Archived:The Modern Janissaries/Kidnapped

## Elle and Erraline

When Erraline woke up, she was sitting in a carriage of a train, Elle sitting across from her, looking out the window with her arms hugging her stomach. She was dressed in a silver parker and a thermal shirt, bottle-necked, underneath. Erraline was wearing something similar. Outside was nothing but snow.

She glanced over, her eyebrow raising slightly, still scowling. "About time, I actually thought you'd be asleep when we finally get out of this blasted thing."

"Oh don't look at me like that," she snapped, "it's not like I could have convinced you to come with me. Far too time-consuming."

"Of course this is for the investigation," she said, "we're going to infiltrate the cult."

"You owe me, I saved you–" she broke off and stared at her, "wait what? You're...okay with it?"

She blinked, "alright then," She said, "we're about six hours from Moscow, if that's anything. No contacting the others."

She looked at her with pursed lips. She wasn't trusting Erraline, a part of her believed the girl was just going to go behind her back. Fair enough too. "Then that's settled, are you hungry?"

She nodded and leant over to rap at the door, a guy, the same age as them, leant in, "yes, my royal highness?" He asked, teasing her and Elle narrowed her eyes, "shut it, Tom. "

"We're hungry," Elle declared and Tom, raising an eyebrow, glanced at Erraline. "What do you want?" He asked the both of them, "they're offering cold meat in the food cart," he said before holding his hand out to Erraline, "I'm Tom, childhood friend of the brat. Didn't hurt you too bad, did I?"

"I can get some beef," he said before glancing at Elle, "I'd get food if I were you. You won't get much in there," he pointed out and Elle shrugged him off and Tom shook his head before leaving.

She nodded slowly, "he's who I've been sneaking out to see, well," she paused before amending it,"not him specifically. Eric, my father's protege."

She nodded slowly, descending into silence.

"The plan is, we get to some small Russian town, we dress up like poor people, hang around the streets and Tom's organized with the cult to kidnap us. The cult don't know who we are, of course, they think we're some brats of an enemy of their allies," she recited before Tom walked back in, rolling a trolley of an assortment of meals on it. He peeked over it with a sheepish smile, "there seemed to be an assortment of "cold beef" meals. So i got the lot."

Tom smiled before disappearing once more. Elle gazed at Erraline before sniffing, turning to stare out the window once more.

## Timeskip

Eventually, they were situated in a small Russian town where people were scarse, all sheltering away from the bitter snow. Elle drew her cloak closer to her body, already mourning when she'd have to switch it to something thin. She stood at the corner of the street, directly next to the train station.

"It's a few blocks away, we're going to have to walk. I don't think there are any cabs offered out here," she observed, looking around for one, anyway.

She bit down on her lip, slightly annoyed, and began to walk at a fast speed down the street.

"So..." she trailed off, "who's the lucky guy?"

She glanced at her through the corner of her eye, "because you turned down Julian. He's a catch and you both liked each other on some level but yet you turned him down. So either you're in love with someone else or," she broke off as she paused for a moment, "or you're gay. That's a possibility but I think it's the former."

Her lips tugged at this. Love triangle bullcrap. "So who's the lucky guy?' She repeated.

"We're in highschool, it's really the only way to meet someone in there. Or in the classroom, which is just as cliche," she pointed out. She finally reached a run down motel where a woman who looked as old as time sat behind a desk. Elle pushed in without saying anything.

After receiving keys, they were in a room with only two beds and a small bathroom, "it's only eight, so we should wait until around maybe three, or two even," Elle mused, opening the cupboard to find torn, dirty clothes.