instead of being afraid, she looked at it head on, her chin held high. "Did Hecate send you?" she asked. "Or my father?" No response, but then, she hadn't really expected one. The shape drifted over to the door, looking for all the world like a dark, wispy sentinel. And in some strange way, it cheered her. The ghostly presence calmed her slightly, and she was able to drift into a fitful, uncomfortable sleep.