~Almost four years ago~

“And the winner is… St. Mary’s High School!” a local TV star shouted and the audience went crazy as well as a group of teens in red and black clothing. A girl in the centre smiled brightly as she walked towards the man to accept the prize.

After half an hour the glee club found itself in a bus going back to the school.

“I still can’t believe that we won,” the leader of the group said smiling widely. There were tears of joy in her eyes.

“Oh, Tina, with you as a soloist we didn’t expect anything less. You were amazing tonight on that stage,” a boy next to her said and leaned to kiss her on a cheek.

“You always know what to say,” she smiled and kissed him on the lips. They kissed for a moment until the whole bus started cheering for them. They broke the kiss and kept staring at each other.

“Come on, guys, let’s sing something cheerful!” a blonde girl shouted and started singing some song and everyone joined in.

<~*~>

“Do you want to come to my place?” Tina asked her boyfriend as they left the school and headed to the parking lot.

The boy looked at her as if she was crazy. “Are you kidding me? Your dad is a cop; he would kill me if he walked on us.”

“You are such a baby sometimes,” Tina rolled her eyes and got into his car.

The drive was silent but not awkward. After having been together for almost half a year everything seemed so familiar, so normal.

“Give me a kiss goodbye?” The boy asked as they reached Tina’s home.

“It doesn’t have to be a goodbye kiss, you know…” she said smiling mischievously.

“Don’t tease me,” he said and kissed her. “I will call you tonight.”

“Talk to you later,” the girl said and got out of the car. The boy waited for her to get into the house and then drove away.

Tina went inside and put her bag on the stairs. Judging by the shoes that were left at home, her parents were still at work and her brother must have been somewhere with friends or in the library. Smiling to herself she thought of taking a long hot bath to relax after a stressful day. Performing, no matter how satisfying, always made her exhausted. Especially for competitions. And this one was the tough one.

But before taking a bath Tina wanted to have something to drink so she went to the kitchen and took some juice out of the fridge. She turned around and the jug fell out of her hands. She wasn’t alone after all.

<~*~>

“HELP! PLEASE, SOMEONE HELP ME!” the girl shouted but the traffic was hectic and nobody could hear her. She was in a car’s trunk, blindfold on her eyes, hands and legs tied up. “HELP!”

Tina yelled for help every time the car stopped, most likely because of the traffic lights.  But nothing helped. After more or less ten minutes the sounds around subsided; she guessed that they were out of the city. Suddenly someone opened the car and she shouted again. A strong hand pressed to her mouth and having easily overpowered her, put tape on her mouth so that the girl couldn’t shout anymore.

Tina was in such a shock that she couldn’t even cry. She lost the track of time. It felt like forever for her. They kept driving and driving. Until they stopped again. It was perfectly silent outside as someone dragged her out of the car. The smell told her they might have been somewhere in a forest.

A strong man put her on his shoulder and went somewhere. The girl squirmed but it didn’t help her case; she heard men laughing. From the sound there could have been four or five of them. They didn’t talk to each other; they simply kept walking. In a few minutes that felt like hours they stopped. She was dropped from the height she was held at and hurt a shoulder.

“Welcome to your grave, sweetheart,” one of the men spoke and they all laughed. “Remove that blindfold; I want her to see my face.”

Just in a few seconds it was removed and Tina opened her eyes. She was in a forest, in a middle of a circle made by four big muscular men. The one in front of her had a shovel in his right hand. A man to the right of him spoke and she recognized him as the one who had spoken before.

“Do you know who I am, sweetheart? Probably not. I don’t think your daddy shows you pictures of families he took their beloved ones from, does he? I don’t think so… Anyway, you don’t really need to know who I am. But your father will know that it is me who took you from him.”

Tina looked at him, pure horror in her wide eyes.

“You see, that fucker killed my brother. He shot him right to his back like some fucking dog. Now it’s the time for revenge… But I won’t be easy on you, baby doll,” he smiled and it sent chills down her spine. “Untie her.”

Two men came to her and untied her hands and legs. Once free, she stood up quickly and tried to run away but the girl didn’t even make twenty meters when strong hands grabbed her arm and she felt. Once again there was a loud laughter that scared some birds away.

The ‘leader’ took a shovel from the other man and handed it to Tina who didn’t take it; she just looked at him frightened and confused.

“You are going to dig out a grave for yourself. Think of yourself as the lucky one – such a nice place to die, such a nice place to be buried,” the man said and finally Tina broke and started sobbing. “By the way, if you remove the tape from your mouth I’m going to rape you. Is that understood?”

The men who had been holding her shoved her and the girl fell on the ground crying her eyes out. The shovel was thrown in front of her.

“Begin,” the man said but she couldn’t move. “I said, begin!” He kicked her once, twice in the stomach. She still didn’t do anything but crying so he just kept hitting her until she lost her breath.

“I think it’s enough, man,” someone else said and it all stopped. “Now, girl, take that fucking shovel and start working. We don’t have the whole day.”

Tina stood up slowly, shaking up visibly. There were a lot of thoughts going through her head but nothing coherent. With trembling hands she took the shovel; she hoped that maybe all of this was just to scare her, maybe they weren’t for real. But if she didn’t dig out that hole in the ground they may kick and punch her until she dies. Or maybe they would be so angry that they would simply shoot her. It was smarter just to do what she was told to.

For another half an hour she was working with the shovel, sobbing all the time while the men kept laughing at her. From time to time they kicked or punched her, or threw some dirt into her face. It was all just a game for them; they were having a really good time.

“I think it’s good enough, sweetheart. Not very deep but it will do,” the man said and took the shovel from her. She was standing in the hole trying not to look at anyone. Anyway, she would have hardly seen anything through tears. “Now, lie there on your stomach.”

Tina started to panic. She thought he had been terrified before but at that point she completely lost it. The idea that this was really going to happen, that she would be killed in that forest, kicked in and she wanted to plead, to beg for mercy. She moved her hands to the mouth.

“Don’t you fucking do that, I already told you what would happen. Do you really want me, all of us, to fuck you before you die?” he smiled at her and the girl lowered her hands. “Good girl. Now do what I said.”

Tina’s knees gave up and she fell. The man took the shovel and started to throw dirt on her. Another man kicked her back and now she was on her stomach, sobbing quietly. Some more dirt was thrown on her legs and back before it stopped for a minute.

“On the second thought, maybe your father will want to hear you getting closer to death with every minute,” the man said and pressed his phone next to the left ear. “Well, hello, agent Yu. How have you been?... You probably don’t remember me but I remember you really well… My name is Frederick, I’m a brother of that eighteen year old boy you killed three weeks ago… Oh, now you remember. Nice to know that… Well, someone wants to talk to you…”

Tine felt a phone being thrown on her head. She took it quickly.

“Dad? Dad, I love you. Tell mom and Min that I love them so so much…” she said sobbing; she could hardly speak but the girl hoped that her father would understand her words.

“Tina? Tina, where are you? What’s happening?”

“I don’t know, dad. But I love you very much. You were always my hero, dad.”

“How lame, I want to puke,” one of the men said and laughed.

“Hold on, baby girl, we will track this phone call and I will come to get you, okay? Just hold on, I promise, I will save you. Just don’t hang up. And Tina? I love you too; we all do.”

“I think it’s enough,” Frederick said and wanted to take the phone from Tina but she didn’t let him. After one good kick however she let it go. “Have a nice day, agent Yu,” he said and hung up.

The man took the shovel and continued his work.

<~*~>

“It was somewhere here, sir,” a policeman told him and Yu scanned the ground looking for any signs of her daughter.

“Hurry up. You three take dogs and start looking, you two go to the left, you two to the right, you three and me will go that way. If you find anything strange, call me.”

They all listened to the orders and moved as soon as they could. Nobody knew what to expect. That whole family was sick minded and so every second counted. Yu went as fast as roots and sticks on the ground let him, looking around quickly but still observing everything.

“Sir, the dog found something!” someone shouted and he ran to the place where he heard that man. The first thing he saw was a pile of dirt.

“No, no no no,” he whined and joined the man digging the dirt with his bare hands on the other side. In half a minute another policeman showed up with two shovels.

 “I found the head,” the policeman said and Yu moved to that side. He saw dark long straight hair all covered with dirt.

“Tina,” he whispered as the policeman continued to dig so that he could raise the girl’s head. Yu shook his head from trance and helped him out.

“The ambulance is almost here,” another policeman came and informed them as they lifted the girl’s head.

“Sir? I can feel the pulse. It’s weak but she’s alive!”