Love Condemned: Beginnings (6 page)

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Adrian was glad to hear that Miranda did not think he was some sort of freak. The rest of the bus ride went without much incident. They talked a little here and there, even played a couple games to pass the time. When it was time to get off the bus again, Adrian was more than ready. He had enough of sitting in this cramped space, even if it was next to a beautiful girl.

When the bus stopped, Adrian was one of the first to get off since he was in the front of the bus and had his bag with him. Hotel California? Adrian had to laugh a little. All the way across the world travelling through Europe to stay in a hotel named after an Eagles song. When everyone was ready, they walked the two blocks to the hotel. Adrian could see Miranda out of the corner of his eye with her plaid bag at her side. She was definitely a colorful one.

They entered the lobby and Alice started to hand out room keys. He was given the room key to the room next to Miranda. It was the room intended for her friend that could not make it. He was pleasantly surprised that she would still be close. He looked over to her and a smile crossed his face and she smiled back. It felt like they were secretly communicating across the room without using words.

They used the small elevator to go up to the second floor to find their rooms. To Adrian, it was more a death trap than an elevator. He was very grateful that they made it to their floor without incident. Miranda found her room first and Adrian was just next to her, Room 22. Before he entered his room, Miranda said, "
Well.. I'll see you in the lunch room?
" He just nodded and entered his own room.

While h
is room was not the biggest, it was definitely larger than the cramped bus. The first thing that he noticed is the small bed near the window. It did not look big enough to fit his whole body, but he would have to make it work. He threw his pack down on the blue carpeted floor and walked over to the window to see the city of Rome. Much to his disappointment, his window only showed the brick wall of the building next door. Adrian pulled the shades closed, since it was pointless to have them open and laid on the bed to rest before he had to leave. It felt good for him to lay flat and stretch his legs even if they hung off the end of the bed. 

He closed his eyes and listened to the air conditioner turn on and off in a battle to keep the temperature in check. He slowly started to drift off when he heard a knocking sound. It was not for his room, so he was not too concerned, but it sounded close.
He did not think too much more about it and fell asleep for a short nap. 
 

Chapter Twelve

It seemed like a very short time, but his watch said it was just over 20 minutes
since he fell asleep. He was glad that he did not over sleep or he would have missed out on lunch with Miranda before they went on their first tour. He got up and walked into the small bathroom. He saw his reflection in the mirror that showed his unkempt hair and the lines across his face from the creases in the pillow when he slept. He attempted to shake off the weariness as he splashed cold water onto his face. Once he was satisfied with his hair and used the bathroom, he headed out to find Miranda. 

When he left his room, Adrian found Miranda's door open slightly. Adrian thought that maybe she left it open so she could hear him leave his room. He knocked on the door and called out, "Miranda, are you ready for lunch?" He slowly pushed the door open, not wanting to walk in on her without warning. "Miranda, are you in here?" After no answer, he did a short survey of the room. It was completely empty except for her
plaid bag on the bed and some clothes spread all over the place, even a white leather jacket thrown on the floor.

Adrian thought that she must have went downstairs to wait for him and forgot to close her door all the way. He stepped back out of the room and closed the door. When he turned to head back down the hall, a young couple
stood near their door, kissing and giggling. They both stopped to regard Adrian before they got the door open, and then resumed their kissing in the room. Adrian decided to stay clear of the death trap and walked down the stairs. When he got to the lobby, it was empty. He went over to the restaurant in the hotel to find Miranda. He was greeted by a young Italian woman who tried to speak broken English to him. Adrian did not waste his time with her but instead he waved her off and walked into the restaurant. 

Adrian walked the place twice and there was no sign of Miranda. He stopped to ask the host
ess if she had seen a girl matching Miranda's description, but there was no success. He proceeded to ask the front desk the same questions, but only received the same answers. Miranda was nowhere to be found.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As had been a reasonable possibility, Alice walked through the door. "Hello," said Miranda, but there was no response from the tour guide. Instead, she looked over her shoulder once and then continued toward the windows which had been opened. She still hadn't said a word and the look on her face was one that made Miranda think something was wrong. Very wrong. 

With a puzzled look on her face, she regarded how Alice fished a key from her pocket and closed the windows, locking them. Then she closed the curtains. Miranda tilted her head slightly, lowering the hand in which she held her jacket. "Is something the ma--"
 

She forgot the next syllable of t
he word she was trying to utter. Instead of being a friendly, helpful tour guide Alice stared at her and retrieved a small hand gun from her jacket. Alice held her gaze as she raised the gun. For a moment, Miranda wondered if it was even real, but the look in Alice's eyes told her enough. In shock, she stared at the weapon, feeling her heart turn into ice, unable to move. Her jacket fell out of her limp hand, abandoned on the floor. The corner of Alice's mouth twitched upwards while she nodded satisfied and gestured at a corner of the room out of view from the door. Miranda was willing to do pretty much anything if it would spare her life, but her legs were still unable to move. She tried to calm herself enough to take a breath. Alice's face became angry while she gestured at the corner again. Noise came from movement in the room adjacent to Miranda's. 

Simultaneously, both
realized who was in that room. Miranda’s heart was jolting with hope while Alice was grinding her teeth, eager to be out of there. Without wasting more time, Alice leapt forward and grabbed Miranda's arm. She placed the cold steel against her throat causing Miranda to let out a shriek. "Be quiet," she warned in a low whisper with clenched jaws. Miranda had never found herself at gunpoint, but now understood the lifelong traumas one could obtain thanks to that. She was completely confused as to why Alice would be doing this to her. Alice thrust the gun forward and pulled back on her arm. “Move.” Alice commanded, pushing her toward the door. 

I have to get ou
t. I have to find a way out
, Miranda thought frantically, almost panicking. They were now close to the half open door. Miranda scraped together her guts to make a run for it. Alice grabbed her arm and pushed her in the small bathroom, closing the door behind her. 
Focus, Miranda, focus. Control your breathing. It will be okay. You will find a way out
. She found the nerve to close her eyes for a second, to concentrate on her breathing, to make herself calm again. She knew that should would not find peace at the point of a gun, but she had to try to regain her focus. Her eyes flew open when she heard Adrian's voice, muffled by the bathroom door. 
Please, don't come in here, please don't
, Miranda prayed, not wanting to put Adrian in this position as well. Alice was pointing the gun at the side of her head with one finger pressed against her lip in a sign to remain quiet. Obviously she was extremely on edge, a red shade showed on her cheeks and her eyes flashed like a hunter approaching his prey. 

Miranda held her breath
knowing that even the tiniest motions could set Alice off. Half a minute later, they heard Adrian's footsteps leave the room again, and both of them exhaled. With his departure, Miranda felt her heart drop with her chances of getting out of this unscathed. She drew solace in the fact that Adrian might be safe right now. She swallowed, because she realized she had no idea what this was all about. Why was Alice pointing a gun at her? Where there more? Was the whole travel agency in on this? 

Alice had relaxed visibly
though she was still pointing the gun at Miranda. It was difficult for her to fight down the panicking, but Miranda focused on her breathing. There is more to Miranda than meets the eye, and an iron discipline is one of the characteristics you wouldn't quickly connect with her. She closed her eyes for a second and let her legs do the work. Alice poked the shaft of the gun in her back, sending her back into the bedroom. She was still gazing at Miranda while she took out a phone and began typing a message.

About twenty seconds later, the door of Miranda's room opened and somebody walked backwards through the opening. Miranda stared at t
he scene before her as the man walking through the door, with obviously Italian features, dragged along the two blondes that were staying in room 21. He had one in each hand by their hair. They shrieked in pain whenever they lost balance for a moment, and recovered to prevent being dragged over the floor. Both of their faces were stained with tears, their eyes red. 

With her eyes wide, Miranda stared at how the man pushed them both roughly in the room. "What are you going to do with us?!" whispered one of the girls after she sank to her knees. The man looked at her with a disdainful look on his face, saying something unintelligible to Alice, who nodded and took her distance from
Miranda. She positioned herself at the entrance of the narrow corridor that led to the door, with the man on the other side. Not ten seconds later, two more people were pushed inside by a tall Italian, with two guns instead of one. A man and a woman, both older, and Miranda thought she recognized them as her fellow passengers on the bus but she couldn't be sure. She had hardly given any of them a look, since she had been... distracted by Adrian, and everything there was to know about him. 

Chapter Thirteen

The woman
that was just escorted in the room was crying, like the two blondes. Suddenly Miranda saw them for what they were……pathetic. She understood that finding yourself at gunpoint is shocking, but nothing had really happened yet. They were already crying as if their life was over. Miranda averted her eyes from them, determined not to give the bastards the satisfaction of another girl crying. It was pointless anyway. 

T
he subject that had been on her mind for the last twenty-four hours was pushed inside the room with his hands above his head. Her heart stopped for a second. "Adrian!" Miranda exclaimed breathlessly and took a few steps towards him. A hand hit her hard across the face, splitting open her lip and sending her stumbling backwards until she fell on her bed. For a few seconds, she didn't know where she was and what had happened. The world had gone black and spinning. When her vision returned, she was lying with her belly on the bed, staring at the blood drops that had fallen from her lip. The faint feeling of Adrian's hand on her back gave her a little comfort. 

In truth, this was not the only room where people found themselves threatened. Five rooms, all the bigger ones, had been filled with the occupants and unsuspecting staff of the hotel, with the windows and doors locked, all their ways of communication cut off. In fact, Miranda felt a hand feeling roughly through her pockets, finding first her mp3 player and then her phone. The other people in the room received the same treatment.
 

When the dizziness was finally wearing off, Miranda turned around and brought herself in a sitting position on the bed, wiping the blood off her chin before she looked at Adrian.
 

What do they want from us?
Her eyes asked pleadingly.

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Adrian did not know what to do as he paced in the lobby. He was not sure if Miranda had stepped out to roam the city and forgot about him or if she just wanted to be alone. Something deep down in the pit of his stomach told him that something was wrong. Since he could not find Miranda downstairs, he asked the receptionist for Alice's room number and information. He hoped that she might know something. 

As he head
ed away from the front desk, he heard the receptionist pick up the phone and say, 
"He is headed your way."
 Adrian thought that was very odd but his mind was focused solely on finding Miranda. He headed up the stairs toward the third floor where he was told Alice's room was. As he passed the second floor, a man walked down the steps from the third floor. Adrian had not seen him before, so he did not pay attention to the man. If he had, he would have noticed the gun in his hand, calmly at his side. 

When Adrian got close to the man, he felt a pain shoot through his head as the man
hit him with his gun. He fell down hard and rolled down the few remaining stairs to the second floor. Before Adrian could get up, the man stood over him with the gun pointed in his face.
 

"Just shut your mouth and get up."
 The man had a rough voice, probably from years of smoking too much followed by some cheap whiskey. Adrian slowly got up, tried to understand what had just happened. If this man wanted to rob him, why had he told him to walk down the hall with him? 

As they
walked toward the end of the hall, Adrian saw the door to his room. It was not until they stopped in front of Miranda's room that panic set in. The man pushed the gun in his back and made him enter. After Adrian was inside, he noticed several other people, including the two blondes from the bus and an older couple that looked vaguely familiar. Adrian made his way into the room a little farther and his heart sank immediately.
"Adrian!"
Miranda exclaimed and tried to run to him. As soon as she took a few steps, one of the men had hit her so hard that she flew across the room to land on the bed. 

Adrian
had not cared at that moment if the men shot him. "Miranda!" he yelled as he pushed his way past the men and made his way over to the bed. She still whirled from the hit; blood ran down her chin from the fresh cut on her lip. He did not know what else he could do except make sure that she was calm when she came back to reality. Adrian rubbed his hand up and down her back and coaxed her back to consciousness. When Miranda finally woke up, she gave him a look that clearly said that she did not know more than him.

Miranda
moved over to Adrian a bit closer, glad she didn't only have herself to make her feel safe. After a while, her lip stopped bleeding, but her head resumed to pound painfully the rest of the day. At one point, one of the kidnappers disappeared and came back with a big bowl of salad and some smaller bowls to eat from. Apparently they had decided the hostages were human too, and needed something to eat. Nobody ate that day.

Hours had passed before anything happened. They sat quietly in the room with one man and Alice standing guard.
Miranda was leaning against Adrian, with her head on his shoulder and his arm around her waist. He sat with his back against the headboard of the bed. Somehow, situations like these seemed to make it okay to be close to each other. Her body had finally relaxed a bit, thanks to Adrian's arm around her and her own mental exercises.

An unknown man entered the room to speak with
Alice and the man who had hit Miranda across the face earlier that day. He handed Alice a piece of paper. Alice passed it on to the man beside her without even a glance. The unknown man disappeared again while the other read the words on the paper nodding his approval. He scanned the room. Before he had even laid eyes on her, Miranda knew that whatever he was looking for he would find it in her.

The grin
that passed over his face sent a jolt of fear through her body. He grabbed her arm roughly and gave her no time to stand up for herself as he dragged her off the bed. Miranda landed on her knees, and only a few yards further she managed to get to her feet. 

"Out," he said roughly as he pushed he
r hard through the door opening. She bumped into the wall before he grabbed her upper arm again. Something inconvenient started bubbling up inside Miranda, resembling anger and frustration. The vicious grin on the man's face while he squeezed her arm made her frustration reach a climax, her hands turned to fists. 

"Dammit, I can walk by myself!" Miranda yelled at him
. Her face was starting to turn red as she pulled her arm free with a huge effort. Immediately, she felt like she made a mistake doing that. She was ready for the blow that split open the fresh wound in her lip again. She didn't fall this time, but it didn't hurt any less. Wiping away the trickle of blood on her chin, she didn't protest any further when his hand closed around her arm in an iron grip.

The man led her down the stairs and e
ventually they came to the reception area. With wide eyes, Miranda realized there was no staff here and the doors were barricaded with iron poles through the handles. As they rounded the corner, two men in men in black masks holding machine guns were guarding the door. This was worse than she could have imagined. It seemed like the hotel itself had become the hostage.