The pirates mocked her as their red-shirted apparent leader dragged her through the camp. Some made rude gestures toward her while others made provocative movements, their smiles showing crooked, yellow teeth. Her captor didn’t seem to care, simply drug her along with him. They were heading up some sort of steep hill, where a single huge tree stood, shadowing most of the camp. Atop the hill was a large cabin of sorts. Annie figured it was the man’s home (if you could call it a home).
“This is where I stay,” the pirate told her. “You,” he pointed toward the back of the house, where a cage similar to her old prison stood just outside it’s rear door, “will stay there. You know why I built a cage there?” He looked into her eyes, his face only a few inches from hers now. There was little sanity left in their blue-green glow.
“No, I don’t…”
“Because people like you think they can escape from me.” He released her arm and shoved her forward. She stumbled and stood between him and the shanty house.
“And you know what else?” he continued. “You are not the first one to escape. Oh no, a few little fuckers before you got away as well. One did not get very far. He was a shit. We blew his fucking brains out. Another actually managed to get out into the jungle…We never fucking found him. Probably torn apart by the fucking animals around here by now. And then there was this one kid, he managed to cut himself loose with a sharp rock. I found him. I threw his ass in that cage over there,” he pointed to the cage that was to be her new prison, “until he sobered up a bit and realized he was fucking insane to try and escape. We tried selling him to the US, but you know what? No one cared. Back then, they thought we weren’t serious. Even better, no one even fucking cared about the kid, not even the shitty little government they got over there! So we blew his brain to shit too! Now tell me…”
He approached her and shoved his face in hers. “Do you know the definition of insanity?”
“…It…It’s…doing the same thing…again and again, and expecting something different to happen…” she whimpered, both her body and voice shaking. He smiled at her and back off a little, looking at her with a newfound appreciation.
“Smart girl, you are, eh?”
She said nothing.
“A quiet one, too,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets and relaxing a bit. Still, Annie knew she was trapped. He had a pistol on his side, if she even tried to run he’d no doubt shoot her. She had no chance.
“You said your name is Annie?”
She nodded gently, trying not to meet his gaze.
“I am Vaas.” He held out his hand. She had no idea what was going on. Was this a trick? Was he going to do something to her? Then she remembered. The man was insane. It was best to just humor him.
She slowly took his hand and shook it. He was much more gentle than he appeared.
“See? I can be a nice, polite man, right?”
She was quiet. She had no idea how to answer. She just wanted to get away from this guy.
“You are still scared. Well, I suppose it does not matter. Just do me a small favor, and save that fear for the video cameras.”
Annie didn’t know what this meant at first, until she remembered that he was to make a ransom video of her to get money. At least she knew she was to be kept alive until then. Maybe she could find a way out. Maybe Frank would come save her.
Maybe.
Vaas put his arm roughly around her neck and lead her toward the cage at the back of the cabin.
“The man I was talking about earlier, that little fuck no one gave a shit about, he intrigued me. They all did. All those little shitheads that thought they could escape. I kept them all here at one point. I wanted to learn from them, see why their little fucking brains worked the way they did…” He shoved her into the cage. She fell to the dusty ground and looked up at him as he tied the door shut with chains and heavy padlock. “Then is when I realized, no one ever gives up, even when they say they do. The human mind and body, it wants to live.” He clicked the padlock shut. “Interesting, isn’t it? That even when hope seems to be all gone to shit, people still try? Now that is fucking insane, isn’t it?”
She didn’t understand how this person, this ‘Vaas’ guy, was so smart, why he had such depth, but he was so crazy. If he didn’t plan on selling her from money or killing her, she would of thought of him as very interesting.
But he was willing to either sell her, or kill her.
“So what do you think, Annie? Are you going to keep trying?”
“Of course I will,” she said with a certain bravery even she was surprised to discover within herself. He snickered.
“I see…You are an interesting girl, Annie. Quite a catch for some lucky guy, mm?”
Part of him was mocking her, but part of him was being very serious. He did find her quite interesting, she could see it in his eyes. And that gave her an idea. A silly one, of course, one she couldn’t fully count on, a simple secondary goal that may or may not work in her favor.
Charm him. Do something, anything to make him like her. She had seen enough movies, read enough books, to know women had power over men. If she could make this man, as crazy as he was, to have some sort of feelings for her, maybe he would slip, and she could escape.
However, he was crazy. Very crazy. He seemed like one of those types that had no feelings at all other than those of a trickster, someone who faked their feelings to get away with whatever they want.
But it was still a chance. Meanwhile, she would wait for Frank to (hopefully) find help, and try to escape herself. Those were her only options.
And she still had to rescue her friends, she realized. She had been so frightened she hadn’t even thought about her sister, or anyone else. Hopefully the pirates were holding them for ransom, as well, and weren’t going to kill them immediately. That would give Annie time to do something.
If she could find out what to do about it.