Jennet's eyes fluttered open to find herself seated in a little, wooden chair. What in the world? What the heck happened?

As the grogginess of sleep wore off, her eyes began to scan the unfinished walls of a warehouse. The dimly lit room was about the size of a three car garage. Miscellaneous boxes lay strewn about on the floor, creating a sort of maze that one would have to navigate in order to leave.

The vague memory of the seat belt snapping popped back into her mind, accompanied by a sharp pain in her head. I must have injured my head pretty badly. She gently touched the front of her head only to find a tender lump. She winced at the touch. I need ice for this.

Three questions plagued Jennet's mind. Who brought her here? Why was she brought here? And most importantly, how would she get out?

There was no one around to answer her first two questions, so she figured she started by trying to figure out the last question. Besides, she figured that she wouldn't want to be around to find out "who" and "why" she was brought to this eerie place. Jennet stood from the chair and searched her surroundings. On the far side of the room, there was a door, but that seemed to be her only way out. The only problems were if there were people waiting for her on the other side of the door, and how on earth she was going to find a way out of the make-shift obstacle course.

"Do you think she's awake yet?" a voice wondered.

"Probably not," another replied. "Her head was messed up pretty badly."

"What will the boss say when he finds out? Do you think he'll be mad?" the first questioned.

"Relax, dude. We'll figure out what to do if that becomes a problem."

"But what if we put her in 'coma?' Do you think we'll have to pay for hospital bills? We're broke! Can you imagine: we do this job to earn some money, and then we end up losing money! We..."

"Can you shut up for five seconds?" the second interrupted sharply.

That short conversation told Jennet everything she needed to know. Clearly, she had been kidnapped. And her assailants had been hired.

Footsteps echoed off the empty walls, growing louded. Jennet sat back in her chair and glanced around her for rope...

There was no rope. Jennet's brow furrowed as she came to the sudden realization that her kidnappers had not bothered to tie her up. She paused, not knowing what to make of this development.

While Jennet wasn't going to complain about her freedom, the prospect did spark curiosity. Why would her assailants not bother to tie her up? What was their motivation behind such an odd decision?

She didn't have time to ponder this oddity. The sound of creaking hinges made Jennet go still, hands neatly folded in her lap. Just like her father taught her.

Whenever you're in a tight situation, assert your dominance and control, her Dad told her. It will give you the upper hand.

Three teenage boys stepped into the room. Their eyes went wide when they looked at her, awake and seemingly unphased from the incident in the car.

"Hello," Jennet said coldly. She kept her face neutral and relaxed.

"Rocco, look!" the youngest of the three exclaimed. "She's awake! Now the boss-"

"Shut up, Ronan!" the boy with long, brown hair interrupted, glaring at him. Ronan pouted, but didn't say anymore.

The third boy had been the one that drove her here, where ever here was. He stood beside the other two awkward watching them bicker.

The three boys hopped onto boxes and pulled out their phones. The warehouse fell silent, except for the slight creaking of boards. Jennet's eyebrows knit together as she watched them all focus their attention to video games. What kind of kidnapping is this? She wondered.

It certainly wasn't normal to have your assilaints not tie you up, say absolutely nothing to intimidate you, and then not even bother to watch you. Jennet figured that the only explanation was that she was dealing with amateurs. Jennet was younger than the three of them, and even she could do a better job of kidnapping someone. But then again, she wasn't an amatuer.

Jennet sat perfectly still, watching the boys play on their phones. But after a few minutes of waiting, she grew rather impatient. What on earth was going on? She couldn't sit there forever.

In her boredom, her eyes began to wander around the room. She suddenly looked down only to find that her purse was a mere foot away from her. Alright, something wasn't definitely not right. Why hadn't they taken her stuff away from her? She could easily call for help. She glanced at the boys who were immersed in their video games. They were complete idiots!

The longer she sat there, the more convinced she became that this was some sort of prank. Did she know these boys somehow? Were they the sons of some colleague of her father's and were so bored that they had decided to pretend to kidnap her? That seemed to be the only rational explanation.

Or maybe she was on some sort of show, like Candid Camera. Maybe they were airing her on TV that very moment! Well, Jennet wasn't going to let them get to her. No, she was going to be completely unphased by the events.

"Umm..." Jennet began at last. "Why am I here?"

The boys said nothing, completely engrossed in their devices. Jennet frowned and cleared her throat.

"I have an appointment at the Salon that I need to go to."

The boy called Rocco glanced at his watch. "Your appointment passed an hour and a half ago."

Jennet's eyes went wide. "It's already three pm!"

"Yeah," the third boy, who hadn't spoken yet, said.

"But... but that appointment cost more than one-hundred dollars! What on earth is going on here?"

"We're kidnapping you," Rocco replied nonchalantly. He didn't even bother to look up from playing Minecraft.

Jennet was fuming mad. These idiots really thought they could fool her? Well, they were about to get a piece of her mind.

"You're kidnapping me? Really?"

"Yup!" Ronan grinned.

Jennet was unamused. "If you are kidnapping me," Jennet began, her words clipped, "then why am I not tied up?"

All three boys looked up from their phones at once, confused.

"Dadgummit, Ronan!" Rocco yelled. "I should have known better than to trust you with such an important job!"

"Geez, Rocco, no need to yell," Ronan said. "Sorry, I forgot."

"Well tie her up now," Rocco told him.

Ronan glanced down at the ground, unmoving. Rocco closed his eyes, trying to will his frustration with his younger brother away.

"Ronan, go tie her up," Rocco repeated.

"I... uh... can't," Ronan stammered.

"Why not?"

"Because that's what I forgot."

"What did you forget?"

"The rope."

Rocco threw his hands up in the air. "You are completely hopeless, Ronan! Now what are we supposed to do?"

The three boys looked back at Jennet, who was quite confused by everything.

"I can run to the store real fast and grab some rope if you want," the third boy offered.

Rocco sighed. "Thank you, Monte. Imagine what the Boss would say if he were here!"

"Well, he's not here right now," Monte said. "So I'll run to the store and grab some rope or duct tape before he arrives."

"Yeah, go and do that."

Monte stood from his box and sauntered out of the room. Rocco glared at Ronan.

"I'll deal with you later," he said in a huff. He returned his attention to his phone.

Jennet just watched in shock. What on earth was she to do? They clearly had no intention of letting her go, yet they didn't seem very set on keeping her locked up.

"What's going on?" She sighed.

"As I already told you, we're kidnapping you," Rocco said like it was the most obvious thing in the whole world.

Jennet rolled her eyes. "For how long?"

"Until your Dad pays the ransom money," Ronan said.

"Ransom money?"

"Yeah, he has to pay fifty dollars to get you back," Ronan gloated, sounding very proud of himself.

Jennet covered her mouth to keep from bursting out laughing. Fifty dollars? Even her appointment at the Salon had cost more than that. And yet, they appeared to be completely serious. She really was dealing with amateurs.

Well, at least her life didn't appear to be in any danger. Her Dad would likely just pay the money and be done with the charade. Fifty dollars was nothing to a billionaire.

"Has my Dad responded yet?" Jennet asked. It had been two hours since she'd been kidnapped, which would have given plenty of time for him to respond.

Ronan shook his head. "Nope, no calls."

Jennet's eyes narrowed. "Seriously? Which number did you call?"

"Let me check." Ronan scrolled through his phone.

Minutes passed with no response. Jennet shifted in her seat. Her patience was waning quite rapidly.

"Well?" she prompted.

Ronan glanced up. "Umm, I'll be right back."

He sheepishly stood and headed for the door, phone in hand.

"Ronan, what's going on?" Rocco asked.

"Oh nothing," Ronan replied.

Rocco closed his eyes. "Did you forget to call Mr. Imego?"

Slowly Ronan nodded.

"Ugh, Ronan! How could you... ugh! You know what? Forget it! I will call Mr. Imego."

Suddenly, the sound of Minecraft of music pierced the air. Rocco grabbed his phone and picked up the incoming call.

"Hello, who's this? Oh, hi Boss. Oh yeah, everything is going great! No, no contact yet from Mr. Imego. Yeah, it's fifty dollars. Fifty. No, not fifty-thousand, fifty. Five zero. Fifty dollar ransom. What? Raise it? Oh, uh, no. No that's fine. You're coming over? You'll be here in an hour?! Oh, yeah that's great! No, no problem at all. Bye."

Rocco set his phone down. His face was pale, like he was going to be sick.

"Um...uh, Mr., er, the Boss, has just asked, told us to raise the ransom to fifty thousand dollars. And he'll be here in about an hour."

Jennet's heart sank. Well, there goes her plan. Her Dad would never dish out fifty thousand dollars to anyone for ransom.

Jennet was getting quite suspicious. Who was this 'Boss,' and what exactly did he want? While these boys seemed to be amateurs, she had a feeling that they were puppets to someone much bigger - and more experienced.

"I'm going to phone Mr. Imego. You text Monte and tell him to hurry up."

Rocco returned a few minutes later, after calling her Father. "It went to voicemail, so I left a message," he announced.

He returned to his seat on the box. Both he and his brother rested their heads in their hands.

Then, a lightbulb went off in Ronan's head.

"Hey, why don't we play Uno?" he suggested. He pulled a pack of cards out of his pocket. "It'll make the time go by faster."

"Why not?" Rocco agreed glumly. Ronan began to shuffle the cards, then looked up at Jennet. "Do you want to play?"

Jennet was slightly taken back by his question, but figured it was better than sitting there doing nothing.

"Sure." She hopped up to join them on the boxes.

Ronan dealt the cards out to each person, and the game began.