When I woke up I was moving, and for a moment or two was utterly and completely baffled. Bafflement quickly became blind panic as my groggy brain tried and failed to come up with an explanation as to why I might be moving and I moved on instinct, trying to stand up.
Didn’t get far. I was still half-asleep and my body was the half that hadn’t properly woken up yet and so didn’t react quite as I might have liked it to. That, and someone put a hand on my leg. I looked down.
Fingerless glove things? Who wears those? I know someone who wears those. Tip of my tongue, tip of my tongue...
Then I got it.
“Ah shit,” I said, reaching up to rub my eyes as I felt the hand on my leg give what was presumably meant to be a reassuring squeeze. I wasn’t reassured.
“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” I heard Adagio say. I was even less reassured.
Opening my eyes and blinking away what remained of my impromptu nap I found myself sitting at the back of a mostly-empty bus, trundling along somewhere. I was sandwiched between Adagio and Aria with Sonata sat by the window, looking out of it with her face pressed against the glass. It was dark outside, so where we were was unclear.
Not that it really mattered, as being anywhere other than where I should have been - at home - was bad.
“Adagio…” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“Yes?”
“Why am I here? Why am I on a bus? What are you doing? Where are we even going?!”
Might have got a little manic towards the end on that one, but to be fair out of all the times to get a little manic this seemed like one of the more acceptable ones, what with being kidnapped and everything. I felt I was allowed to be a little upset.
Adagio was unfazed by my outburst anyway, and just kept squeezing my leg. She must have thought it was an effective thing to do.
“Shh, shh. We’re just going a town over, not far. You’ve helped me enough so that I can start affecting humans again. Just one at a time for now, but I only need one. Next town over no-one should know who we are, we can recover, think about things, prepare. It’ll be fine, you’ll be fine.”
I thought about this. I really, really should have paid more attention to the local geography. Beyond the layout of town I didn’t really know anything. How far away even was the next town over? Seven miles? Twenty? It’d take me a day or so but I could walk twenty if I had to, no big deal. But what if it was more? This was a big place, after all.
Looking out the window again told me nothing more than last time. Still dark outside, some lights by the road and some others in the distance. Unhelpful.
“How did you guys even get me on a bus?” I asked.
“We had to carry you,” Aria said, glaring at me as though this was somehow my fault.
“You three carried an unconscious guy onto a bus and no-one batted an eye?”
“It’s night, you were snoring, no-one cared.”
Actually, I could see that happening. Bugger.
I squirmed in my seat, uncomfortably aware of how little space I had between the two girls. You’d think that wouldn’t be a bad thing, right? Context is important. Between the two of them I wasn’t sure who I disliked being closer to, though out of the two girls I could definitely tell Aria was the one who was unhappy. Adagio was practically vibrating with glee.
“I like road trips as much as the next guy, Adagio, but you know I have obligations? That place doesn’t pay for itself and I still have work and that,” I said, trying to ignore Aria for now.
“You don’t have to worry about any of that. I’m looking after you now,” Adagio said, smiling pleasantly.
Well that hadn’t worked. What else could I try?
I thought about this.
The gravity of the situation seemed to be passing Adagio by. I supposed that from her point of view things were going pretty great. Me, not so much.
“What’s to stop me from just getting up and leaving the next time the bus stops?” I ventured, testing the waters. Adagio’s smile went away.
“I don’t want to have to put you to sleep again. Don’t make me do that,” she said, sounding a lot like the idea genuinely upset her.
I thought I heard Aria snicker, but couldn’t really be sure and was doing my best to ignore it anyway because my guts filled with ice being sat next to someone that had fucking magic and had used it on me and would use it again. Made it difficult to concentrate on other things. Magic! Fucking magic! No-one told me there’d be magic!
Okay, alright, that’s fine. Don’t panic at the thought - the knowing - that putting you to sleep with a word is something she is totally capable of doing just by speaking at you. Just relax. Be calm. You just need to pick your moment, that’s all. Timing! You can do timing.
Just wait. Play along. Don’t panic.
I needed to stay calm, needed to relax. Not in the way that Adagio wanted me to, obviously, but more in the sense that I just needed to keep my wits about me, to think about the situation with rational detachment, yeah? Slow and steady. Panic would just make things worse.
Needed to escape, point one. That was pretty simple in theory. Escape, get back, find Sunset, grovel in the dirt, explain what happened and, uh, hope she and her friends didn’t mind fixing it again. That’ll be an awkward conversation, sure, but it was the only thing I could see happening or working.
Adagio was the obstacle here. This was the first and most obvious thing. Had the three of them just been regular girls - like they had been before I’d stuck my oar in - getting away wouldn’t have been that much of an issue. I’m a big lad, after all. Could probably have kept going even if all three jumped on me, just about.
Unfortunately, while Aria and Sonata still seemed to have been brought down to normal, Adagio was now a step above that thanks to me, and could (and probably would) stop me with a word if I started making a fuss. So she was the obstacle. And not one I could really see myself getting over.
I’d have to avoid it entirely…
“You’re very quiet,” Adagio said, bringing me back to the moment.
“Just feel like I need a hug,” I said, thinking on my feet. It got the desired result. Adagio melted at once, gave an ‘aww’ and hugged me, which seemed to go a long way towards defusing the situation. Aria, beside me, groaned with contempt. I ignored this, too.
“Hugs!” Sonata squealed, having looked back from the window and seen what was going on before promptly leaping in and wrapping her arms around the rest of us. I got enjoy - ‘enjoy’ - a moment or two of being squashed together with all three of them before Adagio succeeded in angrily throwing Sonata’s grip off.
“He’s not for you!” She snapped before going back to contentedly snuggling against me.
I felt sorry for Sonata, but mostly alarmed at Adagio’s sudden turn towards the nakedly possessive. Little worrying.
Sonata, bottom-lip wobbling, looked for emotional support. Aria didn’t bother even glancing in her direction and Adagio was just glaring. I could only mouth ‘sorry’ at her, which was the best I could do in the circumstances. Heart-wrenching watching her turn sadly back to the window again, but really not the worst thing at that moment.
Adagio sighed happily and utterly refused to let go. In an effort to seem like this was what I wanted and that I wasn’t causing a fuss I gingerly put an arm around her and gave her a pat on the back. This only encouraged her, but at least seemed to not cause any immediate problems.
I wondered, idly, if anyone would even notice that I’d disappeared. On reflection probably not, depressingly enough. This is what I get for being unlikable and withdrawn. Mea culpa.
Sunset would have been my first choice for someone who’d pick up on my sudden absence but she probably would be happy not seeing me for a bit given what had happened earlier, and by the time she realised I wasn’t around who knew what might have happened.
Work would notice, but not in a ‘Where’s he gone I hope he’s okay we should go find him’ kind of a way. More of a ‘Great, we have a vacancy we need to fill’ way. Which isn’t ideal for me.
So the possibility of someone bursting in at any moment to swoop up and snatch me away to safety seemed remote. So that was that out the window.
The sheer absurdity of the situation I was in loomed at me again, but it was just too stupid for me to fully appreciate.
I had been kidnapped - kidnapped! Not only that, but it had been otherworldly creatures in the shape of cute girls who would have all been deprived of their mind-bending magic had I not inadvertently been instrumental in returning a portion of it to their ringleader, who had been the driving force behind snatching me.
And said ringleader was, at that moment, pressed to my side, occasionally looking up at me with big - and admittedly, quite pretty - eyes and an expression that gave me the willies something fierce for reasons I couldn’t fully put my finger on.
What were you meant to do in a situation like that? Why did they never go over this at school?
Some while later we arrived. Prior to that there had been maybe one or two stops. I had not tried to escape. I didn’t really see the point, and Adagio was still clinging to me anyway. Biding my time seemed the wiser choice.
Where we ended up was anyone’s guess. ‘The next town over’ told me nothing and with it being dark I couldn’t see a whole lot of the place anyway. Adagio, at least, seemed to know where to go and lead the way, the other two bringing up the rear, carrying the luggage and keeping me in sight.
Could I have made a break for it? Maybe. But any time I considered it my head filled with visions of me being halted mid-sprint by a single word from Adagio and that idea made me uncomfortable in ways I had difficulty categorising. Ideally, I’d escape without her being there. That was the basis of my plan, I decided, and so I thought about that until we got to where we’d been going.
A hotel, it turned out. And still open to boot. I was left in the lobby around a corner with Sonata and Aria while Adagio went off to the front desk work her literal magic. Unsurprisingly, none of us really felt like talking.
The lobby was deathly dull in that sterile, well-decorated kind of way you might expect. This gave me very little to stare at beyond decorate twigs in big pots of gravel and vague, abstract, bulk-bought art. I ended up looking at the sirens, seeing if I could get anything useful just by sight.
I could not. Aria looked grumpy and was picking at something on her jacket and Sonata was closer to me eyes locked to the floor, sad as anything.
The more I looked over at her there, sitting morosely, the guiltier I felt. I had no reason to, obviously, and if anything should probably have been feeling as unhappy with her as either of the other two. She just looked so sad!
I’m weak!
Casting an eye at the corner we were sitting behind and straining an ear to hear how Adagio was getting on I reached out and tapped Sonata on the knee.
“Wha?”
“Quick hug, quick hug,” I hissed, spreading my arms.
Giving a muted squeal - thankfully having the presence of mind to keep her voice down - Sonata lunged over and onto me, squeezing. She also had the presence of mind to keep it brief, too, and leapt right back onto her own chair after a second or two, looking much happier.
Well, at least I did one reasonably nice thing. Stupid, yeah, but nice at least.
Aria was giving me a sour look. I fought the urge to stuck my tongue out at her.
“Going to grass us up?” I asked her. She huffed and rolled her eyes, muttering:
“Like I care…”
Adagio came back some seconds after this. She’d managed to wangle a suite of rooms, which was impressive. But it was, I noticed once we got up there, a suite of rooms without only three beds. Two singles, one double. I could kind of see where this was going, and I wasn’t a fan.
What was that thing they say about kidnappings? Never let them get you to where they want to get you? Why was I only remembering that now? Bit late.
It having been a long day all of them were keen to get to bed. I was sat in a chair while they divvied up the luggage between them, squabbling a little over the few items that seemed to be of more disputed ownership. Sonata and Aria headed off one way, towards the two singles, leaving me and Adagio. She smiled, and I was ushered to the bed.
Sigh. I’m never helping strangers again.
While Adagio got herself ready for bed I, with nothing to get ready with, just lay flat on top of the duvet fully-dressed, staring at the ceiling, doing my best to ignore the whole world and not think too much about my many myriad mistakes and failings. There’d be plenty of time to think about them tomorrow. For now, even with my forced nap, I was tired.
Once I’d slept - properly slept, not being magically coaxed into it - then I could attack the problem head-on. All things were easier in the morning and better approached refreshed. This was my excuse, at least, for not doing anything right then.
That, and the door of the hotel room was some fiddly kind you could actually lock from the inside with the key. And Adagio had the keys. A fire safety risk and no mistake, but very good at keeping me from bolting.
The bed creaked and I realised that while I’d been absorbed in thinking about keycards while trying not to think about anything, Adagio had finished whatever it was she’d been doing and had come back into the room from the ensuite.
She’d changed into pyjamas. Something with shorts. There might have been bows, too, which made a change from spikes. I wasn’t really paying attention though, honest. If anything, I was doing my best to not pay attention, my focus remaining fixed on the ceiling apart from the occasional glance just to check what she was doing.
“Are you okay?” She asked in a soft voice full of genuine concern.
There were a lot of quite colourful ways I could have answered this, but felt it best not to antagonise my captor if I didn’t need to. Especially since she had apparently decided that we should share a bed - something very high on a list of things that I was not entirely okay with.
So instead I gave a non-commital grunt and shrugged the best I could while lying down.
To my consternation Adagio straddled me again, sitting just above my waist and letting her hands rest on my chest. I lay perfectly still and kept my eyes pointing straight ahead of me and past her. I hoped she wasn’t going to make a habit of this.
My reticence about what she’d done must have shown though because I could see her pouting again out the corner of my eye. Moving her hands so they were either side of my head she shifted and fell forward, face in mine, hair doing a very good job of blocking out the light.
Again, as much as I might have hated to admit it, Adagio did have very pretty eyes. Almost stunningly so, in fact. Very difficult to look anywhere else when they fixed on you, especially from so close.
“Relax. I’ve got you. Relax,” she said.
And, you know, she had a point. This wasn’t so bad. The bed was comfy, at least, and sure it was a bit sudden but there are certainly worse places to be than underneath a nice, pretty girl, right? If there was a time to relax it would be now. I’m warm and I’m safe. What’s to worry about?
Adagio smiled and I found myself smiling too, letting her reach down and take my wrists, lifting my hands up to settle them on her hips. Forward of her, sure, but just relax, it’s fine. I should really just relax.
Wait, what?
“Uh,” I said, delicately removing my hands and just holding them a comfortable, safer distance away from her. “You, uh, didn’t you say you weren’t ever going to do anything like that to me?”
Adagio, again, looked wounded, reaching back to clap my hands onto her hips once more and then holding them in place.
“I didn’t do anything to you, I wouldn’t! I was just helping you relax.”
“Why are you so keen on me relaxing?” I asked through gritted teeth. Even without her putting obvious effort into the word I still felt a little tug on it that caught in my brain. I had to concentrate and try actively not to relax. Concentrating was difficult with the way Adagio wiggled.
“Because there’s nothing you have to worry about now. I’ll take care of everything. So you can relax. Relax.”
I mean, she did have experience looking after stuff, didn’t she? Certainly a lot more on the ball than me. Adagio’s smart. She can look after the details. Hell, she can look after me! I can just relax. There’s nothing I have to worry about now.
Wait! Fuck! Not again!
I really, really didn’t like it when she did that. It was difficult to tell if she was doing it on purpose or if it was just happening without her realising it or even if she honestly didn’t think it was something she shouldn’t be doing. Didn’t matter anyway. I just didn’t like it at all.
She’s not looking after me! She kidnapped me! With magic! Remember that!
In my efforts to reassert some control over my own Goddamn thoughts I might have gripped her hips harder than I’d meant to, without thinking. Judging by her little coo she might have appreciated it more than I did.
I felt the need to seize the initiative.
“What is your plan, exactly?” I asked her and her eyes, which had been half-lidded, opened more fully to look down at me, eyebrow cocked. “Well, not exactly, don’t give me details if you don’t want, just - what is it you want?”
Adagio kept on eyeballing me in total silence for some seconds after I’d finished speaking, long enough for me to start to sweat, especially given how close she still was. Then all at once she giggled and sat up straight again, flicking me on the tip of the nose with one hand while the other tidied up a few errant strands of her luxuriant hair.
“Everything is going to be fine. I’ve got it all under control,” she said. “Things are going to be much better. I know this must seem like a lot right now, but it’s for the best. You’ll thank me one day.”
Who has ever said that and not realised how terrible it sounds? Adagio for one, it seemed.
She then yawned and dismounted me, much to my relief, wriggling around to get underneath the covers beside me. I stayed put, not moving a muscle, and once she’d properly settled herself in this she noticed.
“Aren’t you uncomfortable still in your clothes like that?” She asked.
“I’m plenty comfortable, thanks,” I said, and for a fleeting moment I had the horrible feeling that Adagio was going to make me do something I didn’t want to.
She didn’t though, just giving me a confused look instead.
“If you say so,” she said, yawning again and letting her eyes flutter shut, nestling her head deeper into the adequate hotel pillow and snuggling tight against my side. Within a minute or so I could tell she was asleep.
For as much good as it would have done me I tried to slip away. Maybe I could shimmy down a drainpipe, I thought? It was probably for the best that she, sleepily, put an arm over me.
Tomorrow. I’d figure something out tomorrow.
I did go to sleep, eventually, but not before laying there for what felt like a long, long time.