“Can you confirm or deny that there is a potential kidnapping ring operating in the city?”

Deputy Chief of Police Julie Renee stood on the podium, wincing at the bright flashes of cameras as she addressed the media.Two days ago, 20-year old Jess Kim had disappeared. Her friends had last seen her when they parted ways leaving a club and her car had been found three blocks away in a car park but no sign of Jess. She was the fifth young woman to disappear in the past two weeks, and the media was all over the story of a potential kidnapping ring taking these women and not demanding a ransom. It was like the girls had vanished into thin air. “No. No such thing is operating here, the police force is well aware of the recent disappearances and evidence does not currently point them to being linked. I know there are rumours but I will quash them now and say no, no kidnapping ring is operating in town. We will continue to investigate the disappearances, but I have no further information at this time.”

Julie ended the press conference, stepping down from the podium and walking back through the door to exit the conference room. She let out the breath she didn’t even know she had been holding as her mind whirled. Getting a drink of water, she entered the bathroom and sat inside of one of the stalls before pulling up her phone and opening a message from an unknown contact. “Well done.” It read. “Continue to deny and shut down investigations. And your daughters will be ok.”

Daughters? No! Grace! 

Julie nearly dropped her phone as an image was sent from the unknown contact. Her daughter Grace had been away in her junior year of college, blissfully unaware of the situation that had been going on at home when her other daughter Sasha had been kidnapped as blackmail to force Julie to deny and sabotage investigations into the kidnapping ring that had come calling. Grace was dressed in white platform Converse Hitops, cutoff jeans, and a grey crew neck sweater with her college logo on it. She had probably been returning from class when she had been grabbed, and was now thoroughly roped up at the wrists, elbows, ankles, knees, and thighs. Additional ropes around her waist and breasts pinned her arms against her back and ensured she was unable to move at all. A red ballgag was crammed between her lips, wetting her sweater with drool and tears streamed down her cheeks as she cried. Julie nearly fell apart seeing the fear in her daughter’s eyes.

“No.” She whispered but the her eyes could not leave the screen.

As she sat frozen, her fingers hovering over the keyboard, another picture appeared. It was a picture of Sasha, her 18 year old daughter who was just finishing high school and had been kidnapped coming home from a night out with friends two weeks ago that triggered everything. She was just as Julie remembered when she had waved goodbye to her daughter that night. Long brown hair like her mom and sister cascaded down over her shoulders which were left exposed by her off shoulder white top. Leather leggings extended down her legs into Doc Martens boots. Sasha also wore additional accessories in the form of rope. Like her sister, she was heavily bound and a matching red ballgag forced her jaw open.

Another difference was a leather collar buckled around her neck and chained to the wall. A small black box on the side of the collar revealed that a shock collar had been placed on her, something Julie knew about because when she had been sent videos of Sasha being shocked and screaming in pain when she resisted her captors, as well as when Julie tried to warn one of her coworkers about the situation.

Sasha stared back at the camera, defiant as ever. She definitely inherited more of her mother’s fire and spirit than Grace, but that spirit meant nothing against yards of secure rope. Julie flipped between the two images, tears leaking from her eyes as she realized how powerless she was to do anything as these bastards held her daughters. Returning to the home screen of her phone, she stared longingly at the picture of the three of them, laughing at Christmas. She would give anything to have them back.

Wiping away hear tears, she shook her head to try and put on her facade once again before emerging from the toilet. One of her officers was washing her hands at the sink as Julie began washing up. “Hey Julie, everything ok?”

Julie nodded. “Yeah, everything’s fine.” She lied as she turned to dry her hands and walked out of the bathroom.

She would deny anything was wrong, both in her life and in the city, until she could find a way to get these assholes.