7
Their Kingdom Panorama
/\_____/\
Donghae had dozed off a few minutes later and was awoken when the car heavily braked. Falling forward from his seat he finally registered it into his mind that he’d been kidnapped earlier by two men. The noise from the seatbelts being unbuckled entered his ears before he turned to look at Victoria who was sitting with arms crossed.
The weight of the car shifted when the two men stepped out and seconds later opened both their doors. Even in the depth of the night with the crescent moon above the kidnapper’s face was scarily tough.
“Wh…where are we?” Donghae questioned.
“Get out.” the man replied holding the door carefully.
Stepping out Donghae glanced into the blinding darkness. Of course, in the dead of the night nothing was distinguishable without street lamps. Above all the things he couldn’t make out he could see trees in the distance looming into the night sky. It was a nice view if it wasn’t for the fact that he was being held against his will.
From the other side of the car he could hear Victoria’s loud voice struggling with resistance.
“I said let me go!” her voice pierced the silence. “Leave me alone! Take me back to my house! You’ve no right to treat me like this! I said let me go!”
The car weaved back and forth a bit before the door slammed. Turning around he watched the man grip both Victoria’s wrists together and they engaged into a push and pull war. The sight amazed him. Victoria pulled the man back with such strength that he had trouble keeping his position in one spot. Donghae couldn’t imagine winning a fight over strength with her.
“Let me go!” she screamed. “I haven’t done anything to you! If you let me go now, I promise I won’t report you.”
The man tugged her again.
Victoria let out a scream, “Let go!”
“Would you just shut it?!” the man shouted angrily pulling her with more force and in a second Victoria flew forward suddenly skidding onto the dirt.
Feeling alarmed and worried that the situation could turn for the worse, Donghae ran around the car toward them. He ran in front of the man and knelt on the ground with Victoria.
“Are you ok?” he questioned.
Victoria pushed him with an arm causing him to land on his . Before he could say anything the shadow of a light appeared yards behind Victoria and a tall man stepped out. His face was long with soft features making him look like a reasonable person. Donghae thought for a moment that maybe he might be on their side and help them get away, however, his hopes descended when the drive approached him.
“Took you long enough!” he scolded then turned back. “Get them in there.”
The man that Victoria had been fighting with grabbed both of them by surprise and dragged them toward the shed. And even though Victoria tried to fight him he felt as if her energy had been drained from the struggle earlier as her energy didn’t feel too strong.
They passed shelves with ceramics under the perfectly lit light bulbs above and were brought toward the back of a room stuffed with dirty hay. The man tossed them both into the dark room and shut the door. The tick of the door being locked from outside rattled their ears. Sitting in the long-closet sized room he watched as Victoria helplessly got up and tried to open the door.
“Yah! Open the door, you jerks!” she screamed pounding on the door with her fists. “I said open the door!”
As she relentlessly struggled with the locked door Donghae looked around to see that the only things in the room were the dirty hay and themselves. However, he was soon struck by the wonder of where they were getting their light. Tilting his head up Donghae saw that some 8 feet above them was a small square window. But how in the world would they reach that?
Sighing he turned back shocked by Victoria’s glare.
“What are you doing? Don’t you want to get out at all?!” she screamed. “All the way here, you’ve been acting like a person who wants to be prisoned!”
Donghae just stared at her calmly.
“Why struggle? We’ll get out eventually.”
“Eventually?! How long are you willing to wait? Because I want out NOW!” she went on. “Ugh! I can’t stand you. Even the sight of you! How do you call yourself a man?!”
“What?” he asked then let out another sigh. “I’m a man who can remain calm in all situations. That’s what makes me different.”
“You mean to just call yourself a wussy.” Victoria cussed.
Donghae stared at her for a few seconds with nothing to say then turned and around lie down on the hay with his back facing her. He crossed his arms and stared at the wall.
“Well, it’s not like if I get out I’ll have a place to go to or anybody waiting for me.”
Victoria stared at his back feeling a stammer of guilt jolt her from inside. Pushing the feeling back she let out a moan and continued pounding on the door.
Donghae awoke sometime late in the night and found himself snuggled against Victoria’s back, his forehead leaning into her hair and neck. Moving back he sat up and glanced around the small space. It was too uncomfortable to sleep. Who would have imagined that sleeping on stiff hay was worse than napping on pieces of newspapers? Rubbing the back of his neck he glanced up at the square window. It was seemingly tempting him to try and climb out…the only problem he had was the height it offered.
Heaving another sigh he climbed over Victoria and tried the doorknob wondering if the kidnappers were still outside. He pressed his ear against the door and confirmed that it was silent. Donghae tried the doorknob and as he already knew, it was locked.
Sitting back he let out an exasperated sigh of lost hope. There was no way out and he didn’t know what to do.
/\_____/\
Victoria woke up with a stiff back, sore and uncomfortable from the hard ground she’d been sleeping on. Her neck was even more sore when she moved. Groaning as she sat up she found Donghae sitting with his back against the door. She eyed him as she sat up wondering how long he’d been there.
“Did you find a way out?” she asked stretching her arms.
“Door’s locked.”
“I didn’t ask for news about that.” she spat calmly but seriously.
Donghae eyed the window and tilted his chin upward again and again. Victoria stared at him clueless.
“What…is something wrong with you?” she asked.
“I mean up there,” Donghae finally explained.
Victoria turned around and glanced up at the wide framed window above her. It definitely stood out from the boarded brown walls. How come she hadn’t spotted it last night? Oh right, she had been too hysterical about finding a way out that she’d ignored all else.
“Psh! You idiot!” Victoria scolded getting up.
“What?” he asked watching her.
“Get up!” Victoria ordered.
Following her orders Donghae got up and walked toward her. Once he was beside her Victoria grabbed onto his shoulder and pushed him down. Donghae fell down onto his knees at once.
“Ai…yah!” he shouted looking up at her wondering if she meant to insult him.
“Shut it,” she whispered. “If I climb on you we might just get to the perfect height to break the window.”
“Do you really think you can break the window?” Donghae questioned. “It might have a latch we can open.”
Victoria obviously ignored him as she tried to place her feet on top of him. Confused Donghae pushed her off with his arm.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Don’t you understand?” she retorted. “Aish…you’re so…so dimwitted. Get down!” when he didn’t do anything she continued, “On all fours!”
Still on his knees Donghae began to put his hands on the ground then quickly turned to look at her.
“What?!”
Victoria pushed his head. “Oi! No one’s talking about that! I mean so that I can step on your back!”
“But why me?” he argued. “I’m positive that your back is stronger than mine. Can’t you be the one on the ground?”
Donghae started to get up from his knees but Victoria pushed him back down helplessly.
“How can you push something like that onto me?” Victoria asked. “Just shut up.”
Donghae let another sigh out and did as ordered. Victoria slowly got on top of him and could hear him let out a “Oof” underneath. She snorted a bit at his weakness then once she steadied herself she reached her arms up. She wasn’t even close. Letting out an exasperated moan she jumped down and wiped her hands against the side of her skinnies. Cobwebs that have been abounded were still enact above. The touch of them brought sick nostalgia down .
“It won’t work,” Victoria stated then said, “let me ride your shoulders.”
Donghae, finally on his feet, turned to her unable to believe what she’d just said. “What?!”
“With your height and mine combined we can definitely reach the window!” Victoria sounded more energized.
“No way,” Donghae said plopping onto the hay. “I just that if one of us is able to get out, how will the other escape?”
Victoria finally realized that as an obstacle before pointing out, “The escapee can come from the other side and unlock the door.”
“Oh boy,” Donghae commented. “Do you really think we can get pass those kidnappers? In this shed?”
Victoria blinked a couple of times then shrugged with hands out. “Why not?”
“Are you undeniably naïve?”
“Yah, you’re the one who doesn’t even care about getting out, so you might as well let me get out. And if I care enough I’ll get help and come back for you.”
“But who’s the one that started all this?” Donghae asked suddenly feeling a desire to get out as well. “You’re the one who wanted to stay back and witness that murder and be hero. Now look what it brought us to.”
“It’s not my fault. If you haven’t been stealing and running that way we could have escaped being kidnapped.” Victoria stated. “Aish! I can’t believe I’m locked up again! Just let me get out.”
Donghae stared at her then turned away.
“Arguing about whose fault it is that brought us here won’t do any good.” Donghae pointed out then sighed again. “Ok, lets try again.”
Getting up he walked toward the window and got down on his knees.
“Don’t you know how to do this?!” she scolded again. “If you get on your knees how are you going to get up?! Here, just get up and bend your knees a little.”
“Are you sure you can reach up to my shoulders?” Donghae questioned. “This feels a little weird.”
“Shut it.” Victoria ordered.
Donghae got off his knees and bent them exactly as he’d been told. Victoria stared at his back silently agreeing, now, that it did feel strange. Throwing all distracting thoughts aside she began to get on his shoulders when the doorknob suddenly turned. Panic struck her mind at first and her mind quickly urged her to hurry and get off. However, because her mind was in such a flux she only got her right leg off his shoulder. While working with her other leg she found that it was more difficult because while the door began to open Donghae had turned around. The back of her foot got caught onto Donghae’s shoulder and whilst she fell onto her back bringing Donghae down with her.
His face landed on her stomach below her chest and the two of them turned just when the door fully opened.
The tall man from last night stared at them at a loss of words. He was carrying a portable table with two bowls of warm soup. Victoria and Donghae scrambled to sit up suddenly bowing toward their kidnapper’s ally. He hesitantly bowed back and set the table on the stiff hay.
He cleared his throat, “Excuse me.”
Victoria thought she saw an embarrassed smirk on his face.
“I’ll let you out to the bathroom in an hour,” was all he said before walking out and locking the door.
Victoria stared at the food unsure if she should take a look at him or not. Donghae gulped silently and crawled toward the table picking up his soup. And that concluded their morning adventure.
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