A shout woke me from a fitful sleep.

I was on my feet in seconds, but still enmeshed in the Mickey Mouse blanket I’d brought from home so long ago, I was easy prey. Percy was already on the floor thrashing around. I heard a low voice laughing. Shit. We’d been careless.

“Look who we have here, if it isn’t Miss Perfect Percy and her new little pet.” Who the hell was that? I tried to turn, but I’d been grabbed from behind. Bastards. Still tangled in the blanket there wasn’t much I could do. I heard a growl, a “oomph” and the sound of someone dropping on the ground. Idiot.

The knife at my throat made my smile disappear. Maybe not a complete idiot, then. 

“Hans, you bastard. Let her go.” 

Hans? Never heard of him. Perceneige and her mysteries. Still, the bad guy had a name. Not that it would be any help to know it right now.

“Oh Perc’ you know better. You shouldn’t have run away. Now stand still and everything will be fine.”

She spat at his feet. He released me to give her a backhanded slap. I flinched from the sound of it.

“That’s what you get for being a slut and sleeping with anyone and anything. Nothing less than you deserve, sweetheart.” I already hated that voice and its owner. 

I opened my mouth to send this bastard back to his place, but it was filled with a filthy fist before I could start. “Not a word, pet, or I’ll knock your perfect teeth out. I’m talking and you better not interrupt. Clear?” As crystal. I closed my mouth on a bloody taste and glared at him until he turned away. 

It was my first clear look at him. Blond hair, square face, green eyes. Could’ve been hot if he got rid of that Mister Righteous expression.

“Now, Percy. You should have known better than to let your guard down out there. Banging ladies has made you stupid, it seems. Sad.”

I ticked. From the corner of my eye I could see Perceneige. She looked as angry as I felt. From the other corner though, I could see we were surrounded. I had no clue what was happening but it was bad, and these guys had a look on their faces I was starting to recognise...

“The hell do you want, Hans?” 

He laughed. The kind of almost evil sounding laugh you only hear in bad movies. Except it was real. “You know, I’m starting to believe you really are slow.” I wanted to strike that smirk clean off his face. “I think I’ll let you figure it out.” Bastard.

I wanted to ask again what he meant to do with us, but there was still a damned knife at my throat and a blanket around the rest of me. I’d be a living punching bag if I said a word. I’d know soon enough anyway.

The bad guy’s minions tied ropes around me, around Perceneige. They tossed us on the ground and left us there for a while. No gags, but we needed no words. I wanted to ask Percy who this Hans individual was, but her face was a mask of seething anger and I knew. An ex boyfriend grown sour. Might even be Mad from his actions and words. Fuck.

I shouldn’t cry, but lack of sleep and too much stress had been growing me thin. Add a rude awakening, a knife, ropes and despair, and my cheeks were wet before I could realize it. They hadn’t even bothered to remove the blanket.