Ink Portals

The hostage

26

Kurtis was in his boxer-shorts. He sat brooding inside his hotel room, staring at the television but not really watching (some Japanese game show where contestants had to clear an obstacle-course) he was breathing in short, shallow breaths, with the white light from the TV screen flickering over his glazed, blue eyes.

On his bike ride earlier he had followed the taxi up to the Subaru station, below Mount Fuji. He watched Jack and Arthur hike up into the forest with the girl. Then he took out his drone from his backpack, and sent it up to see where they were going. A fucking temple - hidden in the mountainside, he should've known. He saved the co-ordinates to his GPS and rode his motorcycle back to his hotel room. He needed to go fetch his hostage before he went back up there.

Kurtis had to admit, the desperation was starting to set in. Back home in the states he had bills due, and soon he would lose his father's estate and be out on the street.

The money he stole from Jack's crypto account was basically finished. The hacker he used to break in had claimed half of it as comission. The rest was allocated to pay off Kurtis's massive gambling and realastate debts.

He couldn't buy the loyalty of his mercenaries anymore, not with the little money he had left, and not after that eight-legged freak ripped apart the last of his men. Now the remaining freelance soldiers he had brought with him to Japan had all left; gone back home to their families. That morning when he went to their rooms to brief them they were gone; they were no longer willing to risk their lives for this treasure hunt.

Kurtis could feel the walls of the little room closing in around him. And that sound on the bed - the sound of ruffling gags where Annabelle lay squirming in her ties, crying silent tears. It was starting to drive him crazy. Soon she would fall asleep and Kurtis would have some peace for a little while. But then she would wake up again in the middle of the night, crying, and he would have to slap her to get her to shut up.

She was probably hungry, Kurtis thought. He got up to rummage through the little hotel fridge and found some left-over sushi. He sat next to her on the bed and lifted up the necktie he was using as a blindfold. Her eyes darted around the room before settling on him, they were red from crying and fearful from the beatings. Kurtis picked up his handgun from the bedside table and made sure she saw it; he cocked it and put the muzzle to her temple before he lowered the gag around her mouth. She knew not to scream. Kurtis fed her the day-old sushi. She ate, barely chewing as she slurped down a piece of oily fish from his fingertips.

She was scared, and she hated this man that she didn't even know, but she was simply too hungry not to eat. The last time he had fed her must have been two days ago. And it was always dark inside the room where he kept her. He kept the curtains drawn all day. She had no idea what day it was, or what time it was outside. After wolfing down at least seven pieces of sushi Annabelle started to gain back some strength.

"He's going to kill you when he finds you," she whispered, glaring at her captor. "He's going to make you suffer. I hope you know that."

Kurtis said nothing. He just sat on the bed, staring at her with his gun still pointed at her head. Finally he replaced her gag and blindfold. But just when she thought he was about to leave, he turned her over and tore open her pants. Annabelle screamed under her gag. He had his way with her while she cried into the pillow, crying for Pierre to come and save her.