It had been a little over a day since Katherine's disappearance, and Joseph Pulitzer had become increasingly more worried. He'd called the editor of The Sun to see if Katherine had been sent out on some investigative reporting job out of Manhattan, but the editor, incredibly worried as well, had denied doing anything of the sort. And while Pulitzer was more worried than he'd care to admit to anyone, he still had a job to do. Which is what he was doing when Hannah, his secretary, entered his office with a note, looking rather concerned. Pulitzer looked up.

"Hannah? What's wrong? Has something happened?"

"This note was delivered here for you, Mr. Pulitzer, by a man I've never seen before."

"Let me see it."

Hannah reached across his desk and handed him the note. Pulitzer thanked and dismissed her, before taking a look at the note.

Joseph Pulitzer

I have your daughter. I have not harmed her as of yet, but that will change very soon. The matter of how much damage is done to her, and for how long, is now up to you. Sometime in the next two weeks, I will require you to bring $500 dollars into my possession. If this is not done within the time limit, the price will go up. The longer it takes you, the longer I will keep Katherine with me, and more harm will come to her. Do not try to negotiate her release without giving me the money.

W. E.

oOo

Jack fidgeted nervously as he sat outside Pulitzer's office. The newspaper owner had asked to see him, and Jack had no idea why. Was he being fired? Was it possible for Pulitzer to fire him from being a newsie? Did they find Katherine? Was she safe? Was she...? Jack shook his head, telling himself not to think about the worst. 

The secretary finally told him that he could go in, and he reluctantly stood up and entered the office. 

"Mr. Kelly, please have a seat."

Jack cautiously sat down. "What's going on?"

"I thought it only fair that I share this recent... development with you." Pulitzer slid a piece of paper across the desk and Jack picked it up, confused. He read the note and became significantly paler as he did so.

"What - I mean, you're giving him the money right?" Forming words suddenly became difficult. "$500, that ain't too hard for you, right?"

"That is an exceptionally large amount of money, even for me, but of course I will be giving them as much money as is necessary to get my daughter back, as soon as I can find this man."

"What's that mean? You don't know where he is?"

"I don't know where he is, nor do I know who he is."

"How the hell are we supposed to give him the money, then? Guess he ain't too bright..."

Pulitzer gave the boy an odd look. "I suppose not, but that's beside the point. Of course the police will be getting involved in the search, but I would like to ask for you assistance as well."

"What? Why?" The words came out much sharper than Jack had intended, but he was surprised, and understandably very overwhelmed.

"Do you not wish to?"

"No, no, I want to, just... why?"

"I believe you will be a big help, I'm sure you know almost all of the hiding places in Manhattan that this man could've taken her."

"Yeah... I dunno about that, but I'll try."

"Very well. Come by here again sometime tomorrow and we'll get to work."

"Yeah, thanks." Jack nodded and left the office as fast as he could without running.

He didn't show it, of course, but he was terrified.

oOo

Katherine had been sitting in the dimly lit basement for hours now, and the man hadn't returned yet. She was hungry and scared. I'll be back later to have some fun with you... Katherine closed her eyes tightly as she remembered his words. She was fairly certain she knew what they meant, and she hoped she was wrong.

She heard the door open and her eyes quickly sprung open. The man had come back, this time he was holding a bucket and... a belt. Her heart began to speed up in her chest. She didn't know what the bucket was for, but she definitely knew why he had a belt. He set the bucket down in a corner.

"Figure you'll need to use that soon." The man said, gesturing to the bucket, and Katherine quickly understood. He wasn't exactly going to let her out to use the bathroom. "I said we were gonna have some fun, yeah?" His gaze drifted to the belt. "I have some better things to play with later, but this'll do for now. Turn around."

Katherine met his gaze and glared at him, trying to be brave. She refused to turn, hoping desperately that her refusal might help her in some way. It accomplished nothing. The man held her gaze for a few seconds before lunging at her, forcefully turning her around and pushing her onto her stomach. He grabbed her skirts and pulled them up, pausing at her corset for a moment.

"You don't need that." He said decidedly. He quickly removed her corset and for a moment Katherine worried that he would do more than just hit her with the belt, but it seemed that his main goal was just to reveal the skin on her back, and he'd successfully done just that. He unfolded the belt to it's full length, and thus began the first beating of many.

Katherine squeezed her eyes shut, the dirty gag in her mouth muffling her cries of pain.