Kidnapping Gone Awry

[UndergroundGod]

Once Kasuka was out of the limo, Izaya shut the door behind him and rapped against the driver’s window. As commanded, the limo then pulled off, leaving them stranded on the rather barren street.

Watching the younger male as he stepped out of the limo, Izaya noticed Kasuka looking around, but Izaya knew he wouldn’t find anything he recognized. Izaya had made sure to direct to driver to a place on the outskirts of the city, to the old business district that had since been overrun by the underground world. Kasuka was free to go whenever he liked, but this area was a taxi’s no man’s land and someone as pretty-faced as Kasuka was likely to get mugged every other block if he tried to walk. On top of that, Izaya was nearly positive that Kasuka really had no clue where they were, and would more than likely get lost if he tried to leave.

It also didn’t hurt that this area of the city was so remote that most cellphones couldn’t find reception, so chances were that Kasuka couldn’t even find a ride out of the area.

The crime and the confusion were Izaya’s staged deterrents to prevent Kasuka from wanting to run. In fact, Izaya would really rather he didn’t. Though Izaya figured Kasuka could handle himself for the most part, he hated to think what Shizuo would do if Kasuka was seriously injured; that was a little more trouble than Izaya was looking for right now.

Luckily, his plan worked, as Kasuka turned to look at the building, than looked at him and asked if they were going in.

“Right this way~” Izaya chimed. He walked up to the cracked and boarded glass doors of the building and swung them open with a flourish. He’d bought the property under a pseudonym some months ago to use as a meet up place for some of his shadier clients and so far, it had served his purposes fine. The lobby of the building was a destroyed mess, as it needed to be, for the sake of appearances. It smelled musty, and broken pieces of furniture were strewn all over, long since dead plants stood limply in the corners, and a thick layer of dust and grime coated it all.

Unaffected, Izaya crossed the room to the elevators, pulled a key card out of his jacket pocket, and swiped it. The elevator dinged as the doors opened and Izaya waved Kasuka inside. In contrast to the lobby, the inside of the elevator looked fairly new, well lit, clean, plush looking carpeting and shiny wood paneling. Izaya had had both the elevator and his office several floors up refurbished and renovated, but had left the rest of the building in its current state.

Izaya stepped inside after Kasuka, pushed the button for the seventh floor then leaned back against the wall to wait for it to arrive

The first few seconds were fine, but… as the elevator was passing the third floor, there was a sudden, terrible sound, a grinding-screeching noise that was worse than nails on a chalk board, and much more ominous. Izaya heart leapt into his throat in a way he was wholly unfamiliar with, though the sensation was portrayed on his face only as vague surprise. As the elevator began to rattle, and was pulled upwards in a jerky motion another few feet, Izaya’s hands gripped the railing behind him and he held his breath, waiting for either the ride to continue smoothly, or for the elevator to take a turn for the worse and plummet. At least, even with the basement level beneath them, they were only four stories up. Most humans could survive a fall of five stories or less and Izaya was half prepared to throw himself to the floor of the elevator should a descent begin or should a cable snap above them.

But all the elevator did was grind to a halt just as the digital floor display clicked over to four and then become still and silent.

[Deleted]

The sound of grinding gears. The sound of one slipping. The entire elevator jarred violently.

Kasuka’s attention snapped to Izaya, which seemed a bit odd given the circumstances. His eyes narrowed in a wince as the elevator gave another lurch, and his knuckles grew white as he fought to keep his balance. Judging by his reaction, Izaya was just as surprised as he was. So he hadn’t planned this stunt after all.

There wasn’t a need to panic. After all, this had happened to Kasuka a few times before. Granted. . . the elevators had been newer than this rackety old one. And people had known they had been inside.

Maybe he should start panicking.

Finally, after what felt like five minutes of indecisive rocking and rolling, the elevator stopped.

Kasuka breathed in quickly, glancing up from the floor. It felt too dangerous to really move much more than his head.

“Well that was. . .” he trailed off uselessly. The situation had suddenly become a lot more. . well life threatening. He looked back over at his captured, and offered a bemused smile. “It could be worse.”

And that was when the lights went out.

[UndergroundGod]

As soon as those fateful words left Kasuka's lips, Izaya knew something was bound to happen. It ALWAYS happened. That phrase was like the kiss of death on an already treacherous situation and he'd have thought Kasuka, of all people (seeing that he was in the movies where these sorts of things happened all the time), would know better than to utter something so completely disastrous.

The lights flickered out, predictably (since it couldn't rain inside an elevator) and Izaya groaned painfully, intoning, "You just HAD to say it, didn't you."

The elevator was pitch black for about fifteen seconds while Izaya wondered what the hell they were going to do. The darkness was heavy and the weight of it was oppressing; Izaya's heart started beating a bit faster than before and his eyes scanned through the elevator, though he, of course, saw nothing.

Luckily, there was a humming sound after a bit and one lonely, low watt emergency light flickered on. It didn't illuminate the small place completely, but it was at least enough to vaguely make out the inside of the elevator, and to see Kasuka where he was standing in the opposite corner of the elevator, which was enough. Izaya had never really considered himself claustrophobic… but then again, he'd never been trapped in an apparently faulty elevator before, either, and certainly not in a pitch black one. He thought to himself that he might need to reconsider his list of phobias.

Taking a slow, deep breath, he pulled out his phone… he had absolutely no bars, but it had been worth a shot at least. Out on the street, he'd barely had any reception at all, so… in the elevator, he was definitely void of any sort of signal. Shaking his head lightly, he leaned back against the wall of the elevator, for once, completely unsure as to what they should do next.

[Deleted]

His grip on the bar behind him tightened considerably. Closing his eyes, it felt slightly more comforting to believe he was the one creating the icy darkness, instead of confronting the much scarier reality.

Although, Kasuka didn’t really feel any fear. Sure, he was aware of the threat- he accepted this- that they could plunge to- well maybe not death, but to a painful, leg breaking stop at anytime- that nobody would be coming to their rescue any time soon, and that he was stuck in an elevator with Izaya. Who was a bit crazy at the best of times. Who was also showing the warning signs of someone with growing claustrophobia.

“Izaya, don’t start confusing real life with fiction,” Kasuka pointed out mildly, turning his head blindly to the side.

The air seemed to sigh with relieve as the lonely lightbulb flickered on. Kasuka peered out from under his lashes, straightening up as he grew more aware of his surroundings. He pulled out his own cell phone. No lucky. Leaving his cell phone open, the harsh glow added a little more light to the small space. And it really was small. At best, the elevator could hold about five people- skinny people- with chests touching, hands and other limbs trying to go anywhere awkward.

Kasuka gingerly let go of the railing, but didn’t dare move his feet. “Um. Are you okay?” he asked, not just out of common courtesy, but it honestly looked like his capture was going to freak out at any moment.

[UndergroundGod]

"I'm fine," he replied quickly, but perhaps too quickly. It was an automatic response more than it was a description of how he was feeling at the moment.

To be frank, Izaya had some control issues. Anyone with a high school psychology course under their belt could deduce that much. His constant need to manipulate others was apparent, as was his almost obsessive need to know the details of everything he came in contact with. He often did a good job appearing nonchalant, carefree, or perhaps just that he was just too above the fray to give a shit, but in reality, Izaya was used to having a pretty good handle on situations. His ability to plan and control others was actually the reason why he could face situations with such carefree abandon.

For humans, playing God wasn't about thinking you were invincible just because. It was about formulating a plan, envisioning everything that could possibly go wrong with that plan, and then having a backup plan to counter whatever had gone wrong. Izaya prided himself on his ability to plan for the worst. He could weasel himself out of more difficult situations than most simply because very few happenings were outside his realm of predictability, which meant that when something wrong happened, he generally already had a contingency plan in place to deal with the supposedly adverse situation. In the few situations that Izaya hadn't anticipated, his mind was usually swift enough to come up with some makeshift solution on the spot.

This, however, fell into neither of those categories. In all Izaya's run-throughs of the day's event going wrong, including Kasuka escaping, Shizuo's involvement prematurely, flat tires, body guards, drug dealers, and anything else that might have gotten in their way, Izaya hadn't once considered that the elevator he'd only had refurbished about eight months ago would break down and leave them stranded in an elevator shaft.

On top of that, there was absolutely nothing he could think of to solve their problem. The solutions that came to mind were fragile, at best. Without a means of contacting the outside world, they would be left to their own devices, at least for now… and that more or less left three options. One, they could attempt to do what had been done in movies before; they could try to pry the elevator doors open and climb out… but Izaya had absolutely no desire to be the one to climb. Kasuka may have wanted him to keep fiction and reality separate, but Izaya had seen too many movies and television shows where the elevator decided to start working again as soon as someone was partially out of the elevator and he wasn't going to risk something as stupid as that.

The second option would be to climb out of the elevator through the service door on top, which was probably marginally safer than prying the doors open. Both he and Kasuka were capable of stunts that most people weren't… though he didn't really think either of them would know how to fix the elevator even if they were to climb up into the shaft, so really, what would be the point?

And their last option… was to wait.

Because what fun would it have been if Izaya had had to wait for Shizuo to figure out on his own was Izaya had done with Kasuka? They'd have been waiting for days if that had been the case. So, to speed Shizuo along, Izaya had left the address of the building as a message with Simon. The man had frowned at him and told Izaya that be better not be up to something, though he already knew that he was.

Regardless, Shizuo was sure to cross paths with Simon eventually and the message would be relayed, and then Shizuo would come tearing through the city to find them. Well, to find Kasuka, but at this point, Shizuo wouldn't be able to do one without doing the other, and he would incidentally save both of them.

At this point, waiting was their safest option, even if it meant being trapped in the unstable elevator car for who knows how long. Of course, Izaya continued to think, talking himself out of the unreasonable panic, this wasn't a particularly dangerous place. It was unlikely that either of them could be killed if the elevator dropped from this height, even if the cables did snap. They might have some bumps and bruises from it, but they would be fine. Honestly, it was hardly more dangerous than the risk they took every time they got inside a car.

Izaya finally felt his heart slowing down to its normal rate, and he remained where he was, leaning casually back against the wall of the elevator.

[Deleted]

Slowly, Kasuka arched a bemused eyebrow. Uh huh. It was good to see nobody was freaking out. Kasuka couldn’t tell what floor they’d stopped at- he hadn’t been looking at it when everything had started to go belly up. The little screen that normally had the digital numbers indicating such- was totally blank of course. The tiny electrical surge hadn’t given everything back. Depending on what floor they were at. . would depending on if they would live or die, really.

Kasuka let himself smile in the darkness. It was really kind of amusing. He could almost hear Izaya mentally reassuring himself. Kasuka felt he knew a little more of the ways of dangerous situations than the average joe- thanks to realistic research that went into making movies.

The fall from any large height would toss them around the elevator - you could try to stop it, but the suddenly pull of gravity would be hard to fight off- then your entire body would shatter from the inside out upon impact. Depending how far Izaya had gone with renovations. . he might not have bothered to patch up the floor below them. . and Kasuka assumed there must be an old basement in this place. If they were really unlucky, they wouldn’t die right away, and would lie there, paralysed and bleeding, until they died of blood lose. Or the elevator collapsed in around them. Worst case scenario.

Or maybe it was only the third floor, and they might just get away with a few bumps and bruises. It didn't hurt to look at both extremities.

Apparently to survive an elevator floor, you were told to flatten yourself to the ground. . Kasuke didn’t really want to wait around long enough to see how reliable that advice was.

The building was so old. . the evaluator so dodgy. . how strong where those cables, how much weight could they handle until they started to snap one by one. . he was starting to seriously question Izaya’s mental state- putting other people in danger he could understand but now he’d put himself under the line of fire.

“We should have taken the stairs,” Kasuka mumbled wryly.

Well whatever. They had about two options left. Sit on the floor, curl up into a ball and rock back and forth and wait for something to happen. Or try make something happen.

Izaya looked like he wanted to wait around. Well, that wasn’t about to happen on his watch.

Kasuka looked up. Like with all elevators, there was a ceiling panel. He looked back at the moron in front of him. “You’re probably not strong enough to break that open. If you let me climb onto your shoulders, I can bust it open, then you can go take a look around outside.”

No, Kasuka didn’t offer to climb out himself. No he wasn’t quite sure what looking around outside would achieve but- Would Izaya realise what he was trying to do? He knew the man to some degree. He had been observing him since he was in high school after all. And Izaya hated to not be in control of something. Kasuka trusted Izaya enough to give him the opportunity to take back control.