Two (2870)

"So, where are wo going, mighty stranger?"

Now they were two blocks away of her five stories structure, which her apartment was on the second floor, Ran felt more brave to talk freely to her kidnapper. Not that she will call him so, still fearing he could harm her family in some way.

"Antwerp. Just stay close to me."

"I would like to know your name before that."

He didn't appreciate her humour and pulled the string of her backpack closer to him.

Standing that close, she realized the difference of their height and mused that even if she tried to run he would catch her easily with his long legs. That and she didn't have her phone to call for help.

And if she tried to cry 'fire' to gather stranger's help, her kidnapper could just say she's his little sister that wanted attention. Or worse, his daughter.

"And how are we going there? By foot?"

No answer, of course.

After waiting for some times at the crosswalk, a car pulled up before them and he pushed her discreetly to open the door on the back.

Right, he had accomplices. At least, she's now reassured they won't be walking from Brussels to Antwerp.

Once inside the car with tainted window, Ran gazed at the driver who was an Asian looking woman. She wore thick glasses that were obviously fake and tons of piercings on the nose and lips. One was even a chain that linked to her eyebrow which was a first for Ran. Unless it was as fake as her glasses just so it could cover her face.

"I had several question. Do you kidnap people by making it look like they did it on their own will? Because the whole thing seemed to be planned for awhile, no forced lock to not look like you broke in, you didn't take anything beside the target and, to curious eyes, if there are because it was an ungodly hour to stay outside, it looked like just a group of Asian making their way for a trip. "

"You're 18. It's no longer a kidnapping but an abduction."

"Details."

Ran caught the driver's eyes, almost covered by bangs, fake too she mused, and saw mirth in it.

"We did plan it. You were quite easy to find since you posted video of yourself."

And the voice turned out to be male. Why not, they did disguised themselves, so why not pull it out to there too.

"It wasn't like I told everyone where's my address."

She didn't post video online like YouTube, she actually had an avatar instead of showing of her real face and a pseudonym, but it seemed it pleased Twitch's watchers. At first, it was a private thing to just play online game with her classmates, the same ones she had a last gathering a week ago, but someone suggested they posted online or just play live to earn easy money. Ran was quite wary at first, she knew about influencers and how it could turn bad really fast, with cyberbullying or sexual harassment, hence her putting on avatar, but people just like her voice or maybe what she says because she started having quite the numbers of followers.

"No, but you always record from the same personal computer which was easy to found online. Since, you know, nothing's private anymore once you're connected."

"So, my phone-"

"You don't have to worry about it," her abducter told her.

"What if they tried to call me? They would suspected something if I don't answer."

"Don't worry, we're already prepared for this situation."

Except, Ran was worried. The whole thing was planned to the last details and she really wanted to know what she did to deserve to be taken, like, literally.

"Well, if that's so, you don't mind I eat my dinner? Since someone had to break into my house before I could do so."

As no-one said anything, she digged into her still warm meal, letting the travel fell into silence.

They arrived not long after, the road being quite desert at this hour. The fake woman parked in front of a three-story house with such fluidity, Ran didn't actually noticed they arrived. When the big guy get out, she thought it was to check something on the car but then the fake woman opened the door on her side and prompted her out.

"Come on, honey. Our friend's waiting for us."

Smoothing the voice low enough, it sound fairly like a real woman. 

Ran get out and almost forgot her bag before seeing the other had already taken care of. They get into the building with an access code which mechanism looked like a lot like one of an airbnb. They reached the first floor apartment and the fake woman unlocked the first door.

It seemed empty at first, before the switch got turned on by someone other than them and another person appeared behind a wall.

Ran got stunned again to see her previously stalker in the same room.

As the door closed behind her, fear invaded her vicously and cold horror freeze her on the spot while her two abducters settle themselves in the house. She's brought back to the moment when she saw her bag put on the floor against another travel bag.

"What's that duffel bag for?" She had to ask to distract herself.

"All your new possessions. You're going to put everything you brought into the washing machine before we got rid of those tomorrow morning."

"Why did you told me to bring them with me if we're going to throw it away?"

The look he sent to her made her feel stupid. Which she started to think so as she realized it was part of the act to make her family think she was on travel on her own will.

"How are you going to get rid of it? Burning them?"

"In the middle of the city? No, we're giving it for charity, there're those clothing drive we could dump it all. But we need to get rid or your fingerprints first so you had to put them in the machine. We're also going to get rid of your ID, put them in the bag with your house keys and phone so we could deposit it in the mail box. The postman will be in charge to send it to the civic centre who will keep it for the time duration of our trip."

"Now that we're on the subject, where are you going to take me to? And who are you people?"

"To Thailand," the big guy said before leaving the room for another one as if his answer was final.

His accomplice watched him leave before giving back their attention to Ran who glared at the man's back.

"Forgive Sun, he had to rest for tomorrow. It's going to be a long day for him."

"Tell me about it. My evening was also full of surprise."

The fake woman smiled sympathically at her while still texting something on his phone.

"So, can't I at least have your name? I mean, I know that the man who stunned my mother was Sun, but what about you guys?"

"Once again, please forgive him, it was a necessessity. You can call me Luan."

"Alexei," said the stalker.

"A necessessity? I don't think so. Alexei, you're the one who followed me a week ago, right? If you had just talked to me that time, we would have avoid everything that lead up to now."

"I doubt you would have follow me, a stranger. Even after I saved you from that mugger, you were looking at me weirdly."

"Because you were following me for blocks! And maybe I could have considered following you for whatever you took me for!"

"Right, a friend of us wanted to see you," Luan supplied unhelpfully.

She waited for him to detail but when he didn't, she thought about if she would have follow Alexei if he had told her that. Probably not.

"I would have probably thought about following you," so she lied.

And they saw through it.

"Anyway, now you're here, you just had to follow us. It won't take too long. You could even return before the civic centre had to destroy your possessions."

As retention period of lost goods varied from cities, Ran had to guess this surprise travel would take about two to three months. It could also be a month or four, though she would like the former, of course.

"So, if we're going to get rid of my passport, I suppose that we're not taking the plane to Thailand?"

"You're supposing right. We'll be doing some detour and had your face be seen by some people so your family won't suspect of anything. Which, you should answer the call to reassure them."

She did so earnestly, but also because she found it conforting to have her belongings at reach. However, it would be the last time. She took a breath and took her father's call in a whispering tone.

"Papa? Well, you read the note, I'm travelling now. I'm- I'm with friends. For a roadtrip. I know I should have told you but you and mama were being paranoid because of last time and-"

She stopped and was really relieved to hear her mother's voice asking her the same questions her father asked just a second ago. She still answered every one of them.

"I mean, I was surprised too, you fell asleep as soon as you opened the door. I dragged you to the sofa by myself and ate while waiting for you to wake up. But then my friends called me and said they got the car so we had to go now, right this instant, so, here we are. The friends? They're all asleep by now, we're going to Netherland at dawn, so we had to sleep early. Anyway, I call you later and send you pictures, bye, love you all."

She's ashamed how she lied so easily.

She took a picture of the tv post where part of the duffel bag appeared and scheduled a mail to be sent by tomorrow's evening for each one of her family members' email. Then, she turned off the phone to save battery. None of Luan and Alexei seemed to be paying much attention to her, leaving some sort of privacy after barging in her life.

"I don't know anyone from Thailand, though."

"He's not from Thailand, he just stationned there at the moment. OK, time's running, put your clothes in the washer and your phone in this bag. Pick what you need in the duffel and go wash yourself or don't, but you need to rest."

"Where?" She asked after putting all her future-ex-personals clothes to be washed of her mark.

"There's only one room left, so you'll be staying there for the night."

"Oh wait, I don't have pajamas. I mean, not because it's in the washer, I actually didn't even thought about bringing one."

"In the duffel bag."

Not actually believing they even prepared this, she checked the contents and was more than dumbfound to find three set of new pajamas still unwrapped, a dozen of summer tops, half-dozen of trousers, as much of stockings and even more surprising to discover those to be compression as her bottom happened to swell from time to time.

Not much recently, but still nice to have one at reach and almost creepy that they knew she needed them. Same for set of panties of two sizes, idem for socks which almost explained Sun's order, but not much.

"Wait. I don't want to nag but I don't need bra."

"Me neither, but the pocket that hold pad could be used to hide some other materials."

Ran checked, not undiscreetly, Luan's buxom torso that looked indeed very real and hold probably very lethals weapons like sedatives darts in one pad and a mini stun gun in the other. She then checked the pocket to hold pad to see it was already sewed for more space. Because she lacked a lot in that area.

"You'll test later what you want to put in them, are you going to use the bathroom or not?"

She hurried herself in the bathroom for a quick shower and some skincare as she did bring them with her and brushed her teeth with her brand new toothbrush paired with the toothpaste. As she went to her room, she found it nicely decored and was definitely convinced it was an airbnb.

To think they booked one flat just to look normal so they could leave a trace of her passage.

Everything was planned profesionally and almost like an organized crime thingy and Ran wondered again how she came into this. Who was that person who wanted to meet her and put some profesional group to take care of her? Though it was an abduction, the whole thing was made so no one would think bad and even herself wasn't actually in bad posture.

While she felt like she would never sleep due to all the thinking, she fell deep asleep to the point of snoring peacefully.

 

She didn't wake at dawn, but they definitely did.

As she strolled half-awake to the bathroom for a morning skincare, she heard someone coming back to the flat and going into conversation in a foreign language. Thanks to her culture of kpop and the companies selling more and more Thai idols, she could say it was Thai, though she didn't make up any word.

Once refreshed and changed, and all her new furnitures stored in her toiletry bag that she put into her travel bag, she joined the group asking what's for breakfast. Alexei swallowed a sip of his beverage before answering her.

"Pasta and miso soup."

So he was drinking a bowl of miso.

"Pasta for morning meal?"

"I like how you're not peeved by the association but more by the main meal."

"Well it's not really something you eat for breakfast."

"You Japanese people ate rice for breakfast."

"Because it's nutritious. Pasta's hardly, researches said it even lose weight because the glycemix index is low."

"It also contains slow sugars which help your digestives system to keep snacking," Luan intervened. "And it's a starchy foods like rice. Now it up."

"Why? Are we in hurry?"

"No, but if you keep wasting time for breakfast, you're going to lunch late."

"And what will we have for lunch?"

Sun stared at her then at her plate in a subliminal message.

So she digged in and had to admit she was full by the time she had to down her soup. Though, she accepted the tomato Luan gave her as it would help her digest.

"We need to check out before noon, and although we're on schedule, we had to leave before that time. Did you make sure you have everything with you?

Ran glanced at the two travel bags with a pensive look. Her new pajamas were in her now empty bag along her toiletry bag, and she didn't have any other belongings than those they were going to get rid nor did she wear any accessory like earrings or hair clip.

"Yeah... Oh, right, do I also have to put my wallet with the rest of my belongings?"

"You're asking it now? We already put the bag in the post box."

Ah, well, looked like she will keep it with her. Not that she had much inside, just some cash in euros as she's not allowed to have a bank account. So, all the money she made with Twitch, she put it on her brother's account. Brother was not happy when he discovered it.

"Will we be stopping in some euros zones?"

"We'll see on the way. Here, wear these."

Ran took the sunglasses and the cap to hide her face, which wouldn't be suspicious in this weather, and now almost looked like Luan's miniature. Himself threw away the fake bangs and all the piercing to put on a straw hat and some luxuous sunglasses to conseal his identity. The thick glasses actually went to Alexei who also put a medical mask and was fake coughing while doing a last tidying. Only Sun didn't put much of a changement and just wore a pair of sunglasses before he picked up the duffel bag while already having a full backpack on his back.

"What's in there?" She asked with curiosity.

"Your washed clothes. Damped."

"You didn't dry it? It's gonna smell musty inside."

"It will help hide other scents."

She didn't dare ask what scent he was refering.

"Then, what's in Alexei's bag?"

"Fruits. For when you feel like it."

"You said that pasta wouldn't make me crave snacks." She shouldn't feel that conceited when retorting it but she always felt petty about pasta.

"Fruits aren't snacks. Also, here, some grated carrots, it'll be your lunch."

"Thanks but I already had my bento box that's more consistant than this plastic wrap. Oh, right, I had to wash it."

"Next time, we need to go."

"But you said we have until noon."

"Before noon. It'll be ten and we have some walking to do."

"What about the car?"

"It was rented, we returned it this morning. Come on, don't be a baby, it's only a few kilometers and your bag isn't even that heavy."

It's light like a feather but that's not the point.

"Fine, you could eat some mashed potatoes once at Rotterdam."

"How are we going to go there? By train?"

"No, boat. We booked it and we're going to miss the appointment time, so hurry along, alright?"

Sun's definitely not the patient one. Luan gave her a nice smile before prompting her out of the airbnb, leaving the last bit of normality behind.