Running Scared

Janice Langley walked stopped her corvette and removed her sunglasses. Looking around she switched off her ignition and grabbed her purse from the passenger seat. She undid her seat belt and smiled at the young man who came to move her car to park it. He handed her a ticket and she gave him her keys.

\"Hello Miss Langley,\" he smiled.
\"Thanks Josh,\" Janice said and slipped him a twenty.
\"Thank you!\" Josh beamed and hopped into the car.

She turned her back to the car and began to climb the cold marble steps. She despised those steps. They stood for everything she hated. She sped up to get inside. Although she hated it there too, it was warmer inside. She took off her coat and handed it to the bellman. \"Ronald,\" she said. \"Please take this up to my room, I am going to eat in the hotel\'s dinning room this evening. Oh and something for you.\" She handed him a twenty as well and walked on towards the large oak doors.

Janice smiled at a few of her father\'s business associates. She felt utterly and completely out of place. Even though she was know over town and the world over as the heir to the Langley fortune she hated it. She frowned as someone got up to kiss her on both cheeks. She made a mental note to wash her face harder later during her bath. She got to her table and sat down. She looked around for a waiter.

Suprisingly she had to wait for quite a while. About ten minutes after her arrival her waiter Frances showed up looking rather vexed. \"Good day madam, sorry for the wait.\" She looked around and whispered into his ear. \"What is wrong?\" \"Well apparently,\" he answered, \"someone broke in through the kitchen.\" \"Someone broke in!?!?\" Janice exclaimed. \"Quiet! No one knows but the staff and the police.\"

\"Well is it serious?\" Janice asked, returning to a whisper. \"Oh no, we think the poor bloat left. The police just wanted to question the kitchen staff. Well let us forget this nonsense. What can I get for you this evening? The fresh spring trout is superb tonight.\"

\"Alright Francis,\" Janice grinned at the elderly man, \"You\'ve never steered me wrong. I will go with the trout and bring me a glass of the house wine for today will you.\" she looked up at him, \"Don\'t tell my father about this little break in incident. He will have a fit over nothing.\"

She then watched him leave and turned back to her table. She opened her purse and pulled out a compact mirror. She looked at her make-up and shut it. It closed with a click and she began reading a file that her mother had given her to read up on the stock market for some reason.

\"Oh great.\" she murmured. \"Profits are up another quarter million. Like I care...\" She set the report down and began to think about the intruder. \"Why would someone break into the hotel.\" she thought \"He probably is some type of thief.\" She took a sip of water and looked around. There were the same rich stuck up buffoons sitting around that she could find every day. All of them were gloating about how much money they made.

She smiled as Francis came back, “Ah my hero!” she grinned as he placed a steaming plate in front of her with her wine. She ate and thanked him. She then tipped him and left for her room, “Miss Langley!” called Francis, “I can have someone walk you up.”

“Now don’t you start sounding like my father now,” she smiled waggwagged an accusing finger at him, “I will be fine.” She blew him a kiss and turned back out the giant oak doors. They swung open in front of her and she headed for the elevators. As the doors opened, Janice stood aside and allowed the people to exit the elevator before she entered. She then waited for the doors to close then pressed fifteen.

She felt the pressure on her feet as the elevator shot up. There had recently increased the speed because of all the complaints of the time it took to get a ride. She would rather be slow and safe that fast and dead she thought as the elevator shuddered, causing her in turn to shudder. Finally it stopped at her floor and she got out. \"Sixty nine eleven, sixty nine thirteen, sixty nine fifteen. Here we go.\" She took out her magnetic card and slid it though the metal slot.

As the doors opened the phone began to ring. She flipped on the lights beside the door and used her foot to slam the door close then ran for the phone. She picked it up, “Hello?” she answered, “oh hi mom,” she smiled as she slipped down into the sofa to take off her heels, “I am fine. Yes I ate… What? How do you know that? Never mind I don’t want to know. Yes, I am ok… Give Gem a kiss for me and tell Mandrake that I love him, ok? Bye. Love you lots. Bye.”

She then began rubbing her aching toes. She ached to take a bath. Pulling her shirt over her head she headed for the bathroom for a bath.

She stopped suddenly. She could have sworn she heard a rustle. She shrugged it off to the wine and continued to undress. She walked to the bathtub and got in. She turned the water on as warm as she could handle and lay back, letting the water sweep over her.

She reached up and pressed the play button on the radio that was set low in the wall over the tub and closed her eyes as the soothing sounds of Frank Sinatra floated over her. She lay back again and moaned as she began to feel her body relax.

Again she heard a sound. This time she knew she heard it. She got up quietly. She could swear that there was something alive in her closet. Must be a rat, she figured. And prepared herself to see it scurry out. When she opened the door she was not faced with a mouse however. Instead, there stood a large well built man covered in dirt and broken hand cuffs on both his arms. \"AAHHH!!\" she yelled jumping back. The man, quick for his size, shot up right behind her. He grabbed her in his arms and put his hand over her mouth to stop her from shouting.

~oh for God’s sake,~ she thought warily. She wished she was wearing a pair of heels to stomp on his feet but now she wasn’t wearing anything. She struggled against the arms that held her wet body so tight against his body. She wanted to get out. She wanted to get away!

\"Stop struggling\" He said in a rough voice. The thought of doing what he wanted just infuriated her further as she started to scratch him and bite his hand. \"STOP IT\" he snarled and shoved her to the bed. She looked up in terror. He realized the problem and laughed. \"Settle down.... I am not going to rape you.\"

The word rape sent a shock through her body and she grabbed for the sheets. They came loose and she wrapped them around her body and pressed her body against the head of the bed, “What are you doing in my room?” she asked when she could trust her voice again.”

\"Hiding, What do you think I am doing!!!\" he asked her. She snorted \"Robbing me I assume.\" He looked at her closer, \"Why would I want to rob YOU!\"

\"Well I assumed you knew I was Janice Langley

\"Oh that’s you... well sorry to disappoint you missy but I don’t want your money.\"

\"Then why are you here! \" Janice yelled.
\"Quite! If you dont shut up I will have to gag you!\" whispered the man.

\"You wouldn\'t dare!!\"

He smiled at her, “Try me,” he told her softly.

“Can I at least put some clothes on?” She asked angrier than scared now.

\"NO, just sit back and shut up!!\" \"

\"But what are you doing her...\" she started to shout. \"That’s it\" he roared. He went to the ten bed and took off a pillow. Janice began to shake from fear. However the man only took off the pillowcase and twirled it into a makeshift rope. \"Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.\"
\"Do what!!!\" she exclaimed. \"I am going to gag you because I do not want them to find me.\"
\"Who\'s th...” she started but was cut off. He took the opportunity to shove the rope in her mouth and tie it arounr her head. She glared at him and brought her hands up to take the rope off but he slapped her hands away. \"Try it again and I will tie you up completely.\"

Janice sighed and fell back in surrender against the bed board. She was so mad now she could spit fire. She tried to tell herself that they would find her as soon as she didn’t call down to ask for her nightly glass of wine to be brought up. “Mmmm!” she tried to tell him through the gag, ~come on you idiot!~ she yelled in her head.

\"Now are you ready to listen?\" asked the man. Janice nodded stiffly, after all what else could she do. \"Alright, now it is a long story so I am going to sum it up for you. I am hiding from the police... oh shut up\" Janice had begun to whine when he mentioned the police. \"Anyway, I will start at the beginning. About two days ago I discovered that my wife and my business partner were having an affair. I confronted them and informed her that I wanted a divorce. I was not angry or anything. After all, we had fallen out of love years ago and we only stayed together because I did not want to give her half my money and she did not want to leave my money. Anyway, so they murdered my mother and framed me for it. After all they had all they needed. A motive, her life insurance. No alibi, and the best part of their plan. Sence I would go to jail she would get all my money, and my business partner would be able to cut me out of the business. Anyway, the police were taking me to jail when the car slipped on some ice and I got away.\"

Janice sat silent. She did not know what to say now. She was speechless both physically and the fact that she was gagged. She shifted her body against the bed trying to remind him that she had a pillowcase in her mouth.

\"So can I trust you to keep quite?\" he asked. \"Good, here” He reached over to remove the gag her accidentally brushing her breast on the way. She gasped sharply and blushed bright red. He ignored her and untied the pillowcase.

Janice moved her mouth to try and get saliva back into the dryness. She frowned. “What are you going to do now?” she asked, “If you are telling me the truth about you being innocent and all, the cops will be after you and when the catch you they will add to your charges!”

\"Well I will be executed unless I find a way to prove I am innocent.\" he choked back. \"I don’t know what to do.... They have my gun at the scene. They both testified that they saw me come home with blood all over me. They thought of everything.\"

Janice felt sorry for him, aside from the fact that he was getting under her skin. She looked away from him. She could not believe that she was going to offer what she was about to, “How about I help you?” she asked, “I’m not saying I believe you but if you are innocent I want to help you.”

\"But what can you do?\"