Chapter 1
Scent of coffee in the air, cups clinking on saucers, unintelligible chatter, floating as background noise was a safe space for Vanessa on a Saturday afternoon. A cafe just a block away from her college offered refuge from her demanding life. An older attractive man, probably in his early thirties, sits in the corner and smiles at her whenever she walks in.
She never really paid much attention to his presence until the last few weeks. From what she can deduce, he was probably a lecturer from his neat attire, trimmed beard and the authoritarian way he looked at her felt as if he brought some much needed order to her chaos. She smiles back and her eye caught a futuristic looking watch on his wrist she's never seen before; odd, but expected since the tech faculty was just across the road.
She sits at her usual spot, and begins typing away on her laptop, focused on her behavioural therapy essay for her psychology class, she's in her zone. The constant quarrelling of her mom and dad was left at home, usually about dad gambling away money they didn't have and drinking too much the night before. Vanessa had just turned eighteen a week ago, was already about three months into college, juggling two part time retail jobs to fund her studies and help with her family's bills, and recently broke up with her high school sweetheart; she had a lot on her plate. Her ex of four years had left her a month ago for a girl he sat next to in a few of his classes, the girl he told her not to worry about.
(Save your tears for later, you need to get this done, he doesn't deserve your thoughts...)
She pushes through to finish her assignment that was due in a week. The plan was to graduate college, get married and start a life together, but all went down the drain as her ex had other plans to play with someone else.
It's been a stressful year, but Vanessa was determined to keep running on her hamster wheel of life by avoiding any family conflict and shoving down her feelings deep inside for it to bubble up later by staying busy with college and jobs. (Besides, there's no time for boys anyway so he did me a favour), she attempts to convince herself.
Aside from feeling like a mess, drowning in too many lemons to make lemonade, Vanessa's hopeful that things will turn around for the better. A few modelling agencies she's excited to work with have also reached out to her to earn a little bit more cash on the side. On top of that, rejecting people asking her out became a daily activity since she wasn't available then and emotionally unavailable now. However, it felt good knowing that fishes in the sea were serving themselves on silver platters.
(I'll ask out that cutie in the corner once I'm back in the dating game.)
An hour passed, the door creaked open and in walked her ex with his new barbie doll wrapped in his arms. (The audacity!! He knows this is my space and then dares to flaunt that bitch around me). Enraged, Vanessa packs up quickly to leave, not wanting to be seen or be around them.
"What a surprise," her ex casually leaned over from behind, "haven't seen you around. Thought I'd stop by to get the best coffee on campus. Oh, by the way, this is.."
"Whoops! Look at the time, I've got to go help Mom with some groceries before the shops close," Vanessa abruptly stops him before he has a chance to introduce his new arm rest, and with that, she disappears out the door.
(What a jerk...) Vanessa speeds walk home ignoring two catcalls, upset from the disrespect and not having enough time to process everything.
"Mom! Dad!" she calls out after hearing some glass shatter as soon as she locked the front door. (Sigh... They're probably fighting again). She walks into the kitchen and finds her dad and mum tied to the chairs, surrounded by three men in black suits, built and tall, with tasers and guns. One of them, points a gun at her little brother, who was also tied in the corner. Without thinking, Vanessa runs in between her brother and the weapon pointed at him.
"Nessa, no! You should have ran!" her mum cried.
"What's going on? What do you want?" she questions, her frightened eyes glaring at them, tears forming.
"There she is," one of the men acknowledged her, and grabbed a pile of paperwork calmly to place in front of her dad, "We'll take her instead. Two point four million, Mr. Swan, we will take your gorgeous daughter, you'll be debt free and we'll leave the rest of your family alone."
"No, please I beg you, take me instead, it's all my fault, she has nothing to do with this," Mr. Swan tries to barter.
"What do you think you will do to pay us back? There's absolutely no way, but her... look at her," he grabs Vanessa by the arm, "she'll bring us back what you owe plus interest and profit. Besides, I wasn't asking, I was generously letting you know how we're going to settle your debt. This manual will let you know what to do if anyone asks where she went, and anything you do to try to get her back will result in you going to prison as all evidence of her disappearance will point to yourself and your wife."
"You're blackmailing me now?"
"Unfortunately so, we wouldn't have to if you had kept your end of the deal. This is the contract that you have agreed to the moment you signed to borrow money from us. Since you are years past your due date and no amount of warning was enough to get you to pay up, we have to take back what's ours by force.
You have my word that all your debts have been canceled. Anyways, pleasure doing business with you, and congratulations, you are now a free man."
The lead gave a hand signal and in a split second, two of the men injected anaesthetic into both Vanessa and her mom, inducing them to sleep. Vanessa's unconscious mother was untied.
"Your wife will wake in a few minutes to help untie you if she pleases. I highly recommend you to read this manual, or you might find yourself in more trouble. Don't look so upset. If she behaves herself, her new owner might let her visit for a short while and pick up a few of her things once she's settled. A piece of advice for you. Don't gamble with lives. Consider this a warning because we won't be so merciful next time. Bye for now."
He packs up his things, grabs an unconscious Vanessa from off the floor, "finish the job boys. Leave no traces. See you at the dock."
Vanessa wakes up, sitting on the abductor's lap, her skin crawled as his hands explore her curves, both sitting on the only chair at the back of a moving van. Her arms are roped straight up to a metal loop attached to the ceiling of the car, legs spread, ankles strapped to each side of the chair, her denim shorts have been removed, leaving only her pink, see-through, lace underwear, no bra, allowing the outline of her nipples to stand out through her body-tight, thin, white crop top that she was wearing earlier to college. The seatbelt across her waist had no give, keeping her sturdy on her kidnapper's lap.
"What are you doing? Let go of me! Get your hands off of me..." Vanessa protests and attempts to struggle out of the bondage, but earned herself fingernails dug into her soft thighs forcing a yelp out of her.
"I don't know if you noticed, but you don't make the rules here. Try to retaliate again and you'll regret it," he warns her sternly before kissing the back of her neck.
The driver drives calmly like he does this everyday for work. The back of the van had many other metal loops on the walls, floor and ceiling to attach ropes to keep the captive in place in various positions. It seems as if this van's purpose is to deliver unwilling passengers to who knows where.
"Someone's going to see us and won't let you get away with this," Vanessa blurts out empty threats that she too knows means nothing.
"And how will they do that? The windows are 100% tinted and we have the authorities working with us to keep irresponsible citizens in line. Don't take it too personally because none of this was your fault. Looking at your track record, you seem to be the only one who's trying. We're taking you to teach your father a lesson and to help him pay off his debt as only you in the family could. He can always have more children in the future, and hopefully he learnt his lesson so we won't have to do this to him again," he says so casually like she was only a piece of property without any rights, "if anything, we're doing you an enormous favour taking you away from a lifetime of debt and if you're lucky, you might even end up with someone who likes you and give you a better life than you could ever have if we left you there."
Vanessa sat quietly for a few seconds, absorbing what was going on as the abductor calmly rubbed her thighs, his hands slowly creeping closer to between her legs.
"Where are you taking me? What are you going to do to me?" she asks as panic sets in again, her voice shook a little while holding back tears.
"You're a curious one... We're taking you to one of the distributors at the Underground. You will be microchipped like every other citizen there. What will happen to you after will be up to the ones running the show. With a pretty face, slim waist and curves like yours, I'm confident that you'll bring in enough to pay for what your family owes us and more once they find you a forever home," he gives her a brief explanation of her impending fate while he rubs under her breasts, cupping her heavy melons, the advancement made her heart race and insides turn, "how does a small girl like you have such nice curves? You really are a work of art."
The driver had found a secluded area and the kidnapper blindfolds Vanessa.
"We can't have you figure out where we're taking you so these are for extra precautions in case you find your way back, however I doubt escape will ever be an option for you, and this is just for fun," he tapes her mouth shut.
