Months of trailing the whole Hanson clan, the numerous bodyguards, the other unidentifiable members of their crew had finally been compensated. Seeing only the money, a reward for the alleged safe return of the worlds beloved Hanson kid; any one of them would have done, he had just seen his chance and taken it. He shot a look up to the protruding heavens and laughed arrogantly, somebody up there must love me! he thought ironically and proceeded to drive.
Having long since run out of money to feed his habits he had turned to petty crime and gradually made the progression to, what seemed like big-time crook in comparison- he had no cronies, no helpers he had only himself and the voice in his head which advised and helped him; never hindered, not like his own thoughts often did.
Having spent weeks beforehand gathering information on the now worldwidely succesful Hanson brothers he had secretly trailed them, through each city, each state included in their sell-out tour, never once anticipating how difficult carrying out his plan would become. But, it had happened so quickly and he had silently thanked the being who he believed had produced that opportunity.
A short drive later, barely exceeding ten minutes, he pulled the van into a small alley and quickly scanned the surrounding neighbourhood- one in which all doors and windows were securely locked as soon as night fell for fear of the various gangs who inhabited the area. Noticing the quietness he took the opportunity to quickly drag the two into his ground floor flat before he was observed by a general passer-by.
Once in he set about handcuffing them to a small bar which he had installed close to the ground, set deep into the wall it was entirely secure; he had left foundations such as this in small flats over the country and took a seat at a small, round, wooden dining table lighting a cigarette and praising himself over a job well done.
Conciousness found him as a silent prayer wished it hadn't, sharp pains raced through his head and subsequently ran their course through the span of his body each time he moved whether it be his whole head or just his eyes the sensation it caused was unbearable. Lying for minutes, eyes tightly shut so as to refrain from any type of movement he was blissfully unaware of his current situation, only able to see the pain and nothing beyond for the time being.
Gradually the ache started to subside and after what seemed to be hours of suffering he was able to open his eyes and attempt to focus on his surroundings. His eyes slowly rolled around the extent of the room, incapable of settling on one thing until he was drawn to the handcuff clamped around his right wrist. Staring at it for a moment he tried to reason with himself, Zac, what's he been doing? the first theory to invade his thoughts. But, as he took hold of it and tugged he realised that this was the real thing, not fake, not plastic- real metal, hard and unbreakable. Panic started to set in as he became unable to think clearly, his breathing became irregular as he took short shallow gasps. He wrenched forcefully with his arm, pulling his whole body force into it but unable to budge the cuff, tugging at it a few more times in a vain hope to free himself he gave up and tried instead to pull his hand through the small hole, examining the minute gap between the cold metal and his aching flesh. Blood rythmically pounded through his head and his shallow gasps were leaving him short of breath but still he continued his fruitless struggle for freedom.
"Don't bother kid." a deep harsh voice emenated from across the room, a voice which ended his struggle, frozen like a deer in the headlights of a speeding car. Breaking the trance he jerked his head violently towards the voice and saw, for the first time a man sitting at a dingy, damaged table. Taylor gazed at the man, bewildered and frightened, after two attempts he eventually found his voice and spoke.
"Who are you?" his voice barely audible quivered with the intensity of his panic. The man slowly took a long drag on his cigarette and after stubbing it out on the table arose and made his way towards Taylor. Taylors first instinct was to back up, try to get as far away from this man as possible but, this was proven impossible as his limbs refused to move from their current position and so he just stared at the rapidly approaching figure.
Squatting down before him the man grinned, an insane moulding of his hideous features which refused to touch the area near his eyes and exhaled the smoke into Taylors face. The concept of breathing had long ago become only a vague idea to him and so the smoke only gathered around his head in a misty halo before breaking up and vanishing into the musty air of the room.
"Call me Danny." he uttered a small laugh, one lacking in humour which sent intense chills running through Taylors spine and distributing throughout the extent of his body. He made a vague attempt once again to back away into the wall, his limbs refused to comply. Danny laughed once again and stood up, Taylors eyes trailed his movements throughout the room waiting for an explanation. The mixture of confusion, fright and pain that was forcing rational thought from his mind was too overwhelming, he was unable to find words to speak and instead just stared at the man as he paced the room slowly, he only barely remembered to breath.
"Ok, look kid," beginning his attempt to explain the situation he stopped and lit another cigarette "you're gonna be here for a while- a few days, a week max right." taking a long pull on the cig he continued "As long as you don't cause any, and I mean ANY trouble everything will be fine, ok?" Taylor could only stare at the man, so many questions surfacing but few words able to form on his lips, he could only utter a single syllable.
"What?" every emotion recognisable within him at that moment appeared within that one word, Danny stopped again as a look of triumph came over his face.
"My plan..." Danny spoke patronisingly "is simple. I 'kidnap' you, I request money, I get money, you go free. It 'aint hard to understand mate." Slowly realisation was dawning on Taylor, he watched Danny with an increasing sense of fear which mingled with his returning panic attack. What had only moments before seemed like lung failure suddenly reversed and as every organ began to work at a double rate his breathing became short and raspy, he was unable with each breath to aqcuire a sufficient amount of air which caused him to breath with more speed and intensity than before. Along with this his vision seemed to be blurring and all images melded together to form an immense sea of scarcely illuminated colours of the same tone and texture. This atack wasn't an original occurrence, with Taylors schedule it was often hard to find time to relax and his intense workload occasionaly managed to overcome him. They were rare but not unimaginable and he knew fairly well how to control them.
He initially concentrated on his breathing, once that slowed everything else followed suit; his heart, the pounding in his head and his vision was slowly returning to normal. Taking in Danny's interested, amused face the panic and fear welded together to form an intense hatred and angry bitterness towards this man. In a sudden motion Taylor lunged at Danny but was painfully restrained by the cuff around his wrist, wincing in pain he collapsed to the floor and tried to avoid the face that was laughing at him.
"Want a drag?" Danny was holding the cigarette out towards Taylor, still laughing. Taylor looked at him feeling the intensity of his anger and pain shining through his glistening blue eyes.
"Fuck you!" he hissed and bowed his head.
"Fine." Dannys reply held tones of sudden insane anger. Taylor watched as he walked out of what he assumed was the front door and slam it fiercely behind him.
Taylor sat with his head tucked between his knees for what was in his rough estimation about half an hour, having left his watch at the hotel he had no way of telling the time. However, it didn't seem to matter, issues of time seemed to be unimportant in his present situation. Slowly, agonizingly realisation was coming to him, the numbness was fading and he knew he was in trouble.
He sat and pondered his thoughts for a while as his memory started to return; the storm, the rain which hit his skin going unnoticed, there had only been one thing, one person on his mind.
A small noise caught his attention, a groan not far away. His head jerked painfully up from its resting position and gazed sorrowfully at the girl lay at arms reach, slowly returning to conciousness she was making small indecipherable noises under her breath.
"No..." he muttered, silently weeping in an attempt to relieve the swell of emotions building inside him.