Circumstantial Formation

Name: Jennifer Fitzwilliams

Age:17

Hair: Auburn, short cut, very curly.

Eyes: Deep brown almond shaped eyes with long lashes.

Complexion: Light, sun-kissed look. She has a spray of freckles across the nose.

Dress: She loves to wear summer dresses, but since she was kidnapped, she wears worn jeans and small t shirts.

History: Jennifer was very popular with her friends at the boarding school she went to with her sister. She got average grades, but never got in trouble with teachers.

Personality: She has a sparkling personality and she is the sweetest girl you would ever meet. She can be strong willed. She is determined to get away from her captors, and it had earned her plenty of bruises and scars for trying to get away. She is very charming.

So...when can we start?

Thanks Kit, thanks Princess. Feel free to start posting Princess. Can I just ask before we begin that there are no double posts and that people post a minumum of two paragraphs? Also please try as best you can not to have someone else's character do anything that might be out of character, and if you want to drop out at any stage can you just leave a little post to tell us? Thanks.

Alicia

I was getting tired of moving. I wanted a hideout, somewhere where we could stay and be safe, and not have to constantly move move move away from a place where we would shortly have to return to anyway. The moon was out by now, glaring down at us, well aware of our worthlessness, our misdeeds. I scowled up at it. It was all well and good to judge when you were loftily raised in a position where you could never be touched, never be harmed.

I sighed with relief as we slowed to a halt. Time to set up camp for the night. “I’ll take first watch,” I volunteered, before I could be asked to take any other time. I needed to sleep tonight. I dismounted my horse and tied him to a nearby tree, stuffing my hat into my saddlebag and withdrawing a coil of rope with which to bind the captives to the next tree.


(I won't write more for the moment as I'll need to get a sense of other people's characters)

Chris

I was taking a whizz by a tree when the girl came running towards me. Her arms were flailing and she had a dagger in one of them. I sort of blinked and pulled my trousers up with one hand and grabbed her with the other. She dropped the dagger but she then scratched me, really hurt an' all. I mean, I was only doin' my job and the wretch scratched me! I had her tucked under my arm and the rest of the camp laughed as I shuffled over that way. Not sure if it were my grunt of surprise or her scream that woke 'em but I'd rather they stayed sleeping. I scowled around, yeah I scowled real mean like and they shut up. Mostly.

"Good catch," Oisin said, already settling back to sleep. I grunted and stood there wondering what I was supposed to do. Alicia started tutting at me but took the girl off my hands so I could do my trousers up. She smiled and covered a giggle with her hand. I scowled again and settled down on the ground.

The girl had guts, that much I had to admit but she was a brat. Tricks like that were stupid. Her sister wasn't stupid. Quiet sometimes. Real purdy to look at but there was somethin' goin' on in 'er 'ead an all. More than what went around mine. I don' know wha' teh think abou' that.

*sorry I haven't been around! Please don't let this die before it begins. And also, what time is this set in?*

Martha-

I was completely exhausted. I hated this moving about, and I knew our captors did as well. I almost would have offered them to stay at our house if it just meant that we could stay put and that I never had to spend another night tied to a tree.

Jen was restless, but then, wasn't she always restless? There was probably some other wild idea in her head. I loved my sister a lot, but she never did think things through. I began to drift off and I could feel her scrabbling. I settled against the bark. Perhaps it was selfish of me, but I knew that she wouldn't get out, but also that they wouldn't hurt us, not yet.

Off she went, she was getting quite far now... and bang. I couldn't help but wonder what Chris was doing over there, probably taking care of his bodily needs. How lovely. But Jennifer deserved it if she was going to try things like that.

"Good catch," Oísín said lazily as Alicia took Jennifer roughly from Chris and brought her back to me.

"Think that's funny?" she asked.

"Quite," Jennifer replied. Alicia snorted and pushed her back to the ground.

Jennifer

Miffed, I just sat in stony silence. How come none of my plans ever work? I thought. Everybody was settling back down. Martha turned my way and gave me a glare of steel. I did not need her to tell me that I ought not do that again.

I did not even realise that I had fallen asleep until I woke, and everybody in the camp was packing up, getting ready to set out again. Where we were going, I had no idea. Why not just demand ransom already? I rolled my eyes, but one of the guards caught me and whacked me with the butt of their gun.

Rubbing my side, I was loaded along with Martha onto the back of a horse.

No worries Stella. What time? That's a very good question...I'm not good at time periods...feel free to make suggestions/share your thoughts.

Alicia

I slung the more irritating of the two across my horse, tying her securely. She made constant laughable attempts to escape, which may have amused me were they not such a waste of my time.

"Don't try anything," I hissed, watching her wriggle, trying to loosen the knots. I drew the sharper of my knives, the one which the idiot had stolen from me while I slept, letting it glint in the early morning sunlight. "Wouldn't want any scars on your perfect skin, would you?" She didn't even flinch. Scowling, I drew my knife along her arm, drawing blood. It won the desired wince. I smiled and mounted the horse myself.

The dust rose in clouds from the ground as we moved out. I urged my horse forward so that I was riding alongside Chris. His words were few. but his was a comforting presence. That annoyed the hell outta me.

Jennifer

I watched the blood seep out of the tiny wound and rolled my eyes. Was that all she could manage? Martha looked over at me, eyes worried.

Unable to move with my hands and feet bound, I just sat on the horse, trying to figure out a plan, but it all seemed useless. There was no way that I could untie my hands, let alone my feet. Questions flooded my head and for the first time I was actually scared.

What were they going to do to us?

*For the time period dilema, I read everyone's profiles and they suggest a modern day setting but some people have been writing as if they were in an older time period. I say that we go with the modern day time period and we can tweak a few things, thats just me. Like instead of the horses we have a car or two? I'm going to write the modern version but if everyone decides they don't want that I'll change it, no problem there.*
Oisin-

Chris and I rode with Jennifer, the escape artist, in our car and Becca, Marie, and Alicia had Martha in their car. It was close to midnight and we were on our way to a near by city. I had to pick something up and drop something off and those of us that werent going to babysit would go into the city and see if they could find a few things.

The radio station kept changing with Chris's mood, and eventually it turned off as he nodded off to sleep. Jennifer was sitting tied up in the back and searching for a way to escape. I laughed at her reflection in the rear view mirror and picked up a little speed. I wanted to get there and get out, it wasn't safe for us to stay in one place for too long, and especially to go into the big cities.

Eventually I planned to find a place where we could stay for a while, a hide out for lack of a better word. Everyone else was eager to settle down for a little bit, I could tell, they were all exhausted. But it was all part of the plan.

Ten minutes later we parked in a wooded area just outside of the city. Alicia and Chris stayed behind with our captives and Marie and Becca came with me. I told them to find something useful as we entered the city and then we parted.

I found the familiar alley way and moved towards the end of it to find the small chinese restaurant smooshed in behind the dumpsters and the homeless people. Ah the underbelly of a city.

I went inside and sat down at the table I sat down in every five years when I came to Grandview, I was hoping no one had detected a pattern yet, not that any of them would question me anyways. We may be a team, but we are a sorted team full of secrets, it's how we work.

The young waitress came to my table and I told her I wouldn't be ordering until the person I was waiting for came. She looked so out of place in this hole in the wall of a place. I knew her face so well even though I had only seen her a handfull of times, she had worked in this restaurant since she was a little girl. Her adopted family owned it.

I knew her face because it was the face of her mother's, my mothers. I dropped her off here with my dad when she was only two, nearly sixteen years ago. She smiled at me and walked away.

A couple minutes later Hide walked in. He was in a pin striped suit and a white fedora hat. His presence filled the whole of the tiny restaurant. He was a crime lord at the very least and a master mind on a bad day. He owned half of the underworld that so many of us were involved in whether we liked it or not. Luckily me and my band of theives were on his good side.

I pulled out the paper bag and put the money on the table. One million dollars, only a fraction of the money I had stolen in the last year, but it would buy us protection.

*yay, I liked this one! um... if it's alright, I'm going to stick with Rory's suggestion of present day, as that's when I had imagined it. Or maybe the 50s. Fifties would be cool . But whatever.*

Martha-

Alicia stood over us, watching. She always watched. It was what she did. She imitated me, my actions, my habits. She hated it, you could tell, and she had certainly not picked anything up. She was fully herself when she wasn't trying to be me. Me, I had picked some things up from them, some expressions I wouldn't dare use normally, Becca's running her fingers through her hair, Oísín's chewing of his lower lip, I did them all sometimes. But nothing from Alicia. Truth is, I don't know what she had against me. She just didn't like me a whole bunch.

That was why she was standing over us, with a gun.

I settled back and cocked my head at her. "Do you really think I'm going to run?" I asked. "Sincerely, do you honestly think I'm going to try it?"

"Your sister might," Alicia said, not taking her eyes off of me.

I glanced at where Jen was looking at the ceiling of the cellar we were sitting in. "I don't think so, somehow. For one thing, we're not from here, we don't know anywhere or anyone, where would we go? Also, how do you propose we're going to get out of this cellar when both you and Chris are here and you've got weapons and our hands are tied?"

She didn't answer. Chris was watching me with his usual intensity. "She's right 'Licia, let 'em relax a bit."

"Thank you," I said nodding to him. "Now, are we going to be staying here or moving on?"

"Up to Oísín where we go," Alicia said, clearly reluctant to give anything away.

"Where is he?" Jen piped up. "Dealing something to some kid somewhere?"

Alicia snarled. "We don't do that kind of thing."

"Oh yes, compared to that, kidnapping is perfectly acceptable," Jen said. I nudged her hard in the ribs.

"Ssh," I hissed. "Seriously! Two years and you still haven't learned, have you?"

"Just because I don't have Stockholm Syndrome," Jen muttered, raising her eyebrows.

"I do not-" I glanced at our captors. Chris had very kindly lead Alicia a little way away, out of earshot of our hushed conversation.

"You like them, face it," Jen said flatly.

I looked at the two again. "We could have had it so much worse. Janey, how many times do I have to say this to you?"

"At least once more," she grunted, slouching against the wall.

Chris

I was makin' a real effort teh be smart. Alicia dint seem teh ge' it an' she kept sayin' stuff, kept sayin' we had to watch 'em. I was watchin' 'em alright... or one of 'em anyway. She looked at me every now an' then an' I felt my heart like leap. It was somethin' special. I was tryin' teh be smart for 'er. There's somethin' goin' on in 'er 'ead an' I want teh know what. I want teh try an' think like 'er... or somethin' like that.

"Why don't you watch the little trouble maker and I'll keep an eye on the slag," Alicia suggested. Her 'ead was wrinkled and 'er eyebrows were in funny places, like peoples' are when they's mad. I dint like the name she used fur Martha. It was a bad name an' she dint deserve it. I didn't wanna watch the brat. I wanted to watch Martha. I take me orders from Oisin an' Marie, not 'er. But I dint want no trouble.

"Alrigh'," I said, shufflin' over an' moving my eyes to the younger one. She'd grown quite a bit in the two years we 'ad 'er, almost enough tha' yer wouldn' know 'er now. We'd ne'er kept people so long but wonderin' why we 'adn't got rid of these two 'hurt my 'ead. I wasn' supposed teh think. It 'urts my 'ead you see.

Jennifer

Struggling against my bonds, I stared down our captors. Alicia had assigned the stupid one, Chris, to be my guard for the night. He sat down, staring at Martha. What is going on between them?

I gave up my attempts. It was useless. I eyed my sister. She looked so serious. I laid down on the dirty floor and shut my eyes.

I wanted so desperately to get away, but the next best thing was to go to sleep.

***Sorry for such a sort post***

Oisin

Hide stayed serious for about ten more seconds while he looked at the money and then he let out a booming laugh and slapped a huge hand against my back.

"Oisin! How long has it been." He boomed.

"Jesus Hide, keep it down."

"Oisin, always so serious! I would pay to see you smile just once!" I maintained my composure.

"If everything goes as planned you won't have to pay," I responded looking up at the waitress as she set waters in front of us then took Hides order.

"So you still have those two girls, Oisin are you insane?" he said this in a much lower tone. I nodded.

"I know. It's all part of the plan." I dropped a roll of hundreds on the table and stood up, "Make sure she gets that." With that I left.

Martha-

I shifted again -there was a post in my back. Alicia frowned. "What are you doing?" she asked with venom.

"Trying to get comfortable," I said. "But it's difficult when your hands and feet are tied."

"Tough," she said.

"Look, if you could just untie my feet at least... the door's locked and you have the key. I'm not going anywhere," I said. "Please. I won't bother you the rest of the night."

"No," she replied, and looked away again, playing with her knife.

I sighed and shifted once more, careful not to bump the sleeping figure of my sister. I shut my eyes and went home, back to where we lit the fire in the library and ate dinner at the table. I focused on the table... I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten at a proper table...

Alicia's breathing turned heavy after a while. I opened my eyes again, my sight as alert as it was when I had shut them. Christopher was looking at me.

I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my tied hands. "Can't sleep," I whispered to him, and jerked my head towards Alicia. "Apparently I'm the only one."

He smiled a little slowly. "Wudya like me to untie your 'ands?"

I grinned with surprise. "Yes, please. Are you sure you won't get in trouble?"

"I'll stay awake so I'll know'f you try escape."

"Thank you," I whispered as he leant over and worked at the knot. The bonds fell loose and I shook my hands. "Ah, that feels good."

"Now, don' try and run, willya?"

"No, of course not." I caught his eye in the darkness. "I'll leave the running to Jen." Now that I could rub my eyes properly I did so. "I can't sleep either though... not tonight. Got stuff on the mind, I expect?"

"What stuff?" he asked, looking intrigued.

"I don't even know," I said with a sigh. "What about you?"