Retrospective: Paris - How things got messy

4.8 Mae West - Stuck

Fall 1993, somewhere in Paris

"Hey", Mae interrupted the two men arguing about the last football game. "I need to use the bathroom."
Also, those ties around her wrists and ankles were terribly uncomfortable. And she really needed to move a little.
The men shot her a grim look, then continued to ignore her and went back to their heated conversation.

"Really", Mae insisted.
No reaction.
Her initial panic when she realized that she was being kidnapped, had faded into a desperate resignation. No one had explained anything to her, or bothered to even talk to her since Dante had led her into this vicious trap.
She had stopped crying, but still she was more than royally pissed at him for exploiting her feelings for Francesco. Of course her roommate hadn’t been anywhere close, nor had anyone mentioned him again. And by now he probably was home already and not suspecting that anything had happened to her.
He was fine, right?
Mae hoped so at least.
She swallowed hard to not start crying again.
That Dante had tried to at least apologize, didn’t make anything better for her.

Before they had reached the two men that eventually dragged her into their car, he pulled her aside for a short moment.
"I'm sorry, okay", he had pleaded, "I didn’t want this, but I have no other choice." He shot a nervous glimpse at the two other men and licked his lips. "You have to go with my friends now." Just the same second they were discovered, and Dante whispered quickly, "They promised they're not gonna harm you, okay, Louis is actually a decent guy. Just do as they say"
As if it would make her feel any better about being tied up and held in a dirty kitchen and not even knowing what for.
True, Louis & friends hadn't really hurt her (yet), but they weren't exactly the most gentle people also. The ropes around her wrists and ankles bit into her skin.

"Would you like it if I pee myself", Mae tried again. The men hesitated a little, and she thought she caught a flicker of insecurity in one of the men's eyes - the one that wasn't Louis.
"That's quite perverted, you know", she pushed further.
"Damn girl you're noisy", the man cursed.

At last, Not-Louis had mercy on her and untied the ropes. He led her through the living room and pointed at a door on the opposite end.
"If you stay too long I'll break the door and drag you out myself. And don't try anything stupid."
Mae was convinced he meant what he said, but at least she could move for a while.

The tiny bathroom looked like it wasn't cleaned in ages.
And of course there were no windows, she noticed, losing hope once more.
At least there was paper and she could use the toilet - standing, of course, years of practice in rundown clubs paid off now.
After washing her hands - there wasn't even any soap - she looked into the blurry mirror and took a deep breath.
What now?
Absent-minded she opened the mirror cabinet.

Lots of bottles, covered with dried stains of - whatever, Mae didn't really want to know, a dirty razor (yuck), an unused and still packed toothbrush, covered in dust.
This was definitely not a place to bring a lady.
Her eyes stopped on a specific orange bottle. She knew it - it contained the same pills her mom took when she suffered from insomnia. She followed the spur of a moment and took a hand full out of its content and stuffed it inside her bra. If one was enough to knock the slender woman out for a full night - but she was allowed to take up to three per day - Mae made a quick calculation - this amount should be enough to take care of both men -
She stopped her thoughts.


It was no use. She would never get a chance to put them to sleep so she could escape.
She barely had convinced them to let her use the bathroom.
"Hurry up, girl!", Not-Louis knocked hard on the door.
And apparently her time was up.
"I got lady problems, okay", she countered, and hurried to put everything back in its place.
Then she took a deep breath and opened the door. The man led her back to the chair and tied her wrists and ankles again.


She tried to remember any of those tricks she'd seen in movies that helped the main loosen up the ties later, but she couldn't. And her kidnapper held her wrists tightly together to make sure not even a hair would fit between them and the ziptie.
The situation was hopeless.
Mae had to fight back her tears again. Crying wouldn't make it better.
Instead she had to pull herself together, maybe she would find a way out, after all.
And make sure Francesco was okay.

"Hey - hey - hey, now behave yourself, girl, will you."
Not-Louis stared at her from the other side of the table. He had lit a cigarette.
Mae sniffed, took a deep breath and for a few seconds there was silence besides the fridge's humming. Only now she noticed Louis - the one that was called Louis - was gone and she was left alone with the other man.
"That's a good girl." He almost smiled.
It made Mae feel a bit better. Between the two men, this one seemed to be the less mean one. Despite Dante's assurance that his friend wasn't "that bad“, they actually were.
But maybe she could convince this one to remove at least the ties.
She was only a girl, after all, no match to a grown man.
She tried to smile back, and he nodded acknowledging.
"It's not that bad", Not-Louis kept talking. "Your chèri is already doing what he's supposed to, so soon you'll be out of this misery."
Her heart skipped a beat. Chèri?
But Francesco had never been involved with these criminals, he had assured her so. And no one knew about their more intimate relationship except her closest friends. She was pretty sure they never acted like a couple outside of their appartement – maybe a stolen kiss here and there, but that sure was not much, was it.
"Dante?", she guessed instead and hoped Francesco really hadn't lied.
The man snorted. "Don't act dumb on me. I'll shit a brick if that cornichon could land only half a woman. He truly believes he can pay his debts by running some errands for us, what an idiot."
Hearing it out loud hurt. Mae still couldn't believe her friend just sold her out like that.

Not-Louis lit another cigarette.
"I'm surprised enough a tool like your gay princess got laid by a pretty girl like you. Don't have very high standards, do you.", he sneered.
Mae took a sharp breath when the ziptie cut into her flesh and reminded her that she wasn't able to slap him in his smug face.
"What's his name – Françoise?", the man continued.

What a massive prick!

"He doesn't have to act like a tough bully and go around and kidnap innocent people", she spat, angry and disappointed that Francesco was probably the only decent person in all Paris (and even there she started to doubt), "and not even tell them what it's for, no, you just -"

A sharp burn in her left cheek cut her off and tears shot into her eyes.

"I said behave. your-. self." the man hissed, his hand frozen where it stopped after the punch.
Mae almost choked on the pain and struggled to get her breath back under control.
No, these people were anything but decent.
She had to be very careful.
She swallowed her pain and surpressed another choke.
"I'm - I'm sorry", she stumbled, hoping it would soothe his rage.
"Good.", the man said. It worked. "Don't make me angry again."
For a few minutes they sat in silence, while Mae searched for the right words to make him talk again.

She needed to know more about Francesco's involvement.

Soon she felt the man staring at her. Something in his eyes made her feel really uncomfortable.
He smirked when she looked back.
"What a shame", he said. "You are a pretty girl. Pretty dumb, and pretty good looking. Not really worth going to prison for, though."
"To prison?", Mae decided quickly she would stay dumb for him. Maybe this was the way to find out more.
"Yes, that's right where your chèri is heading. He'll confess a murder just so we don't hurt you, isn't it sweet. Just earlier I got a call that everything went according to plan. I am surprised. He's not much smarter than you, pretty girl."
He talked, at last.
"Murder?", Mae almost whispered. Don't mess it up now.
"Ah, didn't he tell you? The police wants to arrest him for murdering his – boyfriend", he pulled a disgusted face, "or also, our business partner who thought could fuck. us. over -" the last words were spoken much louder, hissing, spitting the hate.
The man took a breath, then leaned back again, almost smiling.
"Yes, we took care of him, of course", he proudly admitted, "and now your chèri will take care that it's not being linked to us before the police finds more evidence."
He looked like a cat that got the cream.

"I am just waiting for the final call from our friends at the police, and everything will be over."
Mae's heart beat at lightspeed.
What a cruel plan! But also, a very stupid one.

"Then.... then I can go home, right?", she tried her most dumb-looking smile.
And of course, straight to the police, and while inspecteur Leroux had grilled Francesco more than neccessary, she was confident he'd take any real evidence and testimony she could deliver, for sure he must have smelled the fishyness of her roomate's sudden confession.
"Yeah...", the man said slowly, "of course you can go home then." And his smile widened as if she just said something very stupid.
And it dawned on her that of course there was no way she could go home.
She had seen her kidnappers' faces, she could guess where their hide out was, and this man even told her their evil plan and confessed a murder – because they had planned to dispose of her when they were done.

She had seen it in so many movies already!
Panic rose again.
She had to focus really hard to not freak out again and catch another punch in the face.

"You can be such a good girl", the man kept smiling, "and you better stay one while I'll be gone for a piss, will you."

She nodded, face frozen in her dumb smile while her mind raced.

He shuffled out of the room.

She had to take this chance and get out of here, as fast as possible. How much time did she have, like, two Minutes?

Think.

Her feet were tied, but this time not to the leg of the chair. If she could find something to cut the zipties, she could try and run away.

This was a kitchen, so there should be something like scissors, a knife – yes, right there was a block with a full set.

Carefully she stood up and hopped towards the cabinets, then tried to find the knife block with her tied hands.
There... just a bit more, and she got one on its handle.
Slowly she pulled it out.
It wasn't easy to do this without noise, but she had managed much better than she imagined.
Now cutting the tie was a whole different level, and no matter how she tried to turn and twist the knife in her hands, it was impossible to reach the tie. 

She got desperate.
No, she had to stay calm, or she wouldn't succeed at all. And heaven help her if the man found her being a bad girl.
If only she could get the knife stuck into something, so she could -

Suddenly she caught a movement in the doorframe.
Her heart stopped for a few seconds.