Realistic or Modern The City: 1990s Gangs - IC Thread

[Pyroclast]

Old Distillery
~ Undisclosed, London ~

Jane Porter​

The stench of petrol was inescapable. Klaus instructed Jane and Arabella to take deep breaths while he and Spencer found a way into the building that didn’t involve triggering the trapped door, but even though help had arrived, Jane was finding it harder and harder to calm down. Taking deep breaths was almost impossible when the air tasted like poison. It would catch in her throat and bring her close to vomiting. Her stomach hurt from all the horror she had faced, her uncontrollable crying, the petrol that had washed down her throat.

When Klaus and Spencer disappeared, Jane seized up into a full blown panic attack, terrified that they would never come back. She had no idea how far her kidnappers had gone, whether they had driven off or were still lying in wait. Maybe she and Arabella were simply bait, and they were trying to draw Spencer and Syd and whoever else they could into their trap. And if that were the case, then they would have noticed by now that their real targets had arrived…

“Wait!” she called out, her sobs echoing against the metal machinery. “Come back!” Fear overrode all logic; she just couldn’t bear for her and Arabella to be left alone again. The smashing of glass made her scream and she watched, like a deer in headlights, as Klaus dropped down into the room from a high up window. He signalled at her to be quiet, and somehow her crying died down. The man approached them cautiously, and the way his eyes scanned the floor made her nervous. She guessed that the door was trapped because she had seen the kidnappers tamper with it, but it hadn’t occurred to her that there may be more traps set up around the room. He asked if they were injured or bleeding. Maybe she was hurt, but she didn’t remember. She was still in shock. “I don’t think so,” she whispered, her lips trembling as tears continued to flow from her eyes. Jane had spent enough time around Klaus in Germany to know he was a good man - no matter how suspicious her father could be of him. His eyes were kind, and his accent a comfort to her. When he told her they were going to get out of the building as quickly as possible, she bit down on her lip and nodded.

Spencer then jumped down into the room, too. She still didn’t feel completely safe, knowing that the kidnappers could still be lurking somewhere, ready to jump out at any moment, but the hope inside her was growing. Jane anchored her gaze to the two men, afraid to look away from them in case they disappeared again. They proceeded to untie both her and Arabella, and Jane instantly hugged herself, relieving her arms of the ache from being bound to a distiller. A fresh wave of emotion came over her when she heard Spencer tell them they were safe now. From the shock and all the crying she had done, she was almost dizzy enough to fall when Spencer stood her up. She was shaking like a leaf and clutched onto Spencer’s arm as he led her over to the other side of the room. She was so consumed by the trauma of everything that she didn’t question why he was taking her there. After draping his jacket around her shoulders, he left her to wait there with Arabella and Klaus, the latter of whom Jane had to cling to in order to keep her knees from buckling.

As soon as she realised he was approaching the door, she began to panic again. “DON’T!” she cried. “Don’t open it, don’t touch it!” She hid herself behind Klaus, terrified that the fire was about to ignite. If it did, she knew it would find her in seconds and eat her alive. But when, after several seconds, nothing happened, Jane peered out from behind Klaus to see what was going on. Spencer was dismantling the trap, and before she could even see what it was, he had thrown it away. He asked Klaus what he thought about going through the door, if he still thought it was safer - and even possible - to try and go through the window.

Jane followed the light from Spencer’s torch up to the window. She had climbed through plenty of windows before, following Jeanie on some daring adventure, and had always been afraid of falling from a height. This one was high off the ground and surrounded by shards of broken glass. How they would all land safely on the other side was another question. She found herself shaking her head. Both options were full of uncertainties; both seemed dangerous. On the one hand, how did they know the door didn’t have more traps on the other side? On the other, how would they climb out of the window without falling?

“Is the door safe?” Jane asked through chattering teeth. “Is it still trapped?”

Interactions
Bellz Klaus
Misty Gray Spencer
Melanin-Gxdess Arabella