Kidnapped

“Okay. What do we do now? Left or right?” asked Alexis.

They had only been walking for less than a minute when they came to their first ‘crossroad’. Their arms were already growing tired from carrying multiple dirty dishes each.

“Oh god. Why are all the hallways in this place so freakin’ long? It’s just one long stretch of darkness, and we can’t even see what’s at the end. There must be like hundreds of rooms here…” Natalie groaned.

“Okay, okay. What about we settle this the old-fashioned way? Anyone has a coin? If it’s heads, we’ll go right; if it’s tails, we’ll go left.” Lauren suggested.

“Hey, my lovely damsels-in-distress.” There was suddenly a masculine voice.

The four girls jumped and immediately turned around. “Worry not, Brian to the rescue.” He held out his palms. When none of them moved, he reached forward to take the plates out of their hands.

“I think we can handle carrying a few plates,” Alexis protested, and tried to wrench hers back.

“True. But it’s what a gentleman would do.” Adrianna passed hers to him and gave him a grateful smile. “Besides, you guys have no idea where the kitchen is, do you?”

“We’re…in the process of figuring it out.” said Natalie.

“With your in-built GPRS system?” he looked skyward.

“Oh, and you know?” Alexis shot back.

“As a matter of fact…I do. You guys just walked past it, actually.” Brian pointed to the room behind him. The door looked exactly like all the rest – made of wood, with a coat of shiny varnish, and a golden handle – except it was a little bigger. Brian walked towards it and kicked the door, which was slightly ajar, open.

“…Wow,” was all Adrianna managed.

“You can hold a cooking class for thirty in here.” Alexis remarked.

Natalie pointed at all the cooking utensils in indignation. “Why on earth would anyone need so many pans?!”

“These aren’t all pans,” Brian corrected her. “These over here are woks, and that’s obviously a pot…”

“Whatever,” Natalie rolled her eyes. “They all look the same anyway.”

“How did you find this place, anyway?” asked Lauren.

“I was hungry this morning, so I wandered around the house in search of food. Heck, I’d rather bump into one of the kidnappers and have him shoot me than let myself starve to death. So I just tried opening every door I saw – I think this was the fifth door.” Brian opened the fridge – which occupied one whole wall and stretched all the way to the ceiling. It looked more like another door itself. “Juice, anyone?”

“I’ll pass.” said Natalie. The other girls shook their heads too. “I can’t eat or drink anymore,” said Lauren. “We had the most amazing breakfast just now –“

“Oh thank you,” Brian bowed. “My culinary skills aren’t too bad, eh?”

“Wait, what? YOU made us that breakfast?” Lauren’s mouth dropped open.

“Yeah, ‘course I did. What, you think our kidnappers made that for you? Or all the food just magically appeared out of thin air?”

“That was sort of what we thought, yes.” said Alexis.

“You even baked those cinnamon rolls?” Lauren had to ask.

“Aw, c’mon. Bakery ones taste horrible…”

“Well…thank you. That was very nice of you. You’re an incredible chef,” Adrianna smiled at him.

“And thank you for the compliment. It means a lot.” Brian grinned widely.’

“Uh…hate to interrupt this, but don’t we have some exploring to do?” said Alexis.

“Yeah, we’re going to take a look around the house. Wanna join us?” asked Natalie.

“Sure,” came a voice from behind. Standing at the door was Jake, still in his boxers. “Mornin’,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “I heard noises. Lance and Luke are still sleeping.” He walked over to the refrigerator and swung the door open. “Oh god, you could feed an entire nation for a year with all this food. Hey, there’s low-fat yogurt!”

“Gay,” teased Alexis. Jake glared at her. “Let’s go wake them up,” he suggested. “Since the rest of us are all here anyway. You guys said something about exploring?”

“Yeah. Let’s go. But seriously, can you guys make your presence known the next time you’re behind us? Like, can you make sure I can hear your footsteps or something?” Natalie grumbled, heading towards the door. ”I swear, if one more person scares me from behind again…”