I awake to screaming.

Not mine thankfully, although as my frazzled mind starts to piece together the words being screamed I instantly wish that it was me to save my cousin the trauma.

"What did you do to Katie?! Katie please wake up! Oh God..."
I try to open my eyes and bolt up.
I try to run over to wherever my cousin is but my body refuses to respond.
All I can do is remain limp.

Dana's screaming doesn't let up and vaguely I hear another voice try to cut through the screaming.

"Shut up! Rosik, I told you to put the girl somewhere where this one wouldn't see."
It is at this moment that I realise that my head isn't on a pillow but rather another forms legs and as a hand starts stroking through my knotty curls I can guess pretty quickly who has me in their grasp.

"Get off of her and get off of me!"
Dana screams once more, her scream this time even has me slightly cringing as the sharp vibrations pierce the air.

As I cringe I feel Rosiks hand suddenly stop stroking my hair and I can almost feel his hopeful gaze on my face.
I begin to feel tingles starting to form down my limbs but besides that I'm still held captive by my bodies unwillingness to wake.

"Look, Dana right? It's getting late and we are all hungry. I let you out to make us food and that's what you're going to do. Afterwards you can see your cousin but right now you have other more pressing matters."

I hear the threat in Axels voice, his voice has lowered and there is a tinge of darkness behind each word.
The screaming has thankfully stopped and I'm guessing that they are both having a face-off of sorts.

"Katie isn't dead though right?"
I hear Dana whisper after a few beats and it tugs at my heart.
The absolute defeat and sadness in her voice is enough to shatter me but not enough to wake me as I writhe in my silent prison.

"No, she will be fine. She acted stupid and this is the result, you seem like a smart girl Dana. Don't disappoint." Axel murmurs, the relief of being able to talk at a normal volume again is clear in his voice.

"But what did she do?"
There is a moment of silence after Dana's question and I feel the candle dig further in my hip.
She should know what I was doing, I was following the plan.

"What did she do Rosik?" I hear Axel finally question and the legs beneath me tense, not expecting the attention to be thrown at him so suddenly.

"She-She tried to run away. Thankfully I caught her just before she left the property." Rosik quickly replies and I feel my veins heat up as I hear Dana gasp.

"There! No reason to care about your cousin now. She was going to leave you without a second thought. Now for food I want-" Axel tried to steer the conversation back to himself but I've heard enough.

Jerking back to life I sit up suddenly and dash from what I now recognise to be the couch in the lounge.

"You're a fucking liar."
I spit out, glaring at Rosik and at my wobbly yet fiery stance Rosik simply chuckles and stands also.

"You had me worried there for a moment Kitty, you hit your head pretty hard." At the same time I hear Axel mumble something along the lines of 'so glad to have you back.'
Basically dripping with sarcasm but he wasn't my concern.

Neither of the men were.

Spinning around I face Dana who with her tear stricken face and dirty clothes looks so weak that I run to her form and envelope her in a tight hug.

"They're lying Dana, don't ever believe a word that comes out of their mouths. They just want to wedge their way between us." I mutter deep into her hair and I feel Dana nod slowly after a few moments, wrapping her own thin arms around my waist.

"I trust you." Dana mumbles back after a few tense moments and I feel my body sag in relief.

I hear a click and reflexively I tense around Dana, turning my back further to truly block out the men but once I realise that it's not the click of a gun I risk a glance over my shoulder.

"Yet another keeper."
Rosik mumbles as he lowers a camera from his face and I glare at him for ruining the moment.

"Well this is cute and all but I'm hungry so get to it girls." Axel states, walking up to us and thankfully without touching either Dana or myself we are urged forward and into the kitchen.

I'm especially grateful for the lack of contact, I feel extremely vulnerable right now.
The whole dynamic between Rosik and I has changed.

I no longer have to only worry about Rosik hurting me with cuts and bruises, now I have to worry about deeper injuries, so deep that nobody else will see them but me.

As we enter the kitchen I'm relived to see a packet of pasta and a canned sauce on the bench.
At home I always drown my sorrows in carbs so the thought of a plate of spaghetti makes me nearly forget about the last hour.

Axel returns to his earlier seat at the table and not too long after Rosik enters the room also, choosing the chair closest to the back door.

I keep my back to the both of them as Dana and I prepare the meal, sneaking a glance at the round clock on the wall I'm shocked to see that it's eight o'clock at night.
I've been knocked out for longer than I thought, I shudder suddenly at the thought of being in Rosiks care that entire time.

My head is absolutely throbbing, so much so that my eyes are struggling to focus on anything.
As I begin pouring the raw pasta into the boiling pot I use my spare hand to grip the bench, knuckles white and teeth clenched.

I want nothing more than to lie down and sleep this off but I have a strong suspicion that I may have a concussion. I'd rather not die in my sleep so I continue applying all my focus into getting all the pasta into the pot successfully.

"Katie are you okay?" I vaguely hear to my left and feeling as though I'm turning my head through jelly I eventually turn and face Dana's worried expression.
I think I attempted a smirk to silently let Dana know I'm fine but her expression only worsened the crease between her brows.

Reaching up silently I cup Dana's cheek in my hand, the cheek that is still tinged red from the earlier slap and rub my thumb soothingly across it.
Dana instantly leans into my touch and I sigh through my nose, I'm hopeless.

I'm not doing a good enough job at protecting Dana.

"Ladies. Food." I hear yelled in the background and I fight the urge to roll my eyes, the vertigo is already bad enough.

I hand the spaghetti spoon over to Dana who begins to stir the softening pasta.

I can still feel her worried gaze on my face but I ignore it as I identify the cup drawer and take out a flimsy plastic cup.
Filling it up with water from the tap I take my time sipping the water, relieved to find that it calms my incoming headache and sharpens my eyesight.
It's only now that I realise that it's my first drink for the day.

Realising that Dana has also gone without water I quickly refill the cup and pass it to her who quickly drinks the from it.

Feeling much better, the rest of the meal is prepared much quicker and by the time the four plates are piled with spaghetti any trace of my wooziness is gone.

The whole time the meal was being prepared I kept my back to the men and the entire time I could feel their gazes striking my back but I refused to turn.
The kitchen has been plunged in a deep silence during the whole cooking process and that's how I prefer it.

This is by far the most pleasant time I've had in the men's company.

But the serenity is bound to be ruined and I'd rather be the one to do so.
So taking a camouflaged deep breath I pick up two of the plates and I mouth the words 'stay' to Dana before straightening my spine and turning around to bring the plates to Rosik and Axel.

I'd rather not have a repeat of our last meal in here and the only way to keep Dana safe is to keep her as far away from the threats as possible.

I keep my eyes on the steaming plates as I take careful steps towards the small table, pretending to focus on not spilling the food.

In reality however I'm focusing on calming my heart, the sweating of my palms and the shaking that is barely visible to anyone unless they are searching for it which I have no doubt Rosik is.

I know that I shouldn't let Rosik see that he has chiseled his way into my exterior.
I'm passionate about not giving either of these men a single sign of fear but my body continues to betray me.

I finally make it to the table and applying a bit more force than necessary I place the plates in front of both of them.
Only allowing my eyes to find their bodies as I align the plates correctly.

"Bon Appétit" I mumble dryly, just to maintain my charade of confidence.

If I remain quiet then they'll definitely know something is up.
I haven't exactly been a joy to kidnap and I wasn't going to start becoming that now.

I turn to walk away and as expected I see Axels hand reach out to stop my direction, doing what Dana should have done earlier I spin around, swat his hand away and take three steps backwards.
I finally raise my eyes up to his and as our gazes meet I allow my anger to contort my face into a grimace.

"Well one of you has to eat with us at least, we can't have you two just roaming the place."
Axel points out with an eyebrow raised but I still refuse to move.

"Trust us." I mumble.
I try to sound light-hearted but through my gritted teeth I sound more demanding.
As I half expected both men burst out in laughter but I keep my stance stiff, ignoring the prickling sense of anger begin to cloud my judgement I keep my eyes on Axel.

"All exits are blocked, I've checked and you've ensured. We have followed your rules and made you a meal, surely you can let us sit in the lounge and listen to the news coverage on our case."
I reason while keeping my voice steady.

This is the most I've spoken to either of the men without it reeking of hatred and from their slightly puzzled reactions I can tell that they're struggling to accustom themselves.

"We'll keep the kitchen door open and you'll be able to see us the whole time. We just want to watch the news."
I finally finish after a few tense moments of silence.
Axels eyes keep darting to what I presume to be Rosiks in a silent conversation.

My plan is to truly just watch the news tonight.
I have all the tools to get away but first I need to gather some trust from the enemy.
If Dana and I begin to submit to their 'lifestyle' then we should hopefully get more privileges like privacy.

"Why give yourself hope?" I hear Rosik ask and I bristle at his voice, hating how my body instantly breaks out in goosebumps.

"What do you mean?" I spit out while keeping my eyes on the spaghetti on the table, still desperate to drown my sorrows in the food of Gods.

"Why bother watching the news when nobody is going to find you? We've been at this a long time Kitty, we are very good at what we do."
I can hear Dana begin to softly cry behind me and feeling an urge to be brave for her sake I drag my eyes up to the dark pits that I've been desperate to avoid.

"We're very good at being loud. Dana kindly proved that earlier. Can't we all just enjoy our meals in our own way and have a quiet night?" I implore and nearly smirk as Axels cringes at the memory.

"We could just lock you back in your room." Axel threatens and I allow a short laugh to burst through my lips.

"Which we'd happily go into just to be away from you two. My way means that you two still get our glorious company from afar and we get to distract ourselves for a while. It's not a big deal." Rosik and Axel continue having a silent conversation and my foot begins tapping impatiently.

The one time I'm being sincere and I'm being bloody interrogated for it.

"Your pasta is getting cold." I finally offer and with that they both finally come to their senses and wave us on.

Smiling proudly I lead Dana away with the plates and we sit on the couch. Ignoring our kidnappers gazes and do just as we promised.

However, as the first grainy image of Dana's Father appears I briefly regret my decision as Dana begins to wail.

As much as I want to release all my emotion I know that one of us needs to keep calm, one of us needs to remain in control so that the other can let go.

So much for a quiet night.