Abduction Crimes

I woke up with a blind fold over my eyes and ropes held me to a chair. I heard voices, but I could not see where they came from. I was confused ‘what was going on? Where was I and who was there?’ I wanted to know.  I felt powerless tied to this hard chair.

I heard a familiar voice in the room. “Under whose authority do you sons of bitches have the right to kidnap us?” I heard the sound of a fist hitting someone in the face. It repeated as more fists beat the poor soul without mercy. Painful grunts came from the person each time they were hit. The violence stopped as they begged the assailants to seize the aggression. This voice sounded mature, male in his mid-forties. Footsteps left the room and the doors slammed shut. I realized I was in a room with another captive. Everything went silent no whisper or sound of movement emerged in the silence.  I sat in silence with the other captive.

Out of the silence I heard “Psst…psst…psst.”  

            “Who’s there?” I asked.  

            “Quiet down Verin, they’ll surely kill us if you don’t shut up!” the man whispered. 

            “Hreiden is that you?” I asked hoping he would be there.

             “Yes, it’s me, your old friend.”  I heard him say.

            “Where are we?” I asked. He fell silent. “Hreiden, Hreiden!” I said quickly expecting him to answer.

            “Quiet…” someone hissed “they’re coming back.”

            “Who’s coming…?” I asked, but it was too late for anyone to answer. The doors opened again and several footsteps came into the room. I grew nervous as they came further into the room. Were these men going to kill me? Why would they kill me? What did I do? I had done nothing! I thought to myself.

            The blindfold was pulled from my eyes. A Vestrisian Colonel stood before me with a pistol in his hand. What did a colonel of the Vestrisian Army of the Vestrisian Republic want from me? I soon recalled the day when the Vestrisian Army gained control over several nations who willingly joined the Vestrisian Union. It was founded by New Valorum, and Naatidra. The Kingdom of Zedarkhaand joined shortly after it was formed demanding their people be exempted from being slaves. Afterwards both Geverin and Ezodel joined in for protection against the Castarian Empire. The Castarian wars shook my bones when I heard it fell to the new Vestrisian Union.

            Memories of the Vestrisian Union’s purge of slavers and slave owners still in the area circled my mind. Then it occurred to me that I was in the purge against slavers. It had been decreed that all women and girls were under the protection of the Vestrisian Army against enslavement. Somehow my name got in the mix of things and they believed I was enslaving people. I knew I had to get out of here, but how?

             I looked around the room and searched for the door. My eyes found two doors one behind the Colonel and the other to the side. I was in a small conference room with the table pushed to the side against the second door. They had us tied to the chairs of the conference room we were positioned in a half circle in the conference room. I was in the far end of the room with the window next to me, which was bolted shut. There were eight other men around me tied to chairs as well. Four soldiers stood at attention against the door with rifles and sub machine guns. Several interrogators stood next to the colonel. The colonel strutted back and forth across the room observing his captives.

            “So…” he snarled “You think you can get away with human abduction?”

            “What are you talking about you ass? I’d never do such a…” one of the captives said to the colonel.

            “SHUT UP!” the colonel commanded, and kicked the suspect to the floor.

            “I will be the one asking the questions. So I expect clear and straight answers! Where are those girls?”

            “You’re out of your damn mind surely there are no girls missing!” I said. I did not understand no one to my knowledge were smuggling people around nor abducting anyone? Was there? To me this was something new. It never occurred to me that anyone would abduct children nonetheless young women. I was always a pious man who treated women fairly despite my faith in Vullan, a deity that called for the women of Vestrisian to serve all men dutifully. Of course I said something to offend this Vestrisian Colonel.

            The colonel shot his pistol at me. The bullet skimmed across my face. It stung as blood trickled down my cheek. “You damn well know what I mean you swine!” He kicked the fallen captive in the gut. It was enough for him to harm me, but kicking the fool on the floor made me feel the pain from watching. Was I really at the wrong place at the wrong time? They had forced me from my temple and into a car? This all came back to me after being out for so long.

            “Where are they?”  The colonel demanded. “Do you realize, those teens have families concerned for their safety? Everyday their parents come into my office asking where they are and if we have found them yet. I had one mother taken out of my office by force, because she wouldn’t leave. You have no idea how hard it is to see a crying mother be dragged out of a building all because she refused to leave!”

            A younger man next to me mocked the Vestrisian Soldiers. “What do we care, you’re losing the war. Those whores are probably in Nymres by now!”

            He shot his foot in response. The young man wailed out in pain. Hreiden criticized the idiot’s foolishness. “Aklire you moron you’ll get us all killed! We don’t want to be hung for crimes we didn’t commit!”

            A man across from him criticized Hreiden. “Really Hreiden you expect them to believe you and kill us, while you run off with the money?”

            “Shut up Gors, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no affiliation with slavers.” Hreiden grew nervous as sweat went down his face. He looked at the soldiers then at Gors a few times.  

            The colonel smiled at Hreiden. “Well, now Mr. Hreiden is there anything you’d like to share with us?” Hreiden did not speak. His lips were shut, never to open again. The room fell into silence with the clock making a ticking noise to break the silence.

             “Enough of this we’ve waited too long for an answer.” The colonel snapped his fingers. A dozen armed soldiers marched into the room. They took us out of the room with their weapons fixed on us as we were released from the chairs. We did not dare struggle, fearing for our lives. They forced us out of the room. We were aggressively moved to another location. There were trucks waiting for us. Once again we were blindfolded and shoved into the trucks. The only sound we heard was the engines rumbling. It felt as though an hour had passed sitting there in the cramp space of the truck. We could barely breathe in the airless dungeon.

            The truck suddenly stopped. I sat there listening for something that would tell us where we were. I heard the doors swing open as voices shouted at us.

            “Get out you bastards!” We obeyed as they pulled us from the trucks. I could not see, so I only felt someone drag me on my feet. The blindfolds were taken off for the last time. Our surroundings were too dark for us to tell where we were. Flashlights were turned on and the beams illuminated our surroundings. They had us lined up along the edge of a bridge over a river that flowed through the city. The river’s current could take anything down the river beyond the city limits.

            The soldiers continued to question us, still asking us for the whereabouts of the missing girls. Hreiden was as stubborn as ever. He mocked the soldiers asking him questions.

     “Ha, you fools must have me mistaken. I have never abducted anyone before. So why should I tell you anything?” He said to their faces.

            “You assholes don’t know anything, I am a Minister! How could I be a part of an organization that abducts humans?” He spat at the colonel’s foot. It was a dumb thing to do when there are seven guns fixed on you. The colonel reached into a pocket on his uniform jacket and pulled out a bracelet. 

    “This bracelet belonged to Celestine Night-Hunter. It was found at the steps of your temple Minister Hreiden. She hasn’t been seen since she was last seen at your temple.”                                  

            Hreiden fell silent unable to say anything else. The colonel lit a cigar. “We could do this all night you know.”

            A motorcycle drove up to us. The biker stopped next to the colonel. He handed a letter to the colonel after they exchanged salutes. Once the letter was handed to the colonel the biker took off down the road. The colonel opened the letter. After he read it he paused staring at it. He looked up from the letter at us. He muttered something and without warning the soldiers opened fire.