The Laws of Man and Nature

Julia’s POV…

I’d only just woken up to a plastic cup of water and some bread when the stranger was thrown into the pit with me. I immediately froze as the echo of the slam of the door hit my ears.

I looked at her and she looked at me. She was crying, tears pouring out of her light green eyes but she scrubbed them away with her fists. Her athletically built up body shook from crying and the cold; her skin was only covered by some shorts and a t-shirt. She looked at me, her mouth gaping open.

“What’s your name?” I asked her pulling on one of Jake’s shirts that he had left behind. The girl tucked some of her golden blonde hair behind her ears and bit her lip.

She took a deep breath. “Katrina.” She finally answered.

“I’m Julia.”

Katrina chuckled, “I know.” But the joy soon died down. “How long have you been here?”

“I don’t know, I can’t make sense of the time.” I sighed, “Where are you from?” I asked sluggishly. It was hard for me to make conversation considering I hadn’t spoken in a long time, and I had just woken up.

“Orange County, but I was on vacation in New York when they took me.” The tears began for her again.

I never liked to see people cry so I pulled her body into my skinny and malnourished frame and let her cry. I cried with her, too. I missed Nick, everything about him. The little things he would do like tap my nose or just sit and talk to me. I remember when I was younger my Grandma would tell me that real loss only occurs when you lose something you love more than yourself and I loved him a whole lot more.

Suddenly the door swung open and Jake and his father walked in with smirks as they saw the two of us. “Why are you doing this?” I screamed painfully, the new discovery on my voice was exciting to me.

I received a quick and swift kick into my stomach, I rarely felt the pain anymore, I’d grown used to it but this was new to Katrina. She let out a scream at rushed to my side.

“I’m fine.” I croaked and coughed up some trapped air.

I then heard Katrina scream out again, immediately I shot up. They were going to rape her, I could see it happening. With all the force I had I attempted to push them away from her, bawling at them to stop touching her. A quick punch to the face sent me back to the floor where Jake’s father held me down and I cried. I couldn’t stop it. I was helpless and another soul would be destroyed because of it.

I cried for the time she was abused. I couldn’t watch, I was much too cowardly and luckily Jake’s father didn’t notice it or else he would have forced me to watch. It was disgusting that he seemed proud of his son. The obvious mental issues were there, you didn’t need to be a professional to see that.

When the two beasts finally slithered out all was silent. Katrina was sprawled out across the floor, hugging herself. I wanted to help but I didn’t want to move. I didn’t even notice a spider that had crawled onto my shoulder. Outside this room I was manically arachnophobic but inside, nothing mattered. Inside this room everything that I was outside didn’t exist. She had been left in New York with her family where she belonged. She didn’t belong here so I didn’t let her out.

The room seemed more homely without my extra person, now it was filled with tense atmosphere. “We have to get out of here.” Katrina choked out, finally pushing her body up. Then she let out a small gasp, “There’s a massive spider on your shoulder.”

“I know, we should name him.” I put my hand to my shoulder and let him crawl on my hand.

Katrina crawled over and I handed her the spider, she got used to having it on her and smiled. “Patrick.” She confirmed and I nodded.

“Patrick. You’re just as stuck as we are.” I said sadly looking back to Katrina. “So, tell me about your life, it would be nice to hear someone talk to me. I’d feel a bit more human.”

Katrina threw me a small smile and cleared her throat. “Well, my full name is Katrina Woods. Born and raised in California. My parents are divorced and I’m an only child.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?” I enquired, hugging my legs.

She shook her head. “No, but I know you do.”

I blushed bashfully. Thinking of Nick was like heaven and hell mixed into one, I wanted him with me so it hurt to think of him but on the other hand, thinking of him made my world seem like such a brighter place. But in this room nothing made sense, my thoughts swirled all the time and I had no emotional balance.

Katrina and I stayed with each other for one sleep, I didn’t know if it was night or day, I just went with my body whenever I was tired and Katrina seemed to be tired when I was too. We were both awoken when we received a blow to the back, hitting a fresh bruise I cringe and immediately grasped my back.

“Hello my little sluts, what to do today?” Jake smirked and so did his father.

I looked to Katrina who was curled up into a ball crying and something inside of me snapped. I felt the need to protect her, no one was here to protect me but I could help her, she didn’t have to feel useless and defenceless. She didn’t have to be alone in this, I could show her she had me.

With a determined mind set I weakly pushed myself to my feet, “Trying a new position today?” Jake’s father disgustingly suggested.

I balled my fist and went to throw a punch at him. I personally thought it was quick, but obviously it wasn’t. He caught me fist in his hand and twisted it around until a pain shot through my arm. “Fucking let go!” I screamed in pain.

Jake’s father held the position with a smile as he watched me cringe in pain, finally he let go and pushed me back to the ground. “Feisty today, nice.” Jake looked to his father, “Take her away.”

Jake’s father put some duck tape over Katrina’s mouth, grabbed her arm and yanked her from the ground. “No, where are you taking her!” I shouted trying to get up but finding it impossible. I was freakishly malnourished.

The door slammed and she disappeared along with my sanity. “Don’t worry about her, we’re just making sure you two don’t mess around too much.”

“You’re an asshole. I hate you!” I shouted viciously.

He just laughed. “You’re so cute.” His chirpy tone was beginning to annoy me.

“How can you be so disgusting? Do you get a thrill out of this, huh?” I glared at him hoping to make him crack. “Think about my little girl, my beautiful little girl.” Just speaking of her made tears roll down my cheeks, “How could you do that to her? An innocent little baby.”

As I observed him I noticed at the mention of babies his face twitched, the slightest of movements but it gave him away. His weakness was revealed to me and he didn’t seem to notice, I could use this to my advantage. He’d been slightly cracked and it wouldn’t be too long until he crumbled.

I smirked inside. “My baby girl is without me and has no one, no one! You’re killing her and my family. Are you that sick?”

“Shut up!” He exploded and punched my straight in the face. “You. Know. Nothing!” He screamed, punching me with every word he spoke. I was silent as he beat me. It was much better than being raped, I could take punches; they didn’t make me cower. He could punch me all he wanted.

Once he’d beaten me to a pulp he stood over me, watching me cough furiously. My chest tightened as the air refused to reach my lungs. My throat clenched as I choked. I involuntarily squeezed my eyes shut, unable to see the fear in Jake’s eyes as he ran out like a coward, leaving me to choke on air alone.

The lack of air made me go slightly light headed, my eyes rolled about their sockets. I tried to focus on the wall but to no avail. I closed my eyes, hoping that I could start breathing again. The dizziness caused me to fall to the side and onto my back.

I stared at the ceiling, positive I was hallucinating when I saw a crowd on the roof. They looked excited, happy. Once girl in the crowd was young but looked familiar, only as I looked closer did I realise it was my imagination corrupting an image of Lily as a five year old child. I smiled at the image of her and rolled to my side, ready to die.

I loosened the pressure on my eyes lids until they were relaxed enough for me to slip into a coma like state.

Everything around me was warm, soft and inviting. The walls were a light cream colour, caressing my senses and calming me down from a frantic state I appeared to be in. The sweet smell of home filled my nostrils, relaxing me further. I was comfortable in this state. I lay back onto the spongy material underneath my body. Nothing ached anymore. There was no pain of agony in this life, everything was clean and perfect.

A man appeared in front of me, I recognised him as my father. He held out his hand and I grasped it. Once I was upright he pulled me into a large and engulfing hug, it made me smile truly.

“Can I go now?” I asked him with an angelic smile.

He shook his head at me. “You can’t yet princess. You have so much yet to do, we have so much to learn about each other still.”

I frowned. “But it hurts Dad.”

Dad smiled at me, “Little girl, you’re so much stronger than this. You just need to reach inside yourself and know that there is something there greater than any obstacle.”

I thought deeply, reaching for something that could help me. Then I found it, myself. The greatest obstacle was myself, I was going to give in and only I could stop myself from doing that.

With a large groan of pain, my eyes shot open as I was jolted back into reality that was my four walled space. The pain was back and it seemed ten times worse than it was before. I closed my eyes again, waiting to be saved from this pit.

Nick’s POV…

It had been two weeks since she had been taken from New York. The police seemed to be getting no where and Nick seemed to be getting angrier with the world. He couldn’t understand why this had happened to him, he’d never done anything wrong to deserve this, ever, and now the one thing he cared most about had been taken for no reason.

He was annoyed by the press too. They hung around and stalked him. All he wanted was some privacy during this time, but he was all the world could think about and the entire world wanted to see. They wanted to see him happy, but it seemed impossible for him to even look pleasant without Julia with him.

As per usual he sat in the police station, watching his wife sleep while detectives were hard at work through the glass panel that separated them. He hadn’t seen her get beaten, he didn’t want to, but he was aware of it meaning he watched her even closer now. Nick was scared for her. Some many things could be wrong with her that he was shaking with fear whenever she moved.

A massive up roar suddenly occurred. Nick looked through the glass and into the room where everyone seemed to be gathered around one single computer. He jumped from his seat and ran in quickly.

Pushing through the crowd he managed to get a look at the computer screen. On it was a black screen with green writing on it, some sort of code he didn’t understand. “I just need to adjust the transfixion into a signal and then…” the genius in the computer chair mumbled to himself as he clicked the mouse furiously.

As if by magic, a map appear on the screen and his heart soared. He clicked about some more and suddenly the map zoomed inwards onto a direct spot. People were running around now, shouting things into phones and throwing papers around. All Nick could see was the address in the right hand side of the screen.

They’d taken her to Saginaw, Michigan. They knew where she was.

“Nick, we’re leaving in an hour. Go home, tell your family and get them into the police cars with some belongings. Hurry, Jim is outside in the police car waiting for you. We do not trust their police with this case.” Chief Detective told Nick.

He nodded, grabbed his coat and belongings then ran outside. The policeman sped all the way to the Jonas home, blue and red lights flashing and sirens going as they drove. Nick watched the world fly by at a hundred miles per hour, unable to comprehend that after two weeks of misery he felt some love moving within him.

Nick wasted no time walking, every second in his life was valuable. As soon as the door slammed his mother and father appeared from the far end of the hall. “Everyone in the living room now!” He screamed and ran into the living room.

Luckily, Joe, Mandy and Miley were already there with Lily. It looked like they were getting ready to take her out, then Nick realised they’d be taking her to him.

“What’s going on?” Joe asked, noticing his brother’s panicked and nervous state.

Everyone filed in, even Julia’s parents who were currently staying with the Jonas’s just in case something like this would happen. Nick looked at his confused family, his daughter who was reaching for him and his friends. But upon seeing his beloved baby he reached for her and was immediately calmed with her in his arms.

“We know where she is.” Nick blurted out and a collective sound of gasps erupted. “She’s in Saginaw, Michigan and we’re leaving in under an hour. Get packing. Mom will you do my things while I sort Lily?”

“O-of course.” She stuttered out as everyone speedily headed for the stairs.

Nick took his time, he had Lily in his arms and whenever that was occurring she was the main priority. So he took his time packing her things, playing with her, giving her a bottle and sending her to sleep. The time with her was precious, but he couldn’t help just shiver at his nerves that tingled with angst.

Once everything was packed he was whisked away with a police escort all the way to Michigan. Everything seemed to be running smoothly, Nick watched his wife on a wireless screen in one police car while a squad of others followed behind them. He pleaded to get there before her kidnappers entered her room…

But he could wish all he wanted; it didn’t turn out like that. One entered, with a gun in each hand and a plan.