“Do you want me to come with you?”

The Queen Mansion stood tall in front of our black car, appearing more daunting than ever with the heavy news over Starling City. The sun was shining brightly down upon the mansion as if there was nothing wrong with today and it was just another normal day. A place that once felt like a second home, quickly became a place I dreaded stepping a foot back into.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and twisted my body around until my legs were out of the car. “No, it’s okay.” I weakly smiled at my brother, Tommy. “I’ll be quick.”

He didn’t respond as I climbed the rest of the way out of the car, nodding my head in gratitude at our driver for opening my door. My hands smoothed out my black dress. I swallowed the growing lump in my throat before I began my way to the front door. Despite walking in heels quite often, my legs were shaky, nearly too unstable for me to reach the doorstep and ring the doorbell.

Any other time before this week, I would have walked right into Queen Mansion, instead of ringing the doorbell, but under these new circumstances, I no longer felt so welcomed here. The doorbell echoed throughout the household.

The door swung open after a minute or two, revealing Moira Queen, dressed in her own black dress. “Hensley?” Her brow furrowed at my random appearance on her doorstep. Moira’s eyes were red and puffy. “I didn’t expect to see you here. I thought you would be heading to the…” Her lips pressed together as she said, “Funeral.”

“Um, we are.” I gestured over my shoulder to the black car in her driveway. I pushed a dark brown strand of hair out of my eyes, nervously. “I just wanted to come by real quick and check if I left my necklace here. It’s been missing for a while and, um, this is the only place I haven’t checked.”

Moira nodded her head, understanding. “Oh, of course.” She opened the door a little wider.

I hesitated before I stepped inside of the mansion. The last time I was here, Tommy and I were meeting up with Oliver to go out for the night. We agreed to travel in one car, knowing it would be a long night and we only needed one driver. Back then, everything was okay. No one was missing. No one was dead.

Queen Mansion felt empty now. The large building no longer filled with Oliver’s loud voice when he chose to start a conversation from the second floor and you were on the first. I never thought this would happen to him.

Thea Queen hurried down the stairs in a lace, black dress. “Okay, I’m ready.” Her head snapped up when she saw me standing in the foyer of her house. “Oh, Hensley. What are you doing here?” She tilted her head to the side, surprised.

“I lost the necklace that belonged to my mom that I always wear. I just wanted to check Ol--” His name got stuck in my throat. A pang of hurt flashed through my body. I hadn’t actually said his name since Starling City found out about the unfortunate boat accident.

The accident that put a heavy, dark cloud over Starling City and the people who lived there. The Queen Family was well-known in this city, meaning there was no one here that didn't feel saddened by the news of Robert and Oliver Queen's death, along with Sara Lance's. The city was mourning, especially considering today was the funeral for Robert and Oliver.

Thea’s eyes lowered to the ground. “Oh.”

Moira cleared her throat. Her arm flew out to usher Thea out of the house, once I stepped out of her way. "Well, we were just on our way out, but feel free to check his bedroom."

I nodded once. "Thank you." The weight of an apology laid on my tongue, yet I couldn't bring myself to utter the words.

"We'll see you there then." Thea sniffled. Her eyes were slowly growing teary.

My mouth opened to say something back in response. However, yet again, I found myself to be speechless. The three of us exchanged grim smiles before we parted ways. They headed out to the other car in the driveway, where the driver was patiently waiting with the back door open. I stepped further inside of the house, quietly shutting the dark wooden door behind me.

Silence enveloped me as I stood in the foyer.

Even with Moira and Thea gone, I knew better to assume the house was empty. Surely, there were security and maids hidden within the walls, doing their jobs exceedingly well at not being seen. I headed for the stairs, knowing Tommy was waiting for me and the funeral started in less than an hour. Both of us agreed to arrive a little bit earlier.

The house was silent. My hands nervously fiddled with the long sleeves of my dress as I walked down the hallway to Oliver's bedroom. The door was pulled shut, most likely caused too much pain for his family to leave the door open. I stood in front of the door, right hand hovering over the doorknob. I knew as soon as I opened his bedroom, I would become overwhelmed with his scent and the familiarity of his bedroom.

I counted to five in my head before I twisted the doorknob and stepped inside. My eyes immediately teared up at the sight of his bedroom and the ceiling to floor bookcase on the far wall, where I would borrow books from when I needed something new to read. I loudly sniffled and strolled over to his desk, hoping to find my necklace and leave his bedroom.

A picture frame on top of his desk caught my eye. I covered my mouth with my hand, unable to stop myself from releasing a choked sob. The picture is of Oliver, Tommy, and me from when we took a boat out on a lake for an afternoon to party and go tubing with some friends. I stood between the two of them, both of them had an arm wrapped around my shoulders, with the lake behind us. We all wore our bathing suits, hair wet from the wild afternoon we had.

An unfamiliar, male voice sounded from the hallway. I snapped my head up at the voice, automatically assuming it was one of the security checking on me. The footsteps drew in closer as I searched through Oliver's desk. A glint of gold captured my attention on the floor by one of the legs of the desk. I crouched down and picked my necklace up from the floor, sighing in relief.

"Don't move." A deep, male voice ordered.

I quickly looked back up, still in a crouched position to see a man, dressed in all black, with a hand gun pointed directly at me. All of the blood drained from my face. My fingers clenched around the necklace, nails digging into my palm. He wore a dark bandana over his nose and mouth, only allowing me to see his sharp, green eyes.

The man dug his other hand into his pants' pocket, sliding out a handheld radio. "Found the bedroom, but we've got a problem." He held the radio by his mouth and kept his eyes locked on me.

"What is it?" Another male voice spoke from the radio.

"Hensley Meryln."

An uneasy feeling erupted in my stomach when the man said my name. He knew who I was.

"Stand up." The man said while he shoved the radio back in his pocket.

"You don't have to do this." I replied and pushed myself up from the ground. My heels made me about three inches taller than my usual height, but the man still towered over me. "I'll just say I-I didn't see anything. You can just let me--"

"Shut up!"

I flinched at his booming voice. I bit down on the inside of my cheek and held my hands up in the air. Before he could say anything else, two other men entered the bedroom, holding their own guns in their hands and backpacks over their shoulders. Both of them wore dark bandanas, like the other guy. They dressed in nothing but black. Black hoods were drawn up over their heads.

The man, who spoke on the radio, took one look at me and lowered his gun. "Aren't we lucky." He yanked his bandana down from his mouth, smirking.

"What are you doing? You just showed her your face." The first guy shouted.

"It won't matter. She's not going to run to the cops because--" The other guy stepped closer to me, dropping his gun to his side. "We're taking her."

"That wasn't part of the plan!" The third guy panicked. His gun wavered on my figure.

I looked back and forth between the three of them. How did they break in? Did they run into Tommy? Wait-- Taking me?

"Do you know how much she is worth? She's a Meryln. She'll sell real high on the market."

Bile rose up in my throat. They weren't just going to kidnap me to use me as ransom money. No, this guy had plans to put me into sex trafficking.

"P-Please. I can give you money, if that's what you want--" My plea came short when the leader slammed his gun into the side of my face. I fell against the desk. My necklace nearly slipped from my fingers.

The guy turned back to the one who found me. "Did you find anything?"

"I haven't looked yet."

"You look. I'll take care of her."

I slyly grabbed a pen from the desk and gripped it in my fingers. Without a warning, I swung my arm out, attempting to stab the man with the pen. He blocked my arm effortlessly and knocked the pen out of my hand. Before I had a chance to stop him, he grabbed a handful of my hair and slammed my head down again the desk.

I shouted out in pain. The man kicked me to the floor while the other two began to raid Oliver's bedroom for anything valueable. I leaned against the desk, breathing heavily and crying. My mother's necklace slipped from my fingers as the man slammed the butt of his gun against the side of my head. I felt my body collapse on the ground, struggling to stay conscious. My last thoughts before I fell unconscious were made up of horror.

XXXX

I'm iffy about the ending. I'm okay with everything else, but I was struggling with how to write about her being kidnapped. I'm not really sure about it, but oh well. If this chapter sucked, I can promise you that the next chapters will be much better.

I have the next chapter already planned out.

Also, this chapter is based off of when everyone found out about the boat accident and then the funeral. The next chapter will be more toward the present, but not completely. Oliver was gone for five years, so it will be about four years later for the next chapter.

I imagine Hensley as Crystal Reed and will probably use her for gifs every once in a while, but feel free to imagine her however you want.

Question: What do you think the next chapter will be about?

So, yeah!