It had been more than 10 minutes since Lara left for the restroom. Alex was still patiently waiting. The movie had not yet started, obviously because he'd asked them to hold on.
He did not mind the wait, after all, she's a woman. It's 'woman nature' to always be in time and not on time.
20 minutes passed and still no sign of Lara. 30 minutes….
"Just what the hell is keeping you busy sweet Lara?" He asked no one in particular. He took the last gulp of his soda and dropped the empty bottle and the bowl of popcorn as he stood up.
"Have you been standing here the whole time?" He asked the bounceur at the door.
"Yes sir." The huge guy in black answered.
"Which direction is the bathroom in?"
"That way sir, you take your next right." He described.
Alex immediately headed off in the supposed direction. It wasn't a problem finding the bath. He pushed the door half-open, hoping not to intrude, after all, it was the female bathroom.
"Lara! Are you in there?" Alex called with his head half poking in.
No response.
He pushed the door wide open and stepped in. The first thing he did was look below each cubicle and of course, there was no one there. The place was deserted. He had asked for the entire building to shut down so that they could have maximum privacy. He was just checking for checking's sake because he knew that nobody was supposed to be in the arena now. So where the hell could Lara have gone to? Could she have missed the bathroom and gone somewhere else? He pondered.
He hurried back to the lobby.
"How many bathrooms are here?" He asked one of the staff he met on his way.
"Every room has its own bathroom for both male and female Sir. That'll make four toilets in total." She explained.
"The lady I came with, have you seen her around?" He asked, trying not to panic. It had been over 40 minutes now and no sign of her, to soil the whole set-up, she left her phone behind.
"No Sir, I haven't."
"When did you last see her?" He rephrased.
"When both of you were heading to the hall with your popcorn bowls." She explained politely.
That was scary as shit!
"What game are you playing Lara?" Alex whispered. He pinched his temple in an effort to suppress the rising headache. He knew that Lara wasn't the type to do something stupid.
"Cameras!" He said aloud.
"What sir?" The staff asked.
"Make sure nobody leaves the building." He ordered as he ran toward the security room.
The female staff, on the other hand, rushed toward the front desk to immediately broadcast the message.
The whole place was on immediate and effective security emergency shutdown. There were staff and security servicemen running helter-skelter. Alex couldn't keep count of the number of people he bypassed before arriving at the security room. The guards on duty were already waiting for him with the door wide open.
"Pull up the footage from the last hour." He ordered. He tried to keep his hands still, to no avail.
He swept his fingers through his hair, biting his nails occasionally while waiting.
"Stop!" He ordered when the playback got to the point where she left the cinema hall. "Play it slowly."
The guard did just that until he got to the point where she was talking to the staff.
"There," he pointed. "Who's he? I want to talk with him."
"On it sir." The other guard immediately responded by swivelling in his chair to be able to gain access to the other monitoring computers. He began by zooming in on the picture to get a name on the name tag, when he didn't see any, he decided to quickly run his face in the system to get a match.
On the other hand, Alex was still focused on the video, which was fast-forwarded to when she entered the bathroom.
"Sir, we don't have coverage in the bathroom." The first guard announced.
"Fuck!! Alex cursed loudly. "You gotta be kidding me right?" He swung his hand in the air and back to his waist in frustration, which of course did not help either.
While the guard was still waiting for his next order, the other monitors were still displaying the continuation of the events.
The second guard was busy trying to get a name.
"Sir!" The first guard called to Alex whose back was facing them.
He stopped his pacing and turn swiftly. "What now?" He asked a little bit annoyed.
"Let me backwards it a little." He did just that, "look." and the footage showed the staff following her into the bath.
Alex hung his mouth open in confusion. He did not want to imagine the unimaginable.
"Did he just follow her in…?" He asked in shock.
The guard looked up at him in silence. They all knew that there was only one explanation for that. If it did happen, then hell was gonna rain.
Alex could have been running to the bathroom right now, but he'd been there before and it was empty. So what the hell did he do to her?
He was trying his best to stay calm and think straight. He knew that getting angry or flaring in a situation like this wouldn't help.
"Who the hell is that guy, I want him here right now!" Alex yelled.
"Sir!" The second guard called. "About that…"
*******
Lara's POV
I knew that breathing right now was the greatest mistake I'll ever think of making. I could hold my breath for a minute, maximum… under hard struggle of course. But that wouldn't be enough to do anything to save me. I knew that.
I had to think, and fast.
"What do you want?" I asked, trying to suppress my freight as best as I could.
"You, I want you." He said in a cold low frightening tone.
I gulped a handful of saliva. I could see the movement of my Adam's apple in the mirror with every swallow. I did not have time to think or reboot my brain again because next thing, I felt him grip around my neck as he pulled me close to his chest from the back and stamped his other hand with the white cloth dipped in formalin on my mouth and nose. I immediately held my breath out of reflex. I knew what was coming next. I closed my eyes and counted 10 seconds before I allowed my body to weakly collapse in his arms.
It worked. He removed the formalin cloth from my nostrils and mouth and lifted me up like a bag of rice and threw my slumped up body over his shoulders. I opened my eyes and spied around, at least I could finally breathe.
As we got out of the bathroom, I knew that this was my chance to escape or raise an alarm at least.
I bit on his shoulder really hard, causing him to lose his hold on me. I wiggled myself out of his grip and jumped down.
He had good reflexes too because he immediately stretched out his hand and grabbed my shoulder like he wasn't in pain. I immediately gave him a good kick on his balls since I was facing him.
Before his hand could hold in-between his legs for comfort, I kneed him hard again, making sure my knee made direct contact with his nuts. If I had to cover enough distance to get help, I had to immobilize him. So I kicked his nuts the third time. I heard him groan in pain.
As soon as he twisted and dropped to his knees, I made the run.