by MJ Bockarie
"Hey," he smiled at me, "settling in well?"
I scoffed. "You're fucking kidding me, right? I've just been kidnapped for a reason I'm not allowed to know about and you're asking me if I'm settling in well?"
Austin frowned. "I know this is hard for you, Mari—"
"You have no idea how hard this is for me," I hissed angrily.
"Alright, okay," he put his hands up in defense, "I'm sorry. You're right, I don't, but this is for your own good."
"How?!" I exclaimed. "How the fuck is this for my own good?!"
"Calm down," he whispered.
"No!" I screamed. "Not until you tell me why I'm here!"
"Hey!" Alec hollered from downstairs. "Tell the bitch to shut the fuck up!"
"Tell me!" I cried.
"I can't!" He roared. I gasped quietly. The gentle demeanor was all gone and in its place an anger un-like any I've seen before.
Austin noticed the frightened look on my face and sighed. "I can't tell you... at least not now. It's too soon."
I balled my fists up at my sides. "I..."
He watched me intensely. "You?"
"I..." I sighed and dropped my fists, burying my head into my hands, "just want to see my family again. I want to go home."
"You can't,"
"Why not?"
"I can't tell you because–"
"–It's too soon," I finished off for him, my voice hinting annoyance. I was angry and tired of not getting answers.
"I'm sorry, Mari." He whispered.
I glared at him. "That's Mariana to you."
Austin nodded in understanding and walked over to the door, turning around and looking at me.
"I'm sorry, Mariana."
two
"You're an idiot!" I heard one of the boys yell angrily.
"Me?" The other responded. "I'm the one who got you the girl! You've been watching her for how many months, Austin? I wasn't just going to sit around and watch you waste your life on watching some stranger for God knows what!"
"I was going to approach her in a much better way," Austin screamed at who I assumed was Alec, "in a way that wouldn't make her fear for her life! And not to mention, you nearly killed someone getting to her!"
I gasped. "Joey,"
"Oh boo hood," Alec replied sarcastically, and Austin let out a frustrated grunt, "he's most likely alive."
"Most likely?!" I whispered harshly. I didn't know what I'd do if I found out that Alec killed Joey. Joey was my family's only hope of getting me home. Of me getting home.
"I can't believe you're my brother!" Austin roared.
There was a pause. "Well... Same here, Austin!"
The front door opened and slammed shut. I heard something being knocked over and broken. I knew siblings fought because my brothers and I did that all the time, but I've never heard anyone say that they couldn't believe they had that other person as a sibling. That was a whole new low.
Should I go see if Austin's alright? What was I talking about, he probably didn't want me to check on him... but then again he's the one who wanted me here.
I sighed and lay back down. Just as I was closing my eyes, there was a knock at the door. I groaned quietly and opened my eyes. "Who's there?"
"Alec," the deep voice replied. Wait, so Austin's the one who left?
"Oh," I mumbled, "come in."
The door creaked open and brown haired boy peeked his head inside. "Dinner,"
"Already?" I asked. It doesn't seem like the time of day.
"Yeah, now hurry up." He rolled his eyes and closed the door. I got up and walked to the bathroom, turning on the light. I gasped in horror.
My eyes were pink and puffy from all my crying, my dark brown hair was sticking out in every direction, and my face was just horrible looking overall, no explanation needed.
I quickly rinsed my face and dried it with my sleeve. I didn't want to touch anything. I ran my fingers through the knots in my hair until it looked relatively neat. I straightened out my shirt and gulped.
I left the room and walked downstairs, hesitantly entering the kitchen. Andy stood at the stove, still cooking the food while Alec played on his phone and munched on cucumber slices.
"Hi, Mariana." Andy noticed me standing off to the side. Alec glanced up at me before turning his attention back to his phone.
"H-Hi," I squeaked out, "where's Austin?"
Andy shrugged. "Ask Alec."
"For fuck's sake," Alec grumbled and shook his head, "I don't know. We got into an argument and he just left."
"I heard," I mumbled.
"You did?" Alec asked quickly.
I nodded. "Your walls aren't exactly soundproof, you know."
Andy and Alec exchanged nervous glances. "How much did you hear?" Andy asked.
"Not much," I lied, "I was drifting in and out of sleep so some things were inaudible."
"What did you hear?" Alec bit his lip, which was pretty sexy.
No, Mariana. Control yourself. I wasn't supposed to think that. These people fucking kidnapped me. No matter how attractive my hormones let me think they are, there was no way in hell I was going to involve myself with them. Not in that way.
"Something about you being an idiot, Austin approaches me in a way that wouldn't make me fear for my life, and how he couldn't believe he's your brother." I finished off with a small shrug. "Doesn't seem like any important information."
They both let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, good."
I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. A door opened and slammed shut. I turned around and saw Austin huffing at the front door.
"Glad you could join us, big brother." Andy smirked as he dished out food.
"Piss off," Austin grumbled.
"It's dinner," Alec pointed out before he could disappear again.
"I'm not hungry,"
"But we always have dinner together," Andy said, "that's the one and only thing we ever do together, Austin. We can't stop this tradition now."
Austin thought for quite a long moment, then sighed and walked back to the kitchen, sitting down at the island. He gave me a small smile and referred to the next across from him. "Sit, Mariana."
For some reason I looked at Alec, whose eyes were burning holes in me. I quickly sat down and averted my gaze, because if looks could kill, I'd surely be dead.
"Tonight's dinner is spaghetti and meatballs," Andy sat down for steaming plates of spaghetti. My eyes widened at the amount. I never had a serving of food this big in my entire life.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, Mariana," Andy chuckled, "is there something wrong?"
"N-No," I answered quickly, "it's just the amount. I've never had this much food to myself."
"Ever?" He asked.
I nodded. "Ever."
"Wow," he and Austin replied.
Alec looked up. His eyes were soft and filled with concern, but they turned cold again and he looked away.
"Your dad's supposed to be some kind of businessman, isn't he?" Austin asked. I dropped my fork. My heart raced tremendously.
The fact that he knew who my father was and what he did sickened me. I had lost my appetite.
"Yeah," I gulped.
"So I'd expect you to have nicer things," he looked at me in all seriousness, "what's with that?"
I bit my tongue and swallowed the lump forming in my throat. I was going to throw up. I could feel it.
"It's a shit company," I breathed out slowly, "but you wouldn't care."
"I do care," Austin reached over and held my hand.
I fucking lost it. I couldn’t believe I was still here, sitting and having dinner with these animals instead of my family.
I ripped my hand from his and ran over to the door. I tried figuring out the lock, which was quite complicated, but two strong arms wrapped around my stomach and hauled me backwards.
"No, no, Princess," Alec whispered in my ear. "You're not going anywhere."
"Let me go!" I cried. I continued to kick and thrash in Alec's arms.
He wasn't letting go, and I don't think he was even struggling to hold on to me.
"Give her something to calm her down," Austin said, "she can eat later."
Alec carried me up the stairs and into my room, throwing me down on my bed. I got up again to run past him, but he held me down with one arm as he fished something out of his pocket.
I felt a sharp pain in my arm, and suddenly the world around me became distorted. Everything was moving in slow motion.
I tried clawing at Alec's face, but I couldn't reach him. My arm was too tired. I finally let whatever was injected in me take over and fell asleep.
three
I took in a huge breath of air as I woke up abruptly, my head pounding and my whole body numb.
I looked around the room, and there he was in all his glory. Alec sat at the desk in the spinning chair, both earbuds in as he hummed along to a song.
I waved my hands frantically, not finding it in myself to speak. He finally looked at me and pulled the buds out of his ears. "Sleeping beauty has awakened," he chuckled.
"Did you fucking drug me?!" There was my voice.
"Yep, although I've never seen someone pass out from marijuana before."
"Marijuana?" I scoffed. "Well of course I had that reaction! I don't do goddamn drugs, Alec!"
"Really?" He seemed shocked. "I think you should, because if you're going to keep having out-bursts like that which result in either me or Andy drugging you, we don't want you dying because you can't handle it."
"Why wouldn't Austin drug me?"
"Doesn't want to hurt you," Alec rolled his eyes, "he's madly in love with you."
What the fuck? Was that why I was here?
"Oops," a wave of realization washed over Alec's face, "I wasn't supposed to tell you that."
"So that's why I'm here?" I laughed bitterly. "Because he's in fucking love with me?"
"That's quite a big mouth you've got there," Alec shook his head and glanced back down at his phone.
"Fuck off," I grumbled and crossed my arms over his chest.
He smiled. "Calm down, Mariana."
"Why are you smiling?" I asked quietly. It wasn't like a gentle smile or anything. It was wicked, which was the... I guess "origin" behind his smiles.
He looked up. "Because this is funny. I mean, you're worried over anything. Austin isn't going to do a single fucking thing to you. His goal is to make you fall for him so you two can date and then eventually get married."
I blinked multiple times, trying to process all the information. So instead of approaching me like a normal person, he stalks me and then sends his psychotic brother to kidnap me?
"Yeah, pretty much," Alec said. I didn’t realize I had voiced my thoughts. "And I'm not psychotic. I think we both know who the psychotic one is amongst the three of us.”
I laid back down and closed my eyes. I wanted to cry. I wanted to go home. I wanted to hang out with Joey on the weekends. I wanted to see my brothers. I wanted a hug from my mother and a nod of approval from my father. I just didn't want to be here.
"Alec?"
"What?"
"What's your problem?"
He didn't say anything at first. I looked at him, and he seemed caught off guard. "I'm sorry?"
"What's your problem?" I repeated. "You obviously despise me, and I met you yesterday. What'd I do to you?"
"That's a story for another time, Princess," he mumbled and stood up.
"Don't call me that."
"And that's only going to make me call you it more," he winked before leaving. I sighed and sat up, bringing my knees up to my chin. I then began to cry. I needed to cry. All my emotions were building up inside and I could physically feel them weighing me down.
"Hey, Mariana, did–" Alec walked back into my room, but stopped in mid-sentence when he saw me crying.
"God," he muttered and ran a hand through his hair. He approached my bed and knelt down beside it.
"Stop crying," he sighed, "look, I can't say I know how hard this is for you because I don't, but there's nothing I can really do for you. I could let you go and take you back where I found you, but Austin would strangle me to death. So, I'll try and be nicer to make this slightly easier for you, but you take this the way you want to, okay?"
I nodded. A part of me appreciated what he just said, but I was still irritated and distressed.
He rubbed my back until I calmed down. "You okay?"
I shrugged. "As okay as I can be. Will I ever be able to be in contact with my family?"
"I don't know," Alec sighed, "I mean, Austin's hesitant with letting you see sunlight, so God only knows what he's going to say to that."
I wanted to cry again, but I held back tears. Never seeing my family again wasn't an option for me.
"What do I do?" I whimpered.
Alec didn't respond. "I don't know what to tell you, Princess."
"Please stop calling me that," I winced and he chuckled quietly.
"I need to tell Austin you're awake," he told me, "he's going to want to talk. Can you handle that?"
"I guess," I mumbled. Austin was the last person I wanted to see right now, and I guess Alec could sense that.
"Pretend to be asleep for like another hour," he whispered and laid me back down, "he'll leave you alone for sure. I'll come and get you just before we leave, okay?"
"Leave for what?" I asked.
"My brothers and I have some business to take care of, so we'll be gone for a while. Unfortunately for you, there's a security system that'll let us know if you're trying to escape, and there are also bodyguards surrounding the premises." He explained.
"You're fucking kidding me," I rubbed my face, "okay, I guess I'll stay up here or something."
"I'll give you your phone, but know that Austin disabled the emergency call thingy." Alec opened the drawer on the nightstand and pulled out my phone.
"How is that even possible?" I huffed.
"You can't really call or text anyone," he shrugged, "just play games I guess."
"He really has everything well thought out," I admitted.
"Alec!" Austin called. "Is she awake?"
"No!" Alec replied. "I'm just... looking for something!"
"Hurry up, then!"
Alec rolled his eyes and stood up. "I have to go, Princess. Don't panic too much. I'm pretty sure Austin can smell fear."
I smiled slightly. Alec winked before leaving the room. I unlocked my phone and stared at the home screen. I couldn't really do anything, so I unraveled my earphones and started listening to music.
***
"Princess," Alec peeked his head into my room, "we're leaving now, so you gotta come downstairs."
I groaned and got out of bed. It surprised me how quickly Alec had changed his attitude towards me. It actually scared me a bit.
Alec and I walked down the stairs and into the living room. Austin and Andy were standing by the front door. All three brothers were wearing similar black suits with different dress shirts and ties.
Must be some official business, or they could be kidnapping another girl. I thought.
"Okay, cutie," Austin walked towards me. My stomach twisted at "cutie". Who the fuck did he think he was?
"We'll be back a little past midnight. Your food's in the fridge, and don't try anything. We have a security system which lets us know if a door or window is opened, and there are bodyguards surrounding the premises so you can't really run anywhere if you do make it outside." He explained.
I know. Alec has already informed me of all that.
The look on Austin's face as he explained everything to me was sinister. I don't know why, but he reminded me of the dude from 50 Shades of Grey. The obsessiveness he gave off was – I knew I used this word a lot – terrifying.
"As long as you don't do anything stupid, you'll be fine." He leaned in and kissed my forehead. I wanted to set him on fire, and no, that wasn't an exaggeration.
"Take care, Mariana," Austin waved before walking out. Alec and And
y exchanged weirded out looks.
"We're sorry about that," Andy mumbled, "just do what he says and everything will be okay."