Slowly my eyes adjusted to the light revealing more of the menacing masked figure that had crashed our kidnapping. The man, and the figure was definitely man shaped, was at least a foot taller than me and twice as wide. His imposing stature was made even more threatening by the military-like uniform he was wearing. Black and grey to match the mask that covered three quarters of his face. Leaving only a strong jawline visible.

It might be an indication of how my senses had been dulled by the evenings events, or maybe I was still high from the laughing fit, but I did not automatically view our masked visitor as a threat. The smile stayed on my face. Carly had a decidedly different reaction. In an instant she had pulled an arrow from her belt and pointed her bow, stepping between me and the masked man.

"Get behind me," said Carly suddenly serious. It was her tone that knocked the amusement right out me, because Carly never took anything seriously. Throughout this evening she had remained her casual calm self. This man was unexpected, and Carly was genuinely scared. That was enough to put me in my place and sew my mouth shut. For a while at least.

"Relax sweetheart," said the stranger. "There's no need to resort to violence. Why don't we all lower our weapons and have a chat like decent folks."

"How about no?" replied Carly. "As far as I see, I'm the only one with a weapon, which means I'm the one that gets to make the rules. The weapon stays where it is, and so do you."

"Aw come on, we're all friends here aren't we little red," said the stranger sending his words in my direction, which was a mistake because it resulted in Carly tightening her bow and moving it so that it was aimed directly at his face rather than his torso.

"I'd hate to make a mess of that mask," said Carly. "But if you so much as look in her direction again I will give you a new face hole."

"Woah," said the stranger raising his hands in an act of surrender, although he still appeared amused rather than scared. "I'm not looking at anyone. Promise."

"What are you doing here?" said Carly not taking her eyes off her target.

"The same thing you are I assume," said the stranger as though his appearance should have been expected. "At least I hope so, you are here to make that loser pay for being such a bad human, right? Because if this is some kind of weird sex thing then we might have gotten our wires crossed, no judgment though. I'm always open to new ideas."

"Oh god just shoot him," I said before I could stop myself. As much as I was trying to take the threat seriously there was only so much I could take.

"Hey there murder girl let's just chill for a minute," said the stranger.

"I don't know," said Carly her casual calm demeanor slowly returning. "She might be onto something. Do you have a point with all this bullshit?"

"Sorry I'm not really sure what the etiquette is when someone double books a kidnapping," said the stranger. "Obviously I'm disappointed that you beat me to it, I mean that's weeks of planning wasted. Not to mention the costume. This baby took time. But I guess it's validating that I'm not the only one who thinks that dick needed a good beating."

"Wait," I said. "You're expecting me to believe that this is a coincidence, that you both just randomly decided to don a mask and beat up a businessman on the same night."

"Awkward," said the stranger.

"That's total crap," I said. Believing that this was a random coincidence was akin to believing in the Tooth Fairy and not being completely terrified that a creature sneaks into your house while you sleep and steals your bones.

"Generally I'd agree with you Red but I'm pretty sure Katniss can back me up on this one," said the stranger. "If this was going to happen. It had to happen tonight."

"What?" I asked Carly.

"He might be right," she replied. "This is the first night Craig has been alone and he's due to fly out tomorrow morning, which is why he's working so late. This is literally the first opportunity I've had since he was acquitted. It makes sense that if someone else was planning to get their revenge, that they would do it tonight."

"Okay then," I said. "I don't know if I should be proud that you thought this through so thoroughly or terrified that more than one person thinks the only way to get justice is vigilantism. Boy did those current affairs programs get it wrong. They were so concerned about the effect of video games on teenage boys when they should have been worried about superhero movies."

A bloodcurdling scream rose from the man that lay forgotten at my feet. Craig Parker had somehow managed to free himself from his gag and he was determined to be heard. His screams were incoherent but they were loud enough to make me jump out of my skin and I wasn't the only one. Carly turned her bow on Craig as quickly as she had turned it on the stranger.

"Shut up or I'll change my mind about killing you," said Carly and it was surprisingly terrifying. I shouldn't really be surprised considering the arrow and the bruising but having seen Carly when she was in her awkward tween stage it was a little difficult to take her seriously as a threat.

Alas, Craig was a little past the conversation stage so he didn't stop yelling incoherently at the threat of death. For a moment I honestly thought that she was going to have to do it. Carly was going to have to kill someone and it was the most terrifying moment of my life. Craig Parker might deserve to die, but Carly Chan did not deserve to live with his death on her hands.

Suddenly the screaming stopped. We were too distracted to notice that the masked stranger had left his spot in the shadows. Luckily, he didn't use the distraction to attack us or escape. Instead he used his freedom to knock Craig Parker into unconsciousness with a single punch. Carly quickly turned her arrow back on the stranger, but the tension was not the same. He had the chance to hurt us and he didn't. I guess there's some kind of honor code amongst masked vigilantes.

"God that guy screamed like a bitch," said the stranger. "You're welcome by the way."

"Say that word again and you'll be taking a nap next to your friend," said Carly aggressively, but she still lowered her weapon so I figured she had come to the same conclusion that I had about the stranger's intentions.

"My apologies," said the stranger.

"I had it under control," said Carly.

"Sure you did," said the stranger. "You're very in control, so in control that you know we need to get out of here soon in case anyone is reasonable enough to call the police. People generally ignore random screaming, but you never know."

"I'm not a complete idiot," said Carly and I couldn't hold back the scoff that escaped. Let's face it everything that had happened since that phone call had proven to me without a doubt that Carly was a complete idiot - at least when it came to common sense.

"Good," said the stranger. Both Carly and the stranger ignored by scoff, but I knew I would hear about it later. Carly wasn't one to let things go. "Then you won't turn down my offer to help you move the body then, because it would be fairly idiotic to reject the only person that can get you out of this mess."

"Fine. He's heavier than he looks but go ahead," said Carly backing away from Craig's body, making sure to keep herself between me and the stranger.

The least shocking thing to happen in an evening of very shocking things was the way the stranger was able to lift Craig's limp body as though he weighed nothing more than a small kitten. In fact, I might have struggled to lift a kitten with that much ease. Carly didn't say anything, no snarky response, nothing. She just pointed the stranger in the direction of Craig's car and followed him across the carpark.

We walked in silence but it was a silence that was deafening. A loud silence that left me to my thoughts, which was not helping me stay calm.

"Who are you anyway?" I asked the stranger trying to dappen the voices of doubt and anxiety in my head.

He laughed in response, which didn't exactly help my anxiety levels.

"There's no need to be rude," I said.

"Sorry it's just I thought the mask kind of answered that question for you," he said.

"Cut her some slack," said Carly when I responded with awkward silence. "She's new to the masked vigilante idea. She hasn't had time to adjust yet."

The awkwardness was short-lived as the stranger soon placed the unconscious Craig on the bonnet of his BMW and that was the end of our interaction.

"Well," he said clapping his gloved hands together like a teacher trying to figure out what to teach at 2pm on a Friday afternoon. "This has been real fun ladies, but I'm gonna have to make a run for it while you're distracted by Mr Rapey there and I'd prefer if no one tried to stick me with any pointy things. "

"Go," said Carly before I could respond with snark. "But if you tell anyone about what you saw tonight I'll turn you into a pincushion before anyone even sniffs in my direction."

"Noted," he said backing away towards the tree line.

Carly barely acknowledged his retreating figure, she turned her attention right back to Craig. She pulled his phone out of her pocket again, pressed a few buttons with a smile on her face before holding the phone out for me.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" I asked.

"You're not even trying are you?" said Carly.

"It's 4am in the morning. I have to work in 2 hours. I'm not interested in trying. Just tell me what to do," I said.

"Call an ambulance," said Carly.

"Fine," I said. "But I'm only doing this because I want to go home."

This was the first time I had ever dialed emergency and even though I would not have admitted it, even to myself, I wasn't sure what to say. I should not have worried though because as soon as the call connected Carly ripped the arrow from Craig's leg and that was all the motivation I needed to give the performance of my life.

"Ambulance, blood, Griffith business centre, BMW, lots and lots of blood, really very much blood," I muttered incoherently into the phone. My own blood felt like it was draining from my body with Craig's.

Everything seemed to slow, the voice on the phone. The way the phone fell from my hand. The way my body gave way. The way the darkness closed in around me. That was the moment I discovered that the sight of blood pouring from someone's body causes me to faint like a damsel in distress and I'm not really ashamed because all that blood was pretty damn distressing.