Chapter 86 Her Raw Fear.
Chapter 86 Her Raw Fear.
Chapter 86.
Bunny’s POV.
The restaurant was chaotic now, and lots of people were being dragged away, but amidst all of this, my only prayer was that Clara should not come out. I prayed with everything inside me that she would just stay hidden in that restroom. I truly prayed they wouldn’t find her, because if they laid their rough hands on her too, I would never forgive myself.
I was scared. Deep down inside my chest, my heart was hammering so hard I thought it would burst, and my entire body was shaking uncontrollably. But in that exact moment of absolute panic, two pairs of rough, heavy hands locked onto my arms, and they dragged me straight out of the crowd.
“Let me go! Get your hands off me!” I screamed, a sudden wave of desperate adrenaline rushing through my veins.
I thrashed wildly, trying to break free from their vice-like grip. I didn’t want to go with them. With every ounce of strength I had left, my right hand shot forward, and I tried to slap the man closest to me, pushing him away with all my might so I could run for my dear life.
But I didn’t even get the chance. Before my hand could make contact, the leader of the men swung his heavy arm back and landed a brutal, staggering slap right across my face.
SMACK!
The sheer force of the blow snapped my head violently to the side. The impact was so loud and heavy that a sharp, high-pitched ringing immediately exploded inside my ears. I stumbled blindly, my vision going completely blurry for a terrifying second. The pain was instant and scorching, radiating across my entire cheek, and a metallic taste flooded my mouth as the sharp edge of my lower lip was cut open against my teeth. Warm blood began to ooze from the wound, trickling down my chin.
“Keep your fucking mouth shut and move!” the man growled, his voice deep and menacing.
Before I could even process the burning agony in my face, I was aggressively hoisted up by my arms and dragged straight through the shattered glass doors of the restaurant. They hauled me across the pavement and threw me directly into the back of a large, blacked-out van, slamming the metal doors shut behind me.
Sitting in the pitch-black interior of the moving van, I was completely paralyzed by fear. It was a suffocating, blinding kind of terror that made my throat tighten so much I could barely swallow. My hands were trembling violently, and my breath came in short, ragged gasps. The air inside the vehicle smelled heavily of rust, sweat, and old gasoline, making my stomach churn with nausea. I curled myself into a tight ball against the cold metal floor, clutching my bruised arms as the van sped recklessly through the streets of New York. I had no idea where I was going, and the complete helplessness of the situation was tearing my sanity apart.
After what felt like an eternity, the vehicle suddenly screeched to a halt. The back doors were yanked open, exposing a bleak, dimly lit area. The place looked exactly like a massive, abandoned warehouse, surrounded by overgrown weeds and rusted metal beams.
Without a single drop of gentleness, the men reached in and pushed me straight out of the van. The moment my feet hit the uneven ground, I lost my balance and fell heavily onto the gravel, scraping my palms. Before I could even attempt to stand up, two of the men jumped down from the vehicle, grabbed me by my shoulders, and began dragging my body across the rough concrete floor of the warehouse entrance.
They made me kneel on the hard floor, but they didn’t stop moving, forcing me forward while they dragged my knees brutally against the gritty surface. The sharp rocks and rough concrete completely shredded the fabric of my trousers, letting my bare skin scrape painfully against the ground. Red-hot streaks of agony shot up my legs as the friction tore my skin apart.
“Go away! Please, leave me alone! Just let me go!” I sobbed, my voice raw and broken as I tried to pull back.
I was crying hysterically, the tears mixing with the sweat and dirt on my face. My skin was burning with a terrible, stinging fire from the raw scrapes on my knees and hands, but most importantly, my heart was breaking into tiny, jagged pieces.
The physical pain was nothing compared to the agonizing confusion twisting inside my brain. Who did I hurt? Who did I offend so badly in this life that they would send armed men to kidnap me? Who was after my life? Was it Daniel trying to punish me for walking away? Was it Beige seeking revenge because of Xavier?
I looked around the dark, cavernous warehouse carefully now, my tear-filled eyes blinking back the shadows as I scanned the room. My breath hitched in my throat. All those other customers that they had rounded up and kidnapped at the restaurant… they were not here. The room was completely empty except for me and these four heavily armed men.
A cold, horrifying realization settled deeply into my bones. They hadn’t conducted a random restaurant robbery. They hadn’t been after those other people at all. They were strictly after me from the very beginning.
The weight of that realization settled in completely, and I began to question myself frantically. Oh my God… who have I wronged? Why is someone coming after me like this? And how did this person even know exactly where I would be today?
Was it Xavier?
No. I shook my head violently from side to side immediately, forcing the thought out of my mind. Xavier would never do something like this to me. He might have been a deceitful fool who used my emotions for a stupid campus bet, but he would never resort to this level of cruelty. He could hurt my emotions badly, but I knew deep down he would never want to see me physically harmed or bleeding on a warehouse floor.
Could it be Daniel?
Could it? I shook my head at the thought again, my brows pulling together. Daniel didn’t even know I was going to leave the luxury house today. He didn’t know my schedule, and he certainly didn’t have the kind of massive criminal connections required to hire four heavily armed men in professional gear to storm a high-end restaurant.
At the very end of my frantic thoughts, my mind reluctantly landed on one final person.
Clara.
A sudden, sickening shiver ran down my spine. I tried so desperately to shake the feeling off, forcing myself to repeat over and over again in my mind that Clara was my best friend, that she loved me, and that she would never come after me. But it was really, really hard to do. In that quiet, terrifying moment, every single piece of evidence pointed directly at Clara.
First, she had, out of nowhere, invited me out to a specific, secluded restaurant location. Then, the exact moment I arrived and started crying, she conveniently left the table to go use the restroom. And just a few minutes later, these armed guys arrived, ignored everyone else, and brought only me to this isolated location.
Regardless of how solid the dots were connecting in the dark, I clamped my teeth together and pushed the thought away completely. I refused to believe it. Clara was the only person who had stood by me when everyone else treated me like garbage. She would never do anything to harm me.
Before I could think any further, the men lifted me up and pushed me down onto a cold, metallic chair in the center of the empty space. They wrapped thick, heavy ropes around my torso and wrists, tying my weak, exhausted body tightly to the chair until the cords bit into my skin.
Once they finished knotting the ropes, I swallowed down the bitter taste of blood from my cut lip, looking up at them with wide, pleading eyes. “Why are you doing this to me?” I asked, my voice trembling but clear. “Why are you after me? What do you want? If it’s about money, just tell me how much you want. I can get it for you. Just tell me!”
The four men looked at each other for a brief second. Then, a dark, mocking silence filled the room before they all burst into a loud, booming chorus of laughter.
I felt incredibly sad and completely heartbroken by how easily ridiculed I was. I was nothing but a joke to them… a helpless little girl tied to a chair, begging for her life.
The leader of the group stopped laughing, a disgusting, slimy smile spreading across his face as he stepped closer. He reached out, using the cold barrel of his gun to lift my chin up so I was forced to look at him. “You truly are a fine little fish, Bunny,” he sneered, his eyes scanning my face. “It would be a total fucking waste to kill you just like that.”
Kill?
The exact moment that horrifying word met my ears, my eyes widened in absolute panic. The remaining air in my lungs vanished, and I began to thrash against the heavy ropes, looking around the dark warehouse in a wild, frantic search for any escape. “What did I do to you people?! Please! Why do you want to kill me? I don’t even know who you are!”
The men let out another dark, low chuckle. The leader leaned forward, his face coming so close to mine that I could smell the stale tobacco on his breath. “You don’t have to wrong us directly, sweetheart. As long as you have wronged our boss, your life is forfeit.”
I was trapped in a vortex of pure fear and agonizing pain. Hot, silent tears rolled continuously down my cheeks, dripping onto my collar as I thought about the terrifying fact that I was going to die in such a cold, dark, and isolated place without ever seeing the light of day again.
But my ultimate horror movie didn’t even begin with the fact that I was going to die. The true nightmare began when these exact words slowly left the mouth of their disgusting leader.
He turned back to his men, a sick, perverted glint in his eyes as he looked over my tied body. “Killing her right away would be far too easy for a girl this pretty. Let us all take turns with her first… each of us, over and over again, until she is nothing but a walking corpse.”
My eyes widened in absolute, paralyzing horror. My heart stopped beating completely, and a fresh wave of heavy tears rolled down my face as the disgusting weight of his words crashed into my soul. I realized exactly what they were about to do to me. They were all going to rape me. All four of them. And there was absolutely nobody coming to save me.