The Abduction of Regan Emmett

Everyone prepared themselves for the biggest mission in all of Glen Jean and Thurmond history. They were ready to once and for all rid the town of the monsters who lived there, they called Ogre and John the wooded creatures of the night. That’s exactly what they were, wooded monsters who preyed upon the weak, stole people’s lives and dignity and loved every moment of it. Nothing was going to go as planned, nothing was going to go right, things were going to be bad, a lot of things were going to go wrong, but it wasn’t a matter of things not going to plan, it was a matter of getting a young woman out of the woods alive, and as far away from West Virginia as possible.
Everyone was in position ready to head out. Ahniah leaned up against a podium, arms crossed and filled with obvious rage that she was being forced to stay out of it. But this wasn’t her mission, and she needn’t get hurt as well if anything really bad happened. She rolled her eyes and tried pleading with James, then Giuseppe, a back and forth game of no’s and pleases.
“You aren’t, that’s final.” James placed his hand on his gun holster out of habit, and walked away from Ahniah who wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“I’m strong enough to handle my own. I don’t need you protecting me, just let me come, let me be a part of rescuing my friend.” James tried opening his driver seat door, but Ahniah slammed it shut, it seemed she wasn’t letting them go anywhere until they agreed to let her go. Giuseppe tried reasoning with her.
“If we need any more help, I’ll walkie you to come out. But you aren’t putting yourself at risk for a potentially life threatening mission.” Giuseppe kissed her forehead, and stared deep into her eyes, hoping she’d stop being stubborn and agree with him, luckily she did, after a moment of hesitation.
“Fine…” She walked back to the podium and leaned on it again, this time looking calmer, but more afraid. The thought of her boyfriend and best friend riding out into miles of just woods was scary to her. She didn’t know if they would get lost or captured themselves. Cops or not, things do happen, bad things were bound to happen, as a matter of fact it was guaranteed, but whether she liked it or not, a part of their job description was putting their lives at risk to save others, it’s why she knew they would be heroes in the end, no matter what happened.
“We’ll be okay, baby I promise.” Giuseppe blew Ahniah a kiss as they drove off into dawn. She watched them until their vehicles were no longer in eye sight, and walked to her house in distress.

_._

Regan had about an hours’ worth of sleep since being captured. She looked like she had just crawled out of hell after being there for years, with no water, no sleep, no energy. She was a raggedy mess. She had wearing the same red dress she put on, for 3 days, she gave up on showering, and mostly just laid around waiting to be raped again or talked down to, or even killed. She was surprised she wasn’t dead already, and had no idea why they kept her for so long without killing her, they must have had objectives, reasons for capturing her, at least Ogre. He hadn’t bothered her in a couple of days, but it was only a matter of time before she jinxed it. He was gone again, he normally stayed out for hours just patrolling the woods for anyone who could be lurking about, he knew at some point there was going to be a search party out looking for Regan, that was his main focus, to make sure no one got to her. He had her phone clutched to his hands, waiting for another phone call, so he could make things more interesting. He knew someone would eventually call.
John sat down on the dirty couch in his living area, drinking beer and smoking a blunt, trying not to think of the girl in the room behind him, clinging to life. She grew sicker and sicker, looked like a mess, he noticed she had no life left in her, and she was just done with everything. She had no motivation to get out of there anymore, and took everything that was done to her, whether it was painful or not. He knew he was half at fault for her acting this way, she didn’t have the energy to fight, but that’s exactly what he wanted her to do, was the fight, was to prove to Ogre that she wasn’t going down without a fight. Ogre was the type of person who loved a good fight, he loved seeing dominance in a woman, made it harder for him wanting to kill that person. Might have made it easier for him to want them sexually, but to kill them? Dominance was the key to survival.
John knew he couldn’t hold back anymore. He knew he couldn’t let Ogre come back and hurt her any longer, he knew that something had to be done, he wanted to help her and that’s exactly what he was going to do. He got up and threw his beer and blunt on the ground and walked into her room. She was lying on the ground, fetal position, her hair was covering her face, but you could tell she was crying from her hair being stuck onto her face like glue. She was dirty, her dress was ripped and she had scratches all over her body, but in some weird way, John felt so attracted to her, he felt a connection with her, that made him want to help her. He knew he had to do something.

“Regan.”

She squinted her eyes open and looked at John’s face, he was blurry to her. She moved the strands of sticky hair out of her face and rubbed her eyes, she could see him clearly now.
“Hurry up, sit straight. I’m helping you get out of here.”
She shot straight up. Her body ached from doing that, her eyes clenched shut from the pain and she made a grunting noise that made John cringe. He could see the desperation of wanting to escape in her eyes, even though the motivation wasn’t there anymore, maybe he could bring that motivation back. He tried helping her stand up, she was so weak, her legs wobbled around, her knees were scrapped up, and her feet had swelled up a little bit, but she managed to stand up straight. John took a moment to let her adjust, she stretched, and brushed off any leaves and dirt she could get off. John stared at her in grace. She was tall, taller than him. She had beautiful long brown hair that was an obvious clump of a mess, but it didn’t matter to him. She was gorgeous, from the moment he laid eyes on her, he knew there was something about her that drew him in. He never acted that way towards women, and knew that if Ogre found out he had these feelings, he’d just knock John into another dimension, or kill him.
“How do you plan on helping me escape, Ogre would never allow this to happen. He’d just re-capture me and probably kill us both.” Regan asked, still groaning in pain, but it was bearable enough.
“I’m not staying here either, we’re escaping together.” His face spoke with more emotion than Regan ever saw. His eyes glistened. She didn’t quite know what he meant by escaping together, she never saw John as a prisoner here, but another person who worked closely with Ogre in making people’s lives as miserable as possible.
“I’ve seen terrible things; I’ve lived through it. I’ve done terrible things. But I never, I repeat… NEVER killed anyone.” John’s voice cracked. He was desperate to prove to Regan he wasn’t the evil creature people thought out of him to be. She didn’t understand him yet.
“Than what was your moral here?” She asked. She looked at him, hoping to get the answers she deserved.
“I don’t know. I didn’t really have any morals. I was following Ogre’s orders. He captured you, I put you in this room, I chained you up, and left you here, begging him not to kill you. He would have by now if it wasn’t for me.”
“Why didn’t you let him kill me?”
“I like you that’s why, can’t you see that?” It finally came out. John didn’t know what made him say it, but he did. He knew he could never say those words in front of Ogre, for John had many secrets but this one was to stay a secret forever if he wanted to survive. “I felt awful for what he had done, I wanted your pain to rub off on me so you wouldn’t have to feel it anymore. I’m not just his roommate, Regan. I’m a prisoner too.” A tear fell from his face; she could see his hands trembling. Her eyes went wide. She could see everything crystal clear. It was finally starting to make sense.
“What has he done to you?” Regan’s voice filled with rage.
“Everything he’s done to you.” John looked away, embarrassed.
“He raped you?”
“Too many times to count.” He spoke softly. Regan’s mouth opened, her hands covering it. “He’s beaten me, raped me, almost killed me, hit me with a baseball bat so many times I was unconscious for days, he’s left me to starve, left me dehydrated, made fun of me, tried getting me to do his dirty work and threatened to behead me if I didn’t follow through with his orders.”
She felt helpless, she knew he wanted to help her, but something inside of her wanted to help him. They were planning on escaping together, she wanted to get him as far from Ogre as possible, she always knew John wasn’t the bad guy, he was forced to do these bad things, to keep them both alive, she could see in his eyes he meant those things he said, about liking her and wanting to keep her safe. She felt comforted for the first time in almost a week of being captured.
“Let’s get out of here, together.” Regan walked up to John and took his hands, they immediately stopped trembling. “The outcome doesn’t matter to me; we will not let him get away with this.”
John loved the determination in her, the motivation was back, it excited him. They both smiled, the first time they ever saw each other genuinely smile. He felt like he couldn’t hold back from kissing her, but didn’t want to start something that could end right away if Ogre were to find them. But he didn’t want to think of the bad, this was a mission to save Regan, to save himself.
He took the key to unlock Regan’s chains that were around her ankles, and chucked them to the side. Feeling free, she found her shoes and threw them on. He took her hand gently and made their way to the front door. John pushed her away out of outdoors view to see if he spotted Ogre. He wasn’t anywhere in eye sight, but John knew he had to be very careful with where they went. He had a knife in his pocket just in case anything went wrong, but knew deep down it wasn’t going to be enough. Ogre wasn’t almost invincible. They carefully made their way outside. Regan felt a hard breeze flow threw her hair, it was so cold and felt so amazing. She closed her eyes and leaned her head up towards the sky, taking a deep breath in. Being outside never made her so emotional. There was something so beautiful about the outdoors, the woods were a beautiful place indeed, so open, you could fit multiple homes in it. But being captured made it less beautiful and more horrifying. John looked at her in sorrow, knowing how important this moment was for her. Their hands were locked, he didn’t want to let go of her, she didn’t want to let go of him, their linked fingers were each other’s safe place.

He couldn’t take it anymore, he grabbed the back of her head and kissed her passionately, sending a jolt of lightning between them that Regan never felt before. But mostly, why would anyone want to kiss her when she looked like a crack head who didn’t shower for days? The heat of the moment made neither of them care what the other looked like. John had been craving this for what felt like an eternity, and knew if they were going to die, they were going to go out like this, confessing their feeling for one another in a kiss that they wanted to last a lifetime. They stopped, trying to catch their breath, John’s eyes stared into hers like it was made to be. He smiled and she loved it, she didn’t think she would but there was something so striking about John that was so attractive to her, emotionally and physically. But alas, they knew all good things must come to an end, so they could embark on their next journey to making it out of the woods alive, or at least try to. As they grabbed each other’s hand again, turning to make their way out of cabin’s view, they were stopped in their tracks. In front of them stood Ogre, feet spread apart, arms crossed, with a faint smirk on his face that went from sarcastic to anger in seconds. He could see the fear in their eyes, that’s exactly what he wanted.

“I knew all along you went soft for her, but never in a million years did I think you’d pull this little stunt. Did you think I wouldn’t find out about it, did you think I’d let you escape with her? You’re funny, John. You’ve always been a jokester.”
“Ogre enough. I’m not letting you do this anymore. You wanna kill me, you wanna hurt me? Fine. Let Regan go.” John pushed Regan behind him, she clutched onto the back of his shirt, not wanting to let him go, after all, he was her safe place.
“You got her all lovely dovey for you now, I can’t let either one of you leave. You got her thinking you actually care about you, but you know you don’t. You know you want to see her suffer as much as I do. Oh Regan darling, don’t you see he did this purposely?” Ogre laughed. John mouth dropped.
“No, Regan I didn’t. I honestly want you to be safe, I would never put you in harm’s way purposely. I just out myself at risk too, I’m willing to take the punishment for your safety. Don’t believe him.” John pleaded to Regan, who knew Ogre was lying.
“Ogre, shut the fuck up.” Regan stepped out in front of John, and walked up to Ogre, fearless. John wanted to pull her away, but this new fearlessness made him so proud.
“Oh there’s that dominance I love so much. Might just let you live a little longer.” Ogre grabbed her hand tightly, she tried getting out of his grip but he was too strong. John ran up to him and tried punching him but Ogre was too quick and hit him so hard he fell to the ground in pain. He held his face and looked up at Ogre, who grabbed him too and dragged them both back inside. He effortlessly placed them back into the room Regan was in and watched them hold themselves in pain.
“Guess I won’t be going back out anytime soon, now I gotta keep my eyes on both of you? I’m disappointed John, you’re letting love get in the way of our job. The man downstairs won’t be awarding you this time.” Ogre sighed in a sarcastic tone.
“You’re psycho.” Regan groaned, inching her way to John, who was lying on his side.
“You’re next.” He grinned, before grabbing the chains and placing one on Regan’s ankle, and one on John’s.
“So what, now you’re kidnapping me too, huh you piece of shit!” John screamed in Ogre’s face, but nothing seemed to faze him.
“Oh John, you’re so blind, I was always your captor. Always.” Ogre winked before slamming the door shut behind him. John didn’t know what to say. He knew all along he was a prisoner, but hearing it from Ogre’s mouth made it worse. He leaned back against the wall behind him and placed his face in his hands. They were both in trouble, big trouble.

“Regan I’m so sorry I got us into this mess, I’m sorry for whatever is about to happen, just know I truly care about you and wanted you to be safe. Please forgive me.” John’s face was wet from tears, as he looked at Regan with horrible guilt. She didn’t speak, instead she went to John and hugged him tightly, not letting go. They would go down together. Who would have thought Regan would feel this way about her captor?
But he wasn’t her captor anymore, he was a prisoner like her, but she wasn’t letting it end like this. They WERE going to get out alive, she just needed a plan. But now she had John, and two great minds will always think alike.