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Emily was terrified.
She didn't know what was happening, let alone where she was. She couldn't see because something was covering her head.
She tried to move, but her hands and feet were tied to the chair where she was sitting. Her breathing and pulse quickened as her fear grew with every passing second.
Suddenly, the sound of a door opening and the light switch being turned on froze her in place.
Footsteps approached her, and the cloth bag covering her head was abruptly removed. Her breath caught, and the light blinded her for a few moments before her eyes adjusted. In front of her stood a woman looking at her with an incredulous expression, and on either side of her were men dressed in dark clothes.
“What the hell is this?” asked the woman, pointing at the blonde and looking at one of the men with a frown. The annoyance in her voice was evident.
The man next to her seemed to hesitate a little.
“She's... the target.”
The brown-haired woman took a deep breath, as if restraining herself from hitting him.
“Are you an idiot?” she asked back with frustration and disdain. “Did you see her clearly? Do you know who the hell she is?”
Emily shrank a little in her place. The tone of voice she was using intimidated her.
Before the man could respond, the stranger spoke again.
“It's Emily Armstrong, you idiot,” she snapped, frowning. “How the hell...?” she huffed in frustration. “She has absolutely nothing to do with Amelie Armstrong.”
The man paled as he realized his obvious mistake, and his partner let out a sigh of disappointment.
“But... she fits the description,” he tried to defend himself.
“Have you been living under a rock?” she pressed the cloth bag against his chest, pushing him. “How the hell could you be so careless as to not realize who you kidnapped?” A sigh escaped her lips as she ran a hand through her hair before looking at the other man beside her. “Get him out of here before I beat him to a pulp.”
The other man, who had an ugly scar on his face, nodded and approached his partner to drag him out of the room.
When the door closed again, the woman sighed once more and shook her head, visibly annoyed by the ineptitude of whoever this guy was.
Emily tensed in her seat when she turned to look at her.
“What am I going to do with you...?” She frowned slightly. There was a look of concern on her face that Emily didn't quite understand.
Then she approached her, surprisingly taking her face in her hands with a gentleness that contrasted completely with the harsh attitude she had shown a few minutes earlier, and examined her closely.
“At least that idiot didn't hurt you, right?” she asked softly. “Are you okay?”
The question caught the blonde off guard. Was she really asking that?
She just nodded slowly, cautiously. Still feeling a little scared.
“Are you going to... kill me?” she asked suddenly, her voice trembling. The question seemed to surprise herself.
The brunette opened her eyes in astonishment.
“Kill you? Oh, my God. No,” she said quickly, letting go of her face. “Please forgive me. If that idiot did his job right, you wouldn't have to go through this ordeal.”
Emily frowned. Something about the other woman's condescending attitude confused her. Wasn't she supposed to be some kind of... criminal? Why was she being so nice to her?
Then, a small thought popped into her mind.
“What will happen to... the other woman if they find her?”
Her captor smiled a strange mixture of understanding and pity.
“The less you know, the better for you.”
The blonde had the unpleasant feeling that it wasn't anything good, and she didn't ask any more questions. But the idea that they were about to do the same thing to her because of a mistake was something that turned her stomach.
“Are you thirsty?” the brunette asked suddenly.
Emily hadn't noticed until that moment, but her throat was dry.
With some hesitation, she nodded.
“I'll be right back,” announced the other woman, leaving the room a few seconds later.
When she was alone, Emily's mind began to process everything.
One moment she was walking alone down the street, and the next she had been kidnapped by what she assumed was a criminal gang or something similar.
Worst of all, perhaps, was that it had all been the result of a mistake. They had confused her with someone with a name and appearance conveniently similar to hers. How lucky for her.
It all seemed like a bad joke, except that she was still tied to the chair.
A few minutes later, the door opened again. The brunette entered the room with a bottle of water in her hand, and Emily couldn't help but take a closer look at the woman.
The stranger's hair was long and brown, her features delicate, although her skin looked a little pale. She wore simple silver earrings, but they looked good on her. Her clothes were black, like those of the men.
“See anything you like?” her captor suddenly asked, causing the blonde to startle a little and blush. “Don't worry, I'm just kidding,” the woman smiled as she opened the bottle of water. “Let me help you. I can't just let you go.”
Carefully, she brought the mouthpiece to her lips and tilted the bottle for her to drink.
Emily had never felt more grateful.
When she finished drinking, the stranger set the bottle aside with a strange gesture that resembled satisfaction. That didn't give her a good feeling.
“So...” the other woman murmured, putting her hands in her pockets. "I think you're smart enough to get out of here and not report this to the authorities, right?"
The blonde opened her mouth, but the words stuck in her throat.
“I'm going to let you go,” announced the brunette, raising her index finger. “I just need you to cooperate with one thing.”
“What thing?” asked Emily.
“You have to tell me which hotel and which room you're staying in.”
That made the blonde frown and shake her head.
“No. No way,” she said, regaining a little more of her usual personality. “I knew it was too good to be true.”
The brunette sighed, raising her wrist to check the time on her watch.
“Honey, listen to me,” she murmured, her voice as soft and pleasant as ever. “In a minute and a half, you're going to pass out, and if you don't tell me what I need to know now, we're going to have to leave you lying in the middle of the street. And that's not going to look good for you tomorrow on the news sites.”
Emily stiffened when she heard her, but then her mind remembered the water bottle. She had put something in it. Of course.
“Well?” the woman asked.
The blonde grimaced. She didn't have much choice. Anyway, she was right. If they left her lying somewhere random in the city, there would be too many questions to answer, and she wasn't sure she would be able to do that.
She ended up telling her exactly what she needed to know.
“Very good,” her captor smiled.
At that moment, the blonde began to feel the effects of whatever the woman had given her. She wasn't going to lie. She was afraid that she was lying to her, and that the outcome of all this would be different.
“Good night, Emily,” she murmured.
When the blonde opened her eyes again, she did so in that familiar hotel room, disoriented and with a slight headache.
She sat up, and the memories of the previous night quickly came flooding back. Her breath caught in her throat in shock.
She quickly looked around to make sure she was where she was supposed to be, and when she turned to the nightstand, her cell phone was there. She had a bunch of missed calls and unanswered messages from the rest of the band.
Her hands trembled as she answered one of the group messages saying she was okay.
Because... she was, right?
It took her all morning to try to recover a little from what had happened. Maybe she was even failing miserably at hiding how paranoid she felt, but with a little faith, nothing else was going to happen to her.
Days later, while trying to occupy her mind with something other than that event, she came across a missing person notice on the internet.
Amelie Armstrong.
A chill ran through her body, and she closed her phone's browser.