Hostage Situation

Jamie skated to the desk and grabbed the phone off of it. She ripped the cord out of the back and then pulled off the cord connecting the handset, which she threw across the room. She picked up the remaining body of the disconnected phone and turned back to Mercy.

"Gimme the key, or else you're never getting out of here either!" She threatened. She closed on Mercy and took a swing at her with the phone, behaving more like a rabid animal than a sad little sissy.

"Mercy watched as Jamie tore the phone off the wall and began brandishing t like a club. Fear grew in her eyes as she backed away, managing to get her pepper spray in her hand. She shrieked like a banshee as Jamie came at her, barely avoiding getting clonked in the head with the phone as she stumbled to the ground.

"I DON'T HAVE THE KEY!"

She shouted. She turned her head and cringed, her hand firing a blast of pepper spray at what she hoped would be Jamie's location. She'd planned for the worst and it seemed like the worst was what was happening. This woman wasn't just an idiot, she was deranged.

"IF YOU TOUCH ME, YOU BETTER KILL ME!" She continued to shriek. "AND THEN.. AND THEN YOU'LL GO TO RAPE JAIL FOREVER! IF YOU BACK OFF NOW, I WON'T PRESS CHARGES!" Her face was beet red. She was panting hard. Every time she encountered this woman, it was like a nightmare that didn't end. She was so erratic and nonsensical. How could someone be that way?!

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE-" Jamie was interrupted when a blast of pepper spray caught her squarely in the chest. The spray of it was enough to waft into Jamie's eyes and nose, and it immediately made her all burny and watery.

She shrieked out of pain and fear and anger and tried to rub her eyes, and in the process made everything so much worse. She screamed again, this time sounding more like a whine. Everything hurt so much and she was so angry and blind that all she could thing to do was to start flailing her arms until she found Mercy, and then she began relentlessly batting her with girlish slaps.

"LET ME OOOUT!"

Mercy curled into a ball when Jamie came at her and deflected the blows with her shoulder and back. "Get away from me!" She shouted as she let out whimpers from being slapped. "BE REASONABLE FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!" She shouted louder. "I NEED TO CALL THE SECURITY TO LET US OUT BUT I WON'T BE ABLE TO IF YOU KEEP HITTING ME!"

She began to whimper as Jamie slapped her. If she was thinking clearly, she'd realize that the slaps were pretty harmless and only served to thump lightly against her suit coat. But int he moment, they seemed like thunderous blasts of pure force.

"GO AWAY! G-GET AWAY FROM ME JUST GO AWAY!" She screeched in between slaps as she sprayed pepper spray out from her turtle shell into the open area where Jamie was not.

"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" Jamie shrieked, followed by a frustrated, throat-shredding scream. Her flimsy slaps gradually became harder as her hands curled into fists and she began hammering on Mercy's back. The misguided puff of pepper spray made her pause suddenly, and she backed up a step, blinking repeatedly and inhaling sharply several times, the ambient pepper spray in the room burning her eyes and her throat.

She turned away and skate-paced across the room, her breathing quick, while her hands wandered around helplessly. She looked at the broken phone on the floor, and then back at Mercy. "Do you have a cell phone? Do you have a cell phone?" She asked. If not, they might be stuck. She didn't like being stuck. She hated it, more than just about anything in the world, and there was no way she was going to be stuck in here with the lawyer girl. She was going to escape, she just needed to figure out how.

Gradually, her pacing slowed, her hands found a home at her sides, and finally she breathed a long, heavy sigh. She looked at Mercy again, and again her face was different. Softer. Very nearly apologetic, but without any of the necessary remorse.

"So..." She began as her hand dove into her satchel for a yo-yo. She looping the string around her fingers to make shapes in the air while bobbing it up and down, and back and forth like a pendulum. Her eyes focused on the yo-yo, and it seemed to help calm her. "We can't get out unless security comess? Why would you do that? That's so dumb. You shoulda had a key."

Mercy added her own shriek to a loud chorus of banshee like wailing that bounced throughout the room like some terrible coven summoning a great beast with a wretched song. Finally Jamie ended her assault and Mercy got to her hands and knees and began to pant hard. She glowered up at Jamie before adjusting her glasses. "I... hah... Hah... would rather... hah... do a years worth... of patent law cases... than deal with you ever... again..."

She thought about Jamie's words though and cleared her throat. "Let's say... hypothetically... that i do have a cell phone. I'm not going to call them until we have some things straight." She looked up and into Jamie's eyes. "And, if I ... hypothetically had a cell phone and used it. I won't say a word about what happened here. We can go and get that contract and never, ever, EVER have to see each other again. But... BUT!" She said as she raised her finger. "I trust you as far as I can throw you. I want collateral and I'll give it back to you when I get my contract." She turned her head. "That's why I set things up this way... You... just can never be trusted..."

Mercy looked down for a second and blinked a few times. "Do we... understand each other? I'm not giving you any money. If you keep trying to bribe me, I will definitely press charges on you. I know you're stupid but try and get this through your thick skull. I'm giving you the opportunity to get out of here relatively incident free. Without any more mess than YOU'VE already caused. All I wanted was my stuff back and you can try and blow smoke up my skirt all you like but that is what I do for a living and you aren't going to fool me. YOU took my stuff and I have every legal right to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. I don't WANT to do that, I just want my things back and to be rid of you."

Mercy stood up and adjusted her glasses. "Do we... understand each other?" She said and held out her hand.

The inscrutable little smile Jamie wore covered her sinister thoughts. Mercy played people for a living? No. She made money doing it. Jamie did it to live. She was going to fool her.

"Yeah." She said finally. "We should probably get out of this room soon, though, it's getting really hot in here and... stuffy. We should probably go. We should just go. And get the contract. I know right where it is. It's safe where it is, but we have to go get it." She rambled, holding her yo-yo steady for a moment before writing a big 'M' in the air with it.

"A deal's a deal, right? You can take Batman for whatever you said, but I need him back before tonight, or else neither one of us will go to sleep."

She skated over to the door and sat down on the floor next to it with her knees in her chest. She folded her arms over her knees, rested her head on them, and waited.

Mercy stepped forward and stood next to Jamie, looking down at her. "You have to give him to me before I can give him back." She said and held out her hand. Her other hand pulled out her cell phone and looked down at it. She began to slowly dial the number and before hitting connect, she looked down at Jamie. "Come on." She said in an anxious tone. "I want to get out of here just as badly."

Jamie scowled up at Mercy before reaching around for the back pocket of her backpack. She pulled out the little plastic batman and winced. Even the feel of him in her hand was a little reassuring, and being stuck in that room with the lawyer didn't seem quite as bad.

She reached out and made the motion and with some practiced slight of hand he appeared to vanish from Mercy's palm. She sighed heavily. Begrudgingly, she put him in Mercy's hand.

"Be careful with him." She said, her eyes and her pleading tone of voice betraying her vulnerability at that moment. She turned her head away and rested her forearms on her knees.

Mercy impatiently held out her hand as Jamie fished out the Batman. She watched as she put it in her hand and it disappeared. Her eyes fixed up at Jamie and then she was finally rewarded with the Batman. "He'll be fine, I'm sure." She said and stuffed him in her inside coat pocket. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number to security.

"Yes. Wrenn, Mercy, Wrenn. Yes. We're ready to be released. "No there was no trouble. She was very accommodating,. Thank you." She clicked her Cell phone closed and folded her arms under her chest. She sighed, looking over Jamie. She sighed. "You know... If you had helped me when we met int he dumpster instead of trying to mug and rape me I might have been nice enough to buy you lunch or something. I'm not interested in whatever you have going on but I cannot understand why you thought that was a good idea." Mercy adjusted her glasses. "By the way... where IS that contract?" She asked, curious as there were some voices coming from the other side of the door and the office was opened a few seconds later.