Captors' Compromise
727 Words
"What is it?", he asked, withdrawing with a frown on his face as he watched her painful expression.
He became even more cautious, assuming it was her pretentious move to escape.
"Sh*t. Sh*t. Why does it have to be now?", she didn't hear his question at all and leaned back into the seat, her forehead sweating as she tried to endure the pain.
Arnold slowly realized that she might be experiencing actual pain.
"Hey, Miss Meyers, are you alright?", he asked, stretching his hand towards her.
"F*ck no. Do I look alright?", her crankiness got the best of her as she moved farther away from him.
Her sudden movement made Arnold's sharp nose catch whiff of the metallic smell of blood.
"What is wrong with you, Glen? Are you hurt somewhere? Do you..."
His speech paused as his eyes widened in realization. He chuckled, "You should have said so from the beginning".
He returned to the driver's seat and stepped on the brakes to stop the car.
He picked out a small burner phone and dialed a particular number.
"Stop the car. Come to mine" and then ended the call.
Glen felt him come closer to her and she panicked. The pain, however, weakened her, making her unable to put up any resistance.
"It's alright, Glen. I have a sister that I used to take care of, you know", Arnold said reassuringly.
Glen stiffened when he came closer, but he seemed to not notice her discomfort.
He pulled up her closer to him, exposing her tied wrists behind her. He went on to remove the blindfold, then he felt her irregular breathing and frowned.
"Is it that painful?", he asked curiously after removing the blindfold.
Her hand which was cold and numb went straight to her abdomen, trying to borrow the coldness of her hands to cool the pain down.
"What do you think?", she said, through gritted teeth.
"You know, it's actually quite funny to see feisty Glen all grimaces like this", he mocked.
"Don't call me by my first name", she said, her voice came out soft, instead of strong as she wished for.
He got closer to her, his brown eyes looking right into her blue ones. He got so close that their lips almost touched.
"Well, your voice sounds like you want me to keep saying your name, Glendita"
For some reason, when he called out her name, she didn't feel angry like she usually did. Besides, the proximity was killing her, she couldn't think straight while looking into those magnetic eyes. Thankfully, Flynn came to save the day.
"What are you doing?", the car door was opened almost with force, almost ripping it.
"Oh, I was untying her and removing her blindfold", he got out of the car after flashing me a subtle smile.
"She's bleeding. We've got to stop", Arnold said in Spanish.
Unfortunately or fortunately for her, Arnold actually opened the windows by a centimeter, allowing her to catch a whiff of the salty smell of sea and coast and also eavesdrop, she pretended to be resting with her eyes closed, all the while enduring the pain and trying her best to be still so that she does not stain the car seat too much.
"She was fine when we were coming", Flynn said, casting a cautious look to Glen which she felt.
"How sure are you this is not her escape plan?"
"Even if it is, she's bleeding, we need to get to the nearest hotel for her to clean up.", Arnold reasoned calmly.
Flynn was still not convinced, so Arnold used the final trump card.
"You wouldn't want to present her like this to him, would ya?"
Flynn contemplated.
"Fine, put her blindfold back on."
"No"
"Reason?"
"Just trust me, for once, okay?"
Flynn cast him a long hard glance and moved straight to the car.
"Wow, look at how you were defending me earlier. Don't tell me you've fallen for me that fast", her voice, albeit a little weak had found its feistiness.
"You really cannot keep your mouth shut, huh?"
"Well, didn't you like me like this?", she answered his question with a question, raising an eyebrow when Arnold looked her through the rearview.
Arnold's eyes quickly moved back to the road and the two enjoyed the comfortable silence as he drove straight to a hotel.
- Writer
