Bound to You

“Sir, we have a problem.” A different lackey said to Sean later that night. He looked up from where he was sitting in the living room, a scowl covering his chiseled face as he glowered at the man.

“I’m getting rather tired of hearing that word, James.” He said quickly, keeping his tone deathly low while he tapped his fingertips together in what he knew was an intimidating fashion to the young man. James was just barely eighteen years old, and had gotten involved with Sean’s business simply because he wanted to prove to the world how “bad” he was. For the most part, he was a good lackey, doing everything Sean told him to do without questioning his orders. Lately, however, he had been coming to Sean with more and more problems that shouldn’t ever have been allowed to come to pass as it was in the first place.

When James didn’t respond, Sean sighed and stood up, looking over at him as he grabbed a jacket from the coat rack beside the patio door. “What’s the problem, and I’ll go clean up like I always must.”

“It’s Michelle Haner, sir…She’s not at the hospital anymore.” James muttered quietly. “Jacobs said that he had her on lockdown in a hospital room and that someone else got to her before he could.”

Sean sighed, trying not to let his emotions get the best of him. Showing emotions in the eyes of younger henchmen gave them the impression that he was weak, and put the little idea into their mind that they could overthrow him and take over his position. He wasn’t willing to do that now; he needed to keep his composure. “I’m sure her husband took her the instant he realized that she was there. Is there any chance that we’ve tracked them?”

“No, sir. Jacobs also relayed the message that Haner moved quickly; too quickly for anyone to see where he went.” James said in a very quiet voice. Sean smirked when he briefly looked in to the man’s thoughts and saw that he was scared for his life at the moment.

“Tell me, James. Has Jacobs been dealt with? He’s made quite a few mistakes as of late; he should have killed Michelle Haner when he had the chance. Has he been killed?”

James nodded, and Sean gave a short nod of his head before looking towards the windows. “Good. Go downstairs and make a tape of the Avenged hostage. I think it’s time we let them know that she’s still alive. Rough her up a little in front of the camera; provoke them. When The Rev sees that she’s been alive this entire time, he’s going to do anything in his power to get her back. He will be their weak link; he’s going to be our way in.”

“Sir, with all due respect, that’s what you said about Christ and Haner’s woman. Are you sure this is the right way to go? Maybe it’s best if we just killed her as well.”

“I like your spunk, James, but I think we’ll keep her alive for awhile longer. I knew The Rev well while I spent time with Avenged; there is nothing more important to him than that woman. Not even Bat Country.” Sean smirked. “He’ll do absolutely anything to get her out of here.”

-x-
With Leana
-x-

As soon as Leana watched Sean walk up the stairs, she knew that she needed to find a way to escape. She couldn’t just sit here and wait idly by while he no doubt was making plans to use her as a lure for the guys. She wasn’t worried that Zack would make an attempt to rescue her; he wasn’t stupid. He knew the dangers rescuing her would entail, and Leana knew he wasn’t willing to risk Bat Country like that. No, there was only one person she was worried about doing something brash and reckless.

Jimmy. She loved him more than anything in the world; he was her absolute everything. Without Jimmy, she had no doubt that she’d be dead by now. She couldn’t sit here and wait for Sean to use her as bait. She knew Jimmy would take him up on it; his love for her was as strong as hers was for him, and she knew it. He wouldn’t be thinking with his head if Sean made the fact that she was alive known to them; no, he’d be thinking with his emotions. That would get him killed, and she’d be damned if she let that happen.

She also needed to let them know that Michelle was the traitor. Never in her entire life had she assumed that Val’s twin would ever deceive them, but she had. Leana had witnessed it with her own eyes. Then again, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, she thought to herself. With the exception of Johnny, Brian was the fourth youngest vampire among them, though he hadn’t been the fourth youngest human amongst them all. He had been the fourth to be turned, and thus, Michelle was newer to the group than she or Val were.

She had seen the coldness in Michelle’s eyes when she had told Sean her plan of helping take Bat Country down; the dark-haired woman hadn’t batted an eyelash as she’d relayed her thoughts. She was going to risk her own life by attempting to commit suicide, and then when Brian did what she had no doubt that he would do—turn her—she would begin worming information out to Sean once again.

Leana couldn’t let that happen. She needed to put an end to the plan before it started, or Bat Country was doomed. They would all be dead if Michelle got away with this. That wasn’t an option in Leana’s book.

She stood back against the furthest wall and surveyed her small cage, thinking about all of the years of experience with Avenged Sevenfold and what she’d learned while she’d been with them. The cage was small, only about six feet by four feet. It didn’t give her a lot of room to maneuver, but she recalled something Matt had once told her when she’d insisted on learning how to fight a few years before.

“You’re small. Use it to your advantage. Someone your size is going to be able to move around quickly and efficiently in small areas. Use your size to your advantage, and don’t ever let it become a disadvantage.”

She smiled grimly as his words floated around her mind as she began trying to formulate a plan. She let her gaze move upwards and she was surprised to discover something she hadn’t yet noticed; there was a space of about a foot and a half separating the top of her cage from the dingy ceiling. She also saw that there was barbed wire, but she knew that she’d have to deal with a few cuts and scrapes to get out of here. She made sure no one else was in the basement area before looking around for her next step after she escaped the cage.

There were no windows down here anywhere. That meant she would have to go upstairs and risk being found before she could get a weapon. She would need to find something down here to make due with until she could, if possible, find a real weapon like a knife, or better, a gun. The stairs were on the other side of the basement with a crawlspace underneath them. She could hide underneath there until someone came down to check on her, knock them out, and hopefully they would have a weapon on them that she could use for self-defense.

Leana knew she didn’t have much time to move; Michelle would no doubt already be on her way to her fake suicide, if she hadn’t already managed to do that. She ripped a strip of her shirt off from the bottom and tied it around the palm of her hand crudely, knowing she’d need to at least protect her hands a little bit so that she could get over the barbed wire. She repeated the process for her other hand and then began climbing the fence, moving as quietly as she could. One of the strips of fabric fell off of her hand just as she was pushing her body over the barbs and she bit back a sharp cry of pain as the metal cut into her skin. She refused to let go as she moved her feet into the little holes of the fence to get a grip before she moved her hands downward, climbing down this time much more quickly than she had climbed upwards.

Once out of the cage she briefly looked at her hand and saw a deep gouge in the middle of her palm, bleeding steadily though not profusely. She could live with it until she could get something tied around it again to stop the blood.

She ran over to a table where she saw a crude wooden 4x4 and she grabbed it before moving underneath the staircase, waiting as patiently as she could for someone to come along.

It seemed like it took an hour before Leana heard heavy footsteps trudging on the old staircase, though she realized it had only been about fifteen minutes. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief, knowing she’d cut her escape close.

“Hey, what the—“ The man said when he walked over to the cage and saw that Leana wasn’t inside it. He started moving at a run towards the staircase again, presumably to let Sean know that she had gotten out, but she stepped from underneath the staircase and whacked him with a loud thud across his forehead. He stood there in a state of shock for a moment and Leana wondered if her hit had been hard enough to knock him out, or if it had only dazed him. Not wanting to risk it, she whacked him again, this time harder than she had before, and watched as he fell to the ground in a clumsy heap, his forehead turning red and splitting with a small cut.

Leana dropped to her knees beside the man, looking for a weapon of any kind. She cursed slightly when she realized he wasn’t carrying anything but a cell phone and a jackknife. She grabbed both, knowing that she could at least use the cell phone to call Zack and let him know what was going on and that the jackknife could provide some minor self-defense.

She climbed the stairs slowly, pushing the door at the top open very quietly. She looked both ways and saw that she was in a hallway of some sorts. She had to be somewhere on the first floor since she’d been in the basement. She tried to recall the layout of the house from when she’d been grabbed, but she couldn’t remember anything. With a frown, she turned down her left, where there was a door at the end of the hallway. It might was a gamble either way, but she was hoping that there would be a kitchen or something with a door that led outside.

The door led to another hallway, this one with a staircase that would take her upstairs. She looked down both sides of the hall again and saw a window at the far end of this hallway. She didn’t have time to keep looking for a quiet exit; she’d have to take her chances by breaking the window and jumping out. She started at a dead run, not wanting to take the time to let her human fears of injury or death get in her way as she ran towards the window. She closed her eyes as she reached the end, not wanting shards of the glass to injure them as she propelled herself through the window, making a loud crash. She landed with a hard, painful thud outside and quickly realized that she was on a deck of some sorts.

“Hey!” Someone yelled in her direction, pulling Leana out of her thoughts just long enough for her to look over too late to see a man running towards her. He grabbed her with both arms, holding her to her chest and she struggled as hard as she could, knowing she needed to get away. She couldn’t have made it this far just to get caught again. She reached for the jackknife in her pocket and flipped it open, stabbing the man in his leg. Surprised by the pain, he released one arm from around her to reach and pull the knife away from her. Having him remove one hand from her was enough for her to kick upwards with her foot. The man groaned when her kick connected with his privates, and he released the second arm as well, but not before taking the knife from her. Leana cried out in a surprised yelp of pain as the blade of the knife seared against her skin, splitting her lower arm in a long gash.

“You little bitch! Hey! Someone, get out here! Now!” The man groaned and grunted in pain as he attempted to chase her while still trying to nurse the injury she’d given him. She ran towards the fence, knowing that it wouldn’t take long for someone to come checking on the loud sounds coming from the yard. She grabbed the top of the fences with her hands and pulled with all her strength before swinging her legs over the tall wood. She dropped on the other side of the fence and saw that she was in the middle of nowhere, with fields on every side of the house.

Great, she muttered to herself with a frown. Not only was she nowhere close to civilization and had no idea where she was, but she also realized now that if she’d been in a basement, there was no way that she was close to the coast.

Knowing she couldn’t do anything else, she started running at a slow pace. She was exhausted and knew she wouldn’t make it very far before she needed to stop for awhile to rest. She needed to get somewhere she could hide; somewhere they wouldn’t see her.

She just hoped and prayed that she’d get there in time to at least call Zack and warn him about Michelle.