Chapter 198: Kidnapped....Again

Lillian let out a yawn as she walked to the elevator and pressed the button that led her to the apartment’s reception area, she had been feeling a bit hungry and too lazy to cook.Besides, Ethan had already left and she didn’t want to call him back to cook, so she decided to just come down to the lobby and get it.

She rubbed her eyes as she stepped out of the elevator, her hoodie slightly crooked from sleep and her hair in a messy bun.

She hadn’t meant to stay up until nearly dawn going over OmniMed’s profits, but once she started, she couldn’t stop. Now, her stomach protested loudly with every step she took.

The lobby was quiet at this hour, warm lights reflecting off the marble floors. The night receptionist perked up slightly when she saw her, though she tried not to make it obvious.

OmniTech was a relatively new company, but Lillian Hayes had been quite know.

Not that she cared about any of that.

Right now, she just wanted a sandwich, so she trudged toward the vending wall, blinking away the last bits of sleep.

"Ugh... I’m too young to be this tired," she mumbled under her breath, stretching as she approached the machine.

She tapped in her selection: turkey club, extra mayo.

"Quite late for a sandwich isn’t it, Miss Hayes," a voice was suddenly heard behind Lillian causing her to cautiously turn around.

She hadn’t even heard him approach, but she kept her cool and asked with a sigh,

"And you are?"

"Just a fan of your company," the man replied with a smile on his face, one that looked completely innocent.

Though Lillian didn’t return the smile, her face remained neutral.

"And you’re in my building at... what, 2:40 a.m.?" she asked, tilting her head, "we don’t exactly take walk-in fans."

He chuckled lightly, as if amused by her stubborn nonchalance.

"No trouble, I assure you. I just wanted to see the face of OmniTech’s little COO," the man said before turning back, "anyway, it was nice meeting you Miss Hayes, have a good night."

Lillian suspiciously watched as the man exited the building with a frown on her face, she’d have called Ethan but her phone was back in her room so she just collected her sandwich and peeled off a bit of the wrapper.

She turned away and headed back toward the elevator, taking a small bite of her sandwich as she walked. Her stomach grumbled in approval, but her mind stayed alert.

Something was definitely off.

She reached out and pressed the elevator button.

The doors quickly opened and she stepped in, still chewing, and hit the button for the penthouse level.

The doors quickly shut and the elevator let out a dull hum as it continued upwards but the moment she was past the third floor, approaching the fourth, it suddenly stopped.

The lights flickered before she heard the sound of the elevator completely powering down.

"Are you kidding me?"

She immediately reached into the pocket of her hoodie, then groaned.

,Phone," Lillian muttered only to realize, "right, they’re still upstairs."

Of course.

Of course she’d leave her phone behind on the one night something actually happened.

She pressed the emergency button.

Nothing happened so she pressed it again.

Still nothing.

She tried looking for a way out, only to realize there was none. She could try going up, through the escape hatch on the ceiling... except she’d need something to stand on, and even then, she didn’t exactly have the upper-body strength for elevator-shaft acrobatics.

"Great," she muttered flatly, "stranded in a metal box, at least let me finish my sandwich first."

She took another bite, chewing slowly as she assessed the situation.

Then,

Clang.

Her jaw paused mid-chew.

Another sound followed.

This time a climb and scrape.

Footsteps.

On top of the elevator.

Her heartbeat spiked immediately, her sandwich forgotten as she took a cautious step back.

That definitely didn’t sound like someone coming to rescue her, after all, no one had known that the elevator was jammed yet, except if they were the ones that caused it.

She wasn’t imagining it. Whoever was up there wasn’t trying to be quiet in the least bit. The elevator shook as the landed and she could hear them fidgeting, probably trying to open the escape hatch.

Lillian looked up at the ceiling panel.

A soft pssshhhh suddenly hissed through the ventilation slit near the top of the elevator.

She immediately froze.

A faint vapor drifted downward, visible through the flickering emergency light.

Gas.

Panic shot through her.

"No, hey! Stop! STOP!" she coughed, waving her hand in front of her face, backing into the far corner of the elevator, "I swear to God, I am so sick of people drugging me!"

It hadn’t even been more than a month since she was kidnapped and shipped to an entirely different country and yet, it was happening again.

Her voice broke into another cough as her limbs began to feel heavy. Her knees wobbled.

The hiss continued.

She tried pressing herself closer to the floor, gas rose, right? Or fell? Or something? she couldn’t even think straight right now.

The edges of her vision narrowed, blurring out the vending machine sandwich still clutched in her hand.

Her head thunked gently against the elevator wall as she slid down.

She could hear the footsteps again.

It was more than one pair now and she could also hear the metal groaning above her.

Her thoughts slow grew sluggish.

"E... Ethan..." she breathed out, trying to force her eyes to stay open.

She couldn’t, no matter how hard she tried, her eyes just got heavier by the second.

Her body gave up before her mind did.

The last thing she heard was the soft, mechanical click of the ceiling panel being unlocked from above and a couple of people jumping down through the escape hatch.

"Hello Miss Hayes," was the last thing she heard, then darkness took her.