10. Chapter Ten #2
I smack her across the face to get her to stop. “Maria, enough. Crying isn’t going to solve anything. We’ve been kidnapped. We know that for a fact. But my husband will find us. I believe it.”
“But that man just said this had to do with your husband.”
“I don’t know what he meant. But we will survive this. I promise. You will not die today. Understood?”
Slowly, she nods.
“Good. Now stop crying. It’s annoying me.”
Maria huffs. “You really are a bitch, aren’t you?”
I offer her as warm of a smile as I can muster in this moment. “At least you’re with me instead of Ana.”
“If Ana were with us, we could offer her up to be killed. And then save ourselves.”
Our morbid jokes make us laugh. What else can I do in this situation? I can’t get out of the car and the windows are tinted black. There’s no seeing out of them. The handsome kidnapper has a gun. The only thing I can do is wait for him to stop the car and try and make a run for it.
Maria and I fall silent on the drive. We both know we need to do something the second the car stops.
After what feels like hours, the car comes to a stop and the driver gets out.
“Get ready,” I whisper to her. She nods.
The back door opens and I rush at the man, shoving past him. Maria tries doing the same but the kidnapper grabs Maria and presses the gun to her head.
“I will shoot her if you run,” he says.
I stop. We’re on a street in the middle of nowhere. Just trees all around us. No indicator of where I am. The only thing I can see is a small, tiny cabin hidden in the trees.
“Lana,” Maria cries. I can’t run. Even if I was fine with getting Maria killed, I still wouldn’t make it far. And I’m not fine with Maria getting killed. I still have a conscience.
Slowly, I walk back to the man and Maria.
“Good,” he says. “Now walk on ahead.” He motions towards the cabin in the woods. My feet feel like they’re walking through cement. Maria continues to sob as she walks behind me.
“If this is about my husband,” I say, “then why did you kidnap Maria too?”
“She was right there,” he says. “It was just easier. Now, open the door.”
My hand shakes as I turn the doorknob. The door creaks, sounding like a ghost crying. I wince.
Stepping inside, all I smell is must and mold. This cabin hasn’t been used in a long time. The furniture is all moth-eaten. Bird and mouse droppings everywhere.
“It stinks,” Maria cries.
“Do I look like I fucking care?” he mutters. “Keep walking.” He nudges her forward towards a door in the wall. After he gives me a pointed look, I follow Maria.
The door opens to reveal a staircase leading down into darkness. All I remember was when I walked down another set of stairs to a basement and found my husband torturing a man. Lev cut that man’s penis off like it was nothing. I shudder.
Our footsteps are loud on the stairs. Once we reach the bottom, I see that it’s a dingy, small, cold basement. The only thing there is a large pole in the middle of the room.
“Sit down,” he orders.
Maria immediately drops to her knees but I move slower, keeping my eyes on the man. Trying to be methodical about everything but I’m not sure how much that is going to help me.
He rummages around inside a drawer of a wardrobe against one wall. After a minute, he pulls out a pair of handcuffs.
“Put these on,” he orders, throwing the handcuffs at us. “Attach it to the pole.”
“There’s only one pair,” Maria sobs.
He blinks, only just realizing. “You’re right. You were never a part of the plan. I’ll have to ask Lev what he wants me to do with you.”
I sit upright. “Lev? Lev is behind this?”
“You,” he says to me. “Put the handcuff on and attach the other one to the pole. Now.”
With shaky hands, I do as he says. The second I wrap the handcuff around the pole, I know I’m stuck. My wrist is firmly wedged in the hard metal. It’s ice cold in the icy cold basement. I might get frostbite. That is the least of my concerns, I remind myself.
He pulls out his phone and calls someone.
“I’m here. I have her. But I have one of her friends with me.
It was just easier to bring both. What do you want me to do?
” He goes silent for a moment before nodding.
“Got it.” He hangs up. “Lev will deal with you,” he says to Maria before heading up the stairs.
The door closes and I can hear the click of the lock.
Maria and I are not going anywhere.
She jumps to her feet and starts looking around the room but there’s nothing. Not even a window to climb out of. “What do we do? What do we do?”
“Can you pick the lock?” I ask. “You’re wearing bobby pins in your hair. Go up there and try to pick the lock.”
“Good idea.” She rushes up the stairs but I can’t see her from where I’m attached to the pole. I have no way of helping. “Lana, I don’t know how to do this.”
“Just keep trying.”
“That man has a gun. What if he shoots me the second I open the door?”
“I promised you that you wouldn’t die. Just get the door open and escape. Find someone who can help us.”
“Ugh,” Maria cries out. “I can’t do this. I can’t pick the lock.”
“Keep trying.”
“I can’t!” she screams.
With a sigh, I slump against the pole. “Then how else are we supposed to get out of here?”
“I don’t know.” She comes back down the stairs and sits beside me. “I don’t know. I’m sorry, ok? I’m not good at this. I’ve never been kidnapped before.”
“It’s ok. Neither have I. I was just trying to get you to see how serious of a situation we’re in.”
She gives me a look like I’m stupid. “You think I don’t know?”
I sigh again. “Sorry. You’re right. You clearly know.”
We both fall silent for a moment before Maria nods at my wrist. “That must hurt. Your stitches. The handcuff.”
“I’m trying not to think about it.”
“I’m sorry if I made things worse for you and your husband. I didn’t think about how abusive he is. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“It’s not…” I shake my head. “My husband didn’t do this to me.”
“Then what happened?”
I bite my lip and fight back the urge to cry. “I did it to myself. I tried to kill myself.”
Maria gasps. “I knew it! You were lying this whole time.”
“Now, don’t sound too excited about that,” I mutter.
“Sorry.” She pauses, staring down at her hands. “What made you want to kill yourself?”
“Just everything,” I admit. It feels good to finally say all of this out loud after holding it all in. “Dance. You girls. You’re all so… vicious. My marriage. My parents. It all became too much.”
“I get us girls. We’re all horrible, backstabbing bitches. But what about your marriage? And your parents?”
“My husband is a mafia man. That is true. It’s an arranged marriage. He scares me sometimes. But he’s not abusive. I want him and I hate him at the same time. I don’t understand it. It’s all so… confusing. I saw him torture a man.”
Maria gasps.
“It has haunted me since,” I continue. “I went to my father for help but he turned me away. I felt so alone. So numb and cold. I just needed to make the pain go away. So I cut myself.”
“Lana, I… I don’t know what to say to that.”
“I’m sure you’d be happy to know that part of the reason I was so upset was because it was my husband who convinced Camille to hold another audition for Swan Lake.
I never asked him to do that. You have to know that.
I didn’t want him to cheat for me. I’ve always wanted to earn my roles of my own accord.
But he did what he did. Camille told me she gave me the role because she thought I was good enough but I also know my husband scared her.
So I’m not sure what to believe. There. Mock me with this. You can use this against me.”
“That’s…”
I brace myself for Maria’s mockery but instead, she surprises me.
“That’s really sad, if I’m being honest.”
“Sad?” I shift around and the handcuff clinks on the pole. The basement floor is ice cold on my backside. Just the other day, I let my husband spank me. I got lost in the pleasure only he could show me.
How much has changed in the past couple of days…
“Yes, sad,” Maria says. “I can tell how hard you’ve always worked.
Sometimes harder than some of the other girls.
Definitely harder than Claudia. She was gifted with her talent which meant she never had to practice much.
I remember once, seeing you stay late into the night, dancing until your feet bled.
My father was late picking me up that night.
So I just watched you. It was sad to me.
You should earn a role yourself and it’s sad that your husband took that from you. ”
Maria’s words make the floodgates open. I can’t stop my tears from falling.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry,” she says.
“We’re locked up in a basement right now. There’s a lot going on. I don’t blame you.”
“You can be nice sometimes. I never knew.”
A laugh escapes through my tears. “And you can be nice too. It would have been nice to have had a friend in that place.”
“Well, when we make it out, we can be friends.” She grips my hand and gives it a squeeze.
“I’d like that. You know, I haven’t told anyone any of this before. All of my feelings.”
“Not even your parents? Or husband?”
“No. Not even them.”
“Why me? Why now?”
I hesitate and Maria gives me a knowing look. “Just in case, you know? It would be nice for someone to know how I really feel and not always see the icy facade I put up.”
“You promised we wouldn’t die. So we’re not going to die.”
The sound of the door opening up makes both of us tense. Maria gets to her feet. With my hand cuffed to the pole, I remain seated. Never have I felt this powerless in my entire life.
Footsteps descend on the stairs. Lev appears. Asshole. The other man isn’t with him.
“Look at what we have here,” he says, strolling into the room. His gun is visible in his hand. No mistaking it. “How does it feel now, Lana?”
“How does what feel?” I spit out.
“To know you lost. You thought you could take everything from me but I’m not going to let you.”
“What happens when Nikolai finds out you kidnapped me?”
“He won’t find out.”