Unmade
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A flash forward to about halfway through captivity with Vienna and Alec, from deep within Vienna's mind. Please heed the content warnings. :)
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And not nearly enough, she now knew, to pick up on a stranger who lingered near her too long, an unassuming white car that somehow showed up in all the same places she did. Had she been this observant Before, maybe this would never have happened.
But now, in the After, she has all the time in the world for these kind of details. The crack in the ceiling, the subtle whir of the air conditioning (or is it the heater? It's hard to remember the seasons when you can't see outside), the pull of the leather against her wrists, the sheets moving rhythmically against the welts on her back, the rasp in his moans...
Series
- Part 1 of Unmade
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For one perfect afternoon, it’s easy to believe nothing bad could touch her. Almost.
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As she looked around, something in her recoiled - the man from the line was in the crowd behind her, only a few feet away. He wasn't directly behind her like before, but there were only a couple people separating them. He wore sunglasses now, so she couldn't tell quite where his gaze was directed, but she had the strangest feeling that he was looking right at her rather than up to the stage.
"Come on, let's move up," Vienna shouted in Abigail's ear, and grabbed her friend's arm to pull them further into the crowd. She glanced back as she did, relieved to see that the man didn't try to follow. It was probably an overreaction…but something in her just felt better away from him.
Series
- Part 2 of Unmade
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Finals week exhaustion, a storm rolling in, and a strange white car on the road. Vienna tells herself she’s being paranoid. She’s not.
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The call ended just as a gust of wind blew her hair into her face. She shoved her phone into her pocket and dropped her backpack to the ground to dig for her umbrella.
As she crouched, she caught movement from the corner of her eye - a white car gliding down the adjacent road, just slow enough to notice. She frowned, watching it through the gaps between tree branches.
Wasn't that the same car she'd seen pulling out of the lot earlier?
Maybe it had circled back. Maybe it belonged to a student looking for a better parking spot. Or a rideshare driver. Or a parent picking someone up. She didn't recognize it, not really. Just a vague itch of familiarity, like she'd seen it before in the background of a memory.
Series
- Part 3 of Unmade
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Vienna’s kidnapping drags her into darkness, both under the earth and under the weight of terror, as her fight to survive begins.
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Focus. The word ripped through her panic, sharp as a reprimand. Focus, and survive. Vienna forced herself to take stock, scanning her body top to bottom. The bag over her head - that's why she couldn't see. The tape over her mouth - slow, steady breaths made it manageable. Neck - sore and throbbing. Arms - tingling where blood flow fought against the restraints. Legs - shaking, but she could move them.
Okay. Focus.
Series
- Part 4 of Unmade
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The storm swallows the campus as Zander realizes something is terribly wrong: Vienna is gone, her phone is in his possession, and the officers who come to help are already looking at him like he’s the answer to the mystery.
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And then he was out the door, into the storm. Rain sheeted down sideways, plastering his hair to his head, but he barely felt it. Something had happened. Something was wrong. He knew it as surely as he knew the clean release of a shot leaving his fingertips, as surely as he knew the moment a sentence snapped into place on the page.
Vienna wouldn't do this - send a cryptic text, then ignore all his attempts to reach her. Vienna, who always found a good thing to say about even the worst, most grating people, would not randomly think someone was following her. The thought sent a chill down his spine, his mind following the familiar path of the worst case scenario - a bunch of drunk frat guys cornering her on the sidewalk, a man high off his mind running her off the road, a shady figure yanking her into a van.
Series
- Part 5 of Unmade
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A call in the middle of a storm brings Agent Miller to Lakewood. The local police already think they’ve found their answer. Miller isn’t so sure.
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"Potential female student missing, almost certainly foul play. She texted her boyfriend that she was being followed a couple hours ago and hasn't been seen since. A sophomore, Vienna DeNova, 20."
Miller's eyebrows rose and he wrote the name, underlined it twice. Vienna DeNova.
Series
- Part 6 of Unmade
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As Vienna struggles to adapt to living in captivity, Alec leaves her with more questions than answers.
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It wasn't long before she heard noises overhead. She scrambled to mute the television, and the noise became clearer - someone walking around in the house. Their steps were calm, even, slow. Vienna's ears strained as they continued, seeming to circle the space she was in until they were coming closer, closer.
Her heart leapt in her chest like a jackrabbit, but she forced herself to concentrate. His tread was still relaxed, leisurely. Vienna thought of the rush of violence she had caused by lunging out of the car trunk last night, and took a steadying breath. She had to try a different tactic today. The door beeped, and she heard the lock unlatch.
Series
- Part 7 of Unmade
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As Vienna struggles to adapt to living in captivity, Alec leaves her with more questions than answers.
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It wasn't long before she heard noises overhead. She scrambled to mute the television, and the noise became clearer - someone walking around in the house. Their steps were calm, even, slow. Vienna's ears strained as they continued, seeming to circle the space she was in until they were coming closer, closer.
Her heart leapt in her chest like a jackrabbit, but she forced herself to concentrate. His tread was still relaxed, leisurely. Vienna thought of the rush of violence she had caused by lunging out of the car trunk last night, and took a steadying breath. She had to try a different tactic today. The door beeped, and she heard the lock unlatch.
Series
- Part 8 of Unmade
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"Tomorrow" comes, and with it, a whole new, broken world for Vienna.
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She couldn't reconcile it, couldn't make the pieces fit in a way that made sense - the cruel, bizarre contrasts of it all. The way he was touching her like a lover, even as she tried to twist away. The way every one of his motions telegraphed delight, even as she fell apart beneath him. And the way his laughter echoed around the room, even as she cried, as she begged.
Series
- Part 9 of Unmade
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The nightmare deepens, but Vienna finds some strategies to help her inner world survive.
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Because the trap she was in was deeper than the locked door or the restraints. He fed off this. Off her tears, her panic, the way she shrank from his touch. Her fear wasn’t just incidental - it was the point.
Vienna clung to one desperate thought, even as her chest squeezed tight and her tears blurred her vision: If I can just stay alive. Just one more minute. One more hour. Someone will find me. I just have to survive him.
And that thought felt both like a lifeline and like a life sentence.
Series
- Part 10 of Unmade
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Zander, Vienna's parents, and the community gather to raise awareness and hope for Vienna...under Miller's watchful eye.
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Zander found himself drawn to standing next to Miller, the agent's steadiness helping him stay upright. The vigil started with a moment of silence. Candles flickered. Girls hugged one another. Quiet sniffles rose up every so often. And Zander watched as Miller's eyes crawled over the crowd, calm but absolutely scrutinizing.
Zander followed Miller's gaze, wondering what exactly he was looking for. The thought of Vienna's kidnapper being here, among the community like he was one of them, made Zander want to harness the flames from the candles and burn everything to the ground.
Series
- Part 11 of Unmade
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Vienna and Alec watch the vigil from afar.
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"Look at all those people." Alec's voice was breathless, excited. The camera panned closer now, showing the teary, drawn faces of Vienna's classmates. Her chest tightened as Alec continued, almost giddy. "You see? Can't sleep, can't eat, can't breathe because of me. Because of us."
Us. The word hit like acid.
Series
- Part 12 of Unmade
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Alec introduces a new form of torment that Vienna isn't sure how to deal with.
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A strangled howl escaped her lips and she shook her head frantically to dispel the image. Her heart hammered so hard in her chest she thought she might be sick. It was a sensation she'd never experienced before, trapped in a memory, in a feeling that was completely unbearable.
Vienna wrapped her arms around herself, rocking her body in a pitiful attempt at comfort. The memories just surged louder - Alec tracing her with his mouth, tongue flicking, teeth grazing, until every nerve ending was screaming, yet somehow she could not twist away, could not shut it down —
Series
- Part 13 of Unmade
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The next stage of Vienna's disappearance begins as Zander is forced to go home for the summer.
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Zander was going home. He didn't want to be.
Driving away from Lakewood had felt like agony, like giving up on Vienna, leaving her to the nightmare that had swallowed their lives up. His parents had insisted he come home with them after the vigil, now that exams were finished, his classes complete, the basketball season long since over.
It had resulted in the first real fight he'd had with them in years. There had been shouting, tears, doors slammed, and both his mom and dad had seemed completely shocked. Zander could feel it, even then - the fracture splitting him down the middle, years of latent feelings started to leak out from the cracks. Anxiety. Frustration. Loneliness. Resentment. All the things he'd tried to shove down, to shield his parents from.
Series
- Part 14 of Unmade
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As time drags on with no leads, the investigation deepens. Miller juggles it with struggles of his own.
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Two weeks since Vienna DeNova vanished, and every agent in the field office had been running on fumes and adrenaline. Miller most of all.Every time he thought about taking a break, going home for a full night's sleep, the old adage rang in his head: every second counts.
Every second he wasn’t interviewing someone, combing camera footage, parsing phone records, chasing down a half-credible tip - that was a second Vienna spent alone with someone who meant her harm. That was the part people didn’t understand about this job: when things really hit the fan, the clock never stopped, not in your head. He’d been in the office since five this morning, pulling together his segment for the task force debrief. Miller would be going with the rest of the FBI team to meet with other law enforcement agencies involved in the case, to go over every last scrap of information they'd obtained so far. It wasn't much.
Series
- Part 15 of Unmade
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One thing became clear: Vienna's life was not her own anymore. She fought the idea that it was ruled by Alec — by his moods, his hands, his visits — but every day he seemed committed to driving her deeper into despair, into helplessness. An average day before might have been going to class, eating a meal with Zander, watching TV with Abi. Now, it was anticipating footsteps above her, counting the minutes until his weight shifted off her, singing songs or sketching landscapes in her head to try and push through the pain and pure violation that had become her daily life.
It was mornings like this.
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As days start to stretch into weeks, Vienna must figure out how to survive her new reality.
Series
- Part 16 of Unmade
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Life now held patterns, but no predictability. Vienna did all she could to hold onto some sense of meaning in her days, stick to some sort of vague schedule that helped time make sense, held her sense of self together when it felt close to shattering entirely. But Alec always had some way of knocking her off balance, of reminding her that any feeble control she thought had over things was just that. Weak. Thin. Breakable.
One of the most common ways he did that was by coming down to the basement drunk.
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Series
- Part 17 of Unmade
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Summary
Summer.
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"No. I —" I feel like a failure. I feel like I'm drowning. I think I might just be the world's worst brother. If I imagine the look on Tiff's face one more time, I think I might snap. Next time my dad acts like nothing happened, I'm going to fully lose it. My only lifeline vanished into fucking thin air. I can't live the rest of my life like this. The walls are pressing in. Is it just me, or is every day a little hotter? "I just can't be home right now."
Series
- Part 18 of Unmade
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Alec introduces a new element to Vienna's captivity.
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".....Would you like some more books or games or something?"
It felt like a trick question. Deny it, and set him off, or lose the meager privileges she already had. Admit it, and get taunted or have her words twisted. A split second deliberation — tell the truth.
"Yeah, I would."
"I thought so. Must be getting boring as hell down here when I'm not around."
He wasn't wrong. Her days ricocheted between heart-stopping terror, roiling disgust, and a mind-numbing boredom. The feeling was so deep that it almost frightened her, how her mind could either create entirely new worlds or just give way to a dull, buzzing static for hours on end.
"But you know, nothing comes free."
Series
- Part 19 of Unmade
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She must have closed her eyes at some point, because when she blinked them back open Vienna wasn't in the room at all. In fact, she wasn't anywhere she had ever been before. Maybe somewhere that hadn't existed, until this moment.
Series
- Part 20 of Unmade