FicWad

The door creaked open shortly after a quiet had fallen on the house. She hadn’t heard a thing from either Sophia or Jared since he had ;left her in the room. She wasn’t sure if she had been craving this quiet or if she despised it. She was terrified of being alone. Knowing that at any moment someone could come in and make her pay for something she hadn’t even done/ But who was really going to protect her from all of this? Jared was only partially on her side but in actuality he was entirely connected with Sophia. They were bonded together and it didn’t matter what she did, nothing could break that. Elena was sure of it.
Yet the thought didn’t seem true enough/ Hadn’t he, only a few hours ago, attempted to kiss her? Hadn’t he just spilled the entire reason for all of this? Weren’t those things meant to be kept a secret? There had to be a reason why he was letting this happen, why it seemed he wanted this to happen with her? Was there some kind of connection between them? Was there something that belonged to them both? Something that was alive. Breathing and entirely overwhelming? That had to be the reason why she felt so entirely breathless in his presence. Was he some sort of prisoner here the same as she was? The thought would have seemed unlikely but entirely possible. Otherwise there would be no reason why he would let her free while Sophia was gone, why he would take care of her. But he did return her to her chains once Sophia returned. Why didn’t he ever just set her free if he felt so guilty about all of this? Unless of course his anger towards Samuel still burned so strongly. He wanted revenge. He wanted to see him fall. Elena knew it was her responsibility to tell them both that they had chosen the wrong route. Samuel obviously didn’t care about her all too much/ It would have been better if they had just kidnapped his Porsche.
Her thoughts continued to meddle into the others. She was so tired but nothing in the world would allow her to sleep no matter how much she tried. She was afraid, weakened, and her heart was so completely confused. She wanted to see Jared and there was something of jealousy stinging inside of her knowing he was sleeping beside Sophia right now. She knew how ridiculous she was being. She had to keep reminding herself that he was the one who had locked this chain around her ankle.
Her eyes shot open and she rose herself quickly from where she was laying. A thought had hit her, one that rose a panic inside of her.
Two years ago was what Jared had said. Two years ago Samuel had gotten Sophia’s brother convicted of murder. She tried to recollect, tried to remember the facts as she knew them. Two years ago Samuel hadn’t been in the role of DA, in fact he had done the unusual switch of being a defense attorney and had been convinced to run for DA. It had worked given his impeccable charisma with the outside world.
Harshly she swallowed as she thought of Jared’s story, of the reason given for all of this. It was impossible for that to have happened, impossible for Samuel to have convicted Samuel of murder and sentence him to death row. He had been working against the state for so long. That meant that everything Sophia had been telling Jared was a lie and he was completely oblivious to it. Did that also mean that his anger was misplaced? That the entire foundation for this kidnapping was both unnecessary and a lie?
Nervously she drummed her fingers on the bed, her mind swimming with all the reasons why Sophia would have lied. She couldn’t think of what her motive was but slowly her fear began to intensify. Why else was she here? Why would she want her kept here if not for any other reason but her brother?
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the door being unlocked and it slowly opened. She thought it was Jared but when she looked closer in the dim light from outside she saw Sophia standing there. Harshly she swallowed, her fear creeping up further and further.
“You ready?” Sophia asked so calmly.
“For what?” Elena pushed out, wrapping her arms around her legs that she had folded up to her chest.
“No questions.” She demanded before she craned her head out the door. “Jared!” She called out. “Unlock her chains!”
There were a scurry of footsteps before Jared came inside the room. His hair was a mess, his eyes full of sleepiness. He pulled the key from his coat and quickly unlocked Elena’s chain. She tried to find his eyes in the darkness but he hadn’t looked at her. There was something wrong, something horribly wrong.
“Bring her out here.” Sophia said before walking out of the room.
Jared carefully lifted Elena under her arm before he finally met her eyes. The blue of his gaze was almost a light unto themselves in the darkness they both stood in.
“What’s happening?” She whispered, her fear causing her to tremble a little. Or was that because of how close he was to her?
Softly he hushed her, pressing his finger to her lips. His eyes deeply gazed into hers as he drew his finger away in a caress. He gently took hold of her arm and drew her after him.
“It’s all a lie, Jared.” Elena said against him, her tiredness making his warmth next to her comforting. She could smell his scent, it washed over her. She could have stayed there with him all day, blocking out the harsh realities they were faced with. But soon enough they were in the living room and Elena was forced to meet Sophia’s gaze as Jared brought her forward with as much delicacy as he could muster without anything becoming apparent to Sophia. With whatever it was between them becoming apparent.
“Sit down.” Sophia reached out and stole Elena’s arm from Jared and pushed at her to sit on the couch.
Elena let out a small cry once se landed on the cushions but soon gathered her composure and stared up at Sophia She wasn’t stupid enough to challenge her, wasn’t even prepared to put up a fight but she knew that if she were in that sort of situation she was more than ready to take her life into her own hands.
“What are you going to do?” Jared asked in a low voice. Perhaps he spoke so quietly because he was unsure how he would sound to Sophia. Or maybe he was afraid that his emotions would betray him and that it would all become so obvious. The vein in his neck had nearly protruded from the tight way he clenched his jaw. His eyes remained on Elena from where he stood behind Sophia.
Sophia shrugged. “Whatever gets his attention.” She replied simply.
Jared barely nodded as he took that answer as satisfactory. He had been making sure that things weren’t planned on getting completely out of hand. But still there was an unsure fear in his eyes and a remorse that echoed in the very way he stood there. How sad his eyes had become, how distant his entire attitude was. He was removed from the moment. If he could switch off what was happening he would.
Sophia picked up the telephone that was on the table and flung it at Elena. It landed in his lap with a blunt pain and she took a hiss of a breath at the contact. She looked up at Sophia again, her gaze shifting between the two people watching her with a million questions in her eyes.
“Call your husband.” Sophia ordered.
Elena nodded and dialed the number, lifting the receiver to her ear to wait for his answer. There wasn’t an answer at first and so she called again. She heard Sophia smirk and she took it as an insult. How hopeless did it seem that her own husband hadn’t picked up the phone when she had been kidnapped? Shouldn’t he be waiting by the phone?
Finally there was a click and Samuel’s voice come on harshly. “Hello?”
“Samuel?” Elena’s voice was thick with the held back tears. If she showed weakness that would only make this harder.
.”Elena are you back yet?” His voice held neither worry or any kind of softness.
“No…”
“Tell him we want 5 million…” Sophia glanced back at Jared and held a smile on her lips.
“Samuel they want 5 million.”
“5 million? Are they insane?”
Elena tried so hard to choke back the tears that were rising but still they came, falling from her lashes. She knew how much he had inherited when his uncle had died last year, she knew how much he had made all year. 5 million was steep but it would barely even hurt him.
“Elena? Are they there?”
Elena looked up at Sophia with uncertainty and as if she had known what his question was Sophia held out her hand and took the phone. She waved their gazes off from her and walked down the hall elsewhere into the house.
Jared looked cautiously down the hall before he went to the couch. “Are you okay?” He asked her.
Elena wiped at the tears that had fallen and nodded her head. “I’m fine.” She whispered.
“What did you mean? When you said it was all a lie?” Jared’s voice had fallen to a whisper, almost scared of what would happen if Sophia would come back.
“Samuel couldn’t have convicted Sophia’s brother…he wasn’t the DA two years ago….He was a Defense Attorney. Only this year did he make the switch to work for the state.” She kept her voice low too. She saw something change in his eyes, saw a million things race through them at her words. She felt almost bad for having to tell him that everything he had built on was possibly a lie but she knew that it had to be done. He had to be disillusioned and she was more than ready to be the one to do it.
“What does this mean then?” He questioned out loud, his gaze looking down the hall towards the room where Sophia was on the phone.
“That there’s another reason for all of this…She’s keeping me here for something else.”
Jared didn’t have time to answer the sound of Sophia’s heels came clicking towards them causing Jared to stand up and move back to his spot.
“She’s behaving?” She asked, a smile on her lips, the same as before.
Jared nodded. “Yeah.” He muttered.
Sophia set down the phone on the table and took a seat next to Elena. She wrapped her arm around her small shoulders and pulled her into her side. “We should be friends.”
Jared became somewhat alert when he saw what Sophia was doing. He swallowed harshly and buried his clenched fists into his coats pocket.
“What would you like to do?” Sophia asked Elena, her tone softening as if she were speaking to a child.
“Go home…” Elena whispered, her voice broken.
“Of course you would.” Sophia said, reaching her hand out and lightly touching her face. “Maybe we should send you home. Should we, Jared?”
Jared didn’t reply, he was nearly frozen as he watched the scene unfold in front of him.
“Or maybe just a part of her?” Sophia stood up.
Both Jared’s and Elena’s eyes followed her. She reached into the back of her skirt and withdrew a gun. Elena jumped back and Jared sucked in a breath.
“What are you doing Sophia?” Jared demanded.
“If I shoot her in the arm there’s the chance that I will have to cut off the arm…her family can have that part.”
Elena let out a cry as she tried to dart up off the couch but Sophia grabbed ahold of her trembling frame and forced her back down on the couch. She held the gun up in front of Sophia’s face. “If you move too much….No it’ll hurt either way.” She let out a laugh and placed her finger on the trigger.
“Stop it!” Jared yelled out, rushing at Sophia and pulling her away from Elena. “Stop it.” He repeated firmly.
Elena felt dizzy, her fear falling from her eyes in the form of tears. She could barely think straight as her weakness clouded her head. She could see through her blurred gaze Sophia struggling with Jared as he tried to take the gun out of her hands. He was saying something to her, and she was screaming but Elena couldn’t make out a single word. She saw something though. Elena saw the glint of a bracelet on Sophia’s wrist that looked so familiar. She tried to figure out what it was but a shot rang out and echoed from wall to wall. The sound was painful as it shot through her senses ripping them to shreds. And all at once she lost consciousness. She fell back against the couch, her eyes closing and the world shutting down around her…