Songs to listen to while reading:

When The Party's Over – Billie Eilish

Let Me Down Slowly – Alec Benjamin feat. Alessia Cara

Complicated – Olivia O'Brien

My head hurts. I roll over onto my back and squeeze my eyes shut from the sharp pain that feels like a needle being shoved behind my eyes.

How much did I drink? I only remember having around 2 drinks, I wouldn't have a hangover like this if I only had 2 drinks.

My eyes begin to focus, I glance to my side slowly so that my head doesn't hurt too much.

I'm definitely not in my hotel room. Nothing looks familiar. Where the hell am I? It looks like someone's bedroom. Did I go home with Harry last night?

I gently sit up but I flinch slightly when the pain in my head only increases.

I rub my eyes and try to think about what I can remember. The last thing I remember was going to check the time on my phone. Did I go to the bathroom after that?

My head shoots towards the bedroom door on my right when I hear the sound of it opening.

Harry walks into the room and his eyes widen slightly, "I didn't realise you would be awake yet." He whispers under his breathe just loud enough for me to hear. My eyes glance to the glass of water and some white pills in his other hand.

I groan, "What happened last night? I don't remember coming here, where am I?" I ask Harry while he sets the glass and pills on the side table next to the bed.

"Uh, you don't remember anything?" He asks without making eye contact.

"I wouldn't be asking if I knew Harry." I snap, my headache getting the best of me. He sits down at the edge of the bed, his elbows leaning on his knees while his hands are clamped together.

"I drugged you Alexa." He blurts. I laugh a little but stop when Harry keeps his serious expression.

"I don't understand? Why the fuck would you drug me?" I raise my voice, ignoring the pain that increases in my head when I do.

"I'm sorry." He states, playing with one of his rings.

"Explain to me what the fuck is happening right now Harry!" I yell, losing my patience. Why would Harry drug me? The confusion is hurting my head even more as I try and scramble for what his reasoning could be.

"I'm part of a gang. To officially become an underboss, you have to go through an initiation." He pauses to take a deep breathe, still not making eye contact with me. "For the initiation, you have to kidnap a woman and bring her back here to the compound to be able to move to a higher position."

"This is some sick joke, right? You can't be serious right now?" I scold. I climb out of the bed and start pacing the room.

"I really am sorry Alexa; you don't deserve this." Harry mumbles.

I stop pacing and laugh lightly with no humour. "You're sorry hm? Why don't you just let me go then?" I ask.

"It doesn't work like that, you're here now and that's the end of that." He says, still playing with his stupid rings.

"Look at me Harry!" I shout, he then raises his eyes to mine and locks eye contact. "So you're casually saying that you kidnapped me and I'm not allowed to leave?" I question when I begin pacing again.

"Basically." He murmurs, then running his hand through his hair.

I stop pacing and throw my hands in the air. "And what's stopping me from just leaving right now and going back to my hotel?" I question.

"We're about an hour away from the pub we were in, we are also in a closed compound that has electric fences around the perimeter. There's around a hundred houses in the compound, all people who are part of the gang. Escaping isn't an option Alexa." He explains.

I storm up to where Harry is sat on the bed and raise my hand to slap him, he catches my hand inches away from his face.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you, sweetheart." He seethes through gritted teeth.

"You're a fucking psycho, you just kidnap me and expect me to thank you? That's not how this is going to go Harry!" I shriek and try to pull my wrist away from his firm grip.

"Well, the sooner you get used to it, the better." He snaps and his grip tightens.

"You're hurting me Harry!" I yell and shove his shoulder with my free hand.

He lets go of my wrist, "I'm going to give you some time to calm down before you make me angry and I do something that I will regret. Drink the water and pills for your headache, I'm going for a smoke." He insists as he stands up from the bed. His height towers over mine causing me to lean my head back so that I can keep my eye contact with him.

"Why? So you can drug me again?" I scream at him.

He scoffs, brushing his shoulder against mine before walking towards the bedroom door and closing the door behind him. I hear a click sound and then the sound of his steps lessen the further away that he gets.

I rush to the door and turn the handle down, pulling the door towards me. The fucker locked the door. Great, wonderful, just dandy!

I throw myself back onto the bed. The pain in my head has doubled from all the yelling at Harry. I close my eyes and shake my head. I'm not going to think about what he just told me, my head hurts too much, I need sleep.

I glance at the bedside table and pick up the white pills to inspect. They look like normal painkillers. Well if he drugs me, it won't be the first time. I need something for my head so that I can at least sleep for a little while. I swallow both of the pills down and basically down the whole glass of water.

I shuffle into a more comfortable position on the bed and close my eyes. Deep breaths. Everything is fine. I'm just having a bad dream. I'm in my hotel room. I'm just taking a normal nap in my hotel room.

**********

My shoulder is being nudged which causes me to awaken from my sleep. I grunt and turn over onto my stomach and hear a small laugh. My eyes shoot open.

"You've been sleeping for 5 hours; thought I would wake you up so you could have some food." Harry explains.  I glare at him and turn my head into the opposite direction.

"If you eat, I'll give you some more painkillers for your head and then you can go back to sleep if you want." Harry bargains, poking my interest. I turn my head back to his direction and nod.

I climb out of bed and follow behind him as he enters a corridor. He points to the closed door across from the room that we just left, "That's my room."

I don't reply, I'm not in the mood for conversation. I just want some more painkillers and sleep.

We walk down a flight of stairs and walk through a large room that has a seating area in the middle embedded into the ground slightly, filled with pillows.

We walk through the room to the other side, Harry walks ahead of me and pushes a set of double doors open. I wander behind him, still not saying a word. Harry carries on walking forward, I stop walking. We're in his kitchen now.

"Sit." He instructs with his pointer finger tapping the glass table. I glare at him before walking over to the table and taking a seat.

"What would you like? I can make toast or eggs?" Harry mumbles while opening and closing cabinets, searching for food.

"I really don't care Harry; I just want to go back to sleep." I snap.

His eyes widen at my tone, "Toast it is then..." He mumbles. He starts gathering the bread, "I really am sorry—"

"You better not say that you're sorry again or I'll come over there and shove the bread up your ass." I snap.

Harry starts putting the bread into the toaster, "So what's the deal then? What is the purpose of kidnapping someone? I'm not going to become your sex slave or anything like that." I demand, which causes Harry to cringe.

"Oh god no, I don't want anything like that." Harry replies quickly, giving me some sort of relief. He stops what he was doing with the toast, "Well the gang that I'm in is called Aggrandize by the way, the whole point of kidnapping someone is to use them as kind of like a slave to do stuff like smuggling drugs and for... for sex but I don't want anything like that from you, I promise." He explains, saying his words quickly.

Confused, I ask, "Well what do you want from me then Harry?"

He begins taking some plates out from a cabinet next to the oven, "I had to kidnap you to officially join Aggrandize, I didn't have another choice. You only get two weeks to do it and if you don't, you're thrown out and can't come back. I don't want anything from you, I want you to live a normal life in here as you can, well as normal as possible." He explains.

I really feel like none of this is real, this has to be some sick joke, right? Of course this happens to me the first time that I travel by myself, just my fucking luck.

"Tell me about this compound that we're in." I demand, Harry places a plate in front of me with some scrambled eggs on a piece of toast. I don't normally eat bread but I don't think that there are many options.

Harry takes a seat across from me, "Uh... well like I said earlier, there's over a hundred people that live in the compound. There's a small private mall in the centre with food shops and clothing shops, shit like that." He takes bites of his food in between his sentences. "Only people who are a part of the gang are allowed to enter the compound, there's loads of security around the whole perimeter. They are mainly there for Mendacious though but if you try and escape, they'll kill you in a blink of an eye."

I have so many more questions but ask the first one that comes to my mind, "Am I allowed to leave this house?" I ask while moving the eggs with a fork around on the plate in front of me.

"I think for your safety, it's better if you stay inside until you're settled. I don't want you to say the wrong thing to someone out there and get killed. You aren't typically allowed to let girls that have been kidnapped outside. You're supposed to be trapped with me, not allowed to have your own free will but I don't want that for you." He explains. "Are you going to eat that or just move it around?" He asks, directing his eye contact to my plate.

"I'm not hungry." I explain, taking a deep breathe.

"I know my cooking is shit, sorry." Harry mumbles apologetically.

I cover my mouth with my hand to try and hide my smile. "It's not that Harry, it tastes fine." I reply, taking a bite of the eggs to prove my point.

He stands up and takes his plate over to the sink, "Angela will be here tomorrow morning by the way, she comes once a week with some groceries and cleans the house a bit."

"Uh, okay? Is she someone who was kidnapped as well?" I ask, finishing off the last remains of the eggs on my plate.

Harry shakes his head, "No, she's one of the gang leaders' wives. She's really nice, you'll like her."

I don't reply, I just nod my head even though he isn't looking in my direction. I pick up my plate and walk over to where he is standing by the sink to hand him my plate. He sends me a small smile. I didn't eat the toast, just the eggs. That's more than enough.

Harry opens a draw on his right and takes out an Ibuprofen bottle, pouring two pills into the palm of his hand. "You can go back to your room now, if you want." He states.

I take note of his words, "My room?" I ask, taking the pills from his hand. He notices me looking around for a glass and points to the cabinet next to me.

"Yeah, the room you woke up in, that's your room. You can do anything you want to it. There are some clothes in the closet that you can use and also some basic toiletries in the bathroom as well. We can go to the mall at some stage to get you some other stuff you may need?" Harry explains, taking the glass from my hands, he walks over to the sink to turn the tap on and begins filling it with water.

I narrow my eyes at Harry, "You're being very nice for someone who drugged and kidnapped me just last night." He hands me the glass of water before I throw the pills into my mouth and sip the water.

He leans his back against the counter and crosses his one leg over the other, "I did what I had to do Alexa, I don't want you to feel like you've been kidnapped. I want to give you as much freedom as I possibly can."

"I'm going to go upstairs now and try to get some more sleep before I let my brain process this whole situation." I conclude, walking out the kitchen and towards the stairs that we came down. I get to the top of the stairs and enter the room, my room apparently.

I throw myself onto the bed and wrap the quilt around me. I'll get some more sleep and then I'll process what the fuck is happening. Everything is fine. Everything is just fine.

Authors note:

Hey besties, thoughts?

Hope you're all doing good.

Just out of curiosity, where are you from?

See you in the next chapter!