It's cold when I leave work. Winter has set in, the light breeze swirling around me makes me shiver. I set into a brisk walk, hoping to keep myself warm for the short walk home. I pause to light a cigarrette, savouring the first inhale, before continuing on my way. As I walk beneath a streetlight it flickers. I pause, glancing up at it as it flickers again before promptly going out. I look down the street as one by one the lights flicker and disappear. Uneasiness settles in my stomach, and I walk faster. The wind suddenly picks up, whipping my hair across my face. I push it back behind my ears in an effort to control it, but it is free again seconds later. As I round the corner electricity crackles through the air, the fine hairs on my arms stand on end and goosebumps ripple over my skin. I make a beeline for my driveway, and as I reach it a low whine fills my ears, becoming louder and louder until it feels as if my eardrums might explode. I drop to my knees and clap my hands over my ears, screaming. My vision is filled with a blinding white light and pain rips through my head at the sensory overload. Several voices begin to whisper inside of my head, one word ringing clear through all of the rest. This word is my last thought before I pass out: Redemption.
When I come to the first thing I take in is the smell of mildew, sweat and cheap cleaning product. Next is the hard mattress I'm laying on, its scratchy blankets uncomfortable on my skin. I hear nothing but the creak of floorboards and the click of a computer mouse.
I wonder if I've been kidnapped, but I quickly push that thought out of my head. I decide to play dead for a while longer while I attempt to get my bearings.
I continue to take in as much of my surroundings as I can without using my eyes, and I pick up several other scents that don't really help me figure out where I am. Whiskey is definitely the strongest, it hangs in the air along with the pungeant smell of stale take out.
I quickly realise that I am unbound, my hands lay folded across my stomach, and still fully clothed. Both of these facts give me great relief. I gently flex my fingers against my stomach, trying to dismiss the pins and needles that have settled in the very tips, and that is when I notice the wrongness. My body feels wrong, different. My limbs feel stretched, my bones ache as if I've been run over by a steam roller. Even my skin feels different, tight and tingly. I wrack my brain, and come to the conclusion that whoever took me must have drugged me. That's the only explanation.
A phone starts ringing, bringing me out of my own head and back to reality.
"Hello? Yeah I've got her. Uh, well you will want to see this for yourself. Yes, it is as we discussed. Yes. Ok. Yes he is with me. Ok I will tell him. Ok, see you in five."
The voice is deep and gravelly, oozing power. A shiver slips down my spine, the fear that I've been suppressing begins to surface.
The room is silent again after that, but for the click of the mouse and creaking of the floorboards.
"For gods sake, would you stop pacing? Jeez anyone would think you're waiting for your prom date to show up." The creaking stops abruptly and I can feel the temperature of the air drop. The air is tense, the soft inhale-exhale of two people is all that I can hear.
The tension is broken by the rumble of an engine and the crunch of gravel as a car pulls up nearby.
"Thank god," the computer man mutters, floorboards creak as heavy footsteps make their way across the room, a shadow flickers past my eyelids and I concentrate on keeping my breath slow and even. The door opens, sending humid air wafting into the room carrying the faint scent of cheap take out and exhaust fumes.
"Hey," a gruff voice rings out, loud in the heavy tension of the room.
Greetings from the other two follow, and a whispered conversation takes place. I strain to hear what is said, but only catch a few words here and there.
"...got caught up... That her? Yeah I bought...no, you told me... Wait wait wait, what? Holy crap, no way!"
The last bit is significantly louder, his voice disbelieving, and is followed by fast, heavy footsteps that bring him right to the bed I'm laying on.
"Jesus," the third man whispers, "I thought... Has she woken up yet?"
"No," the pacing man says, "but... she shouldn't be unconscious for too much longer."
"Ah well, you can be the one to do the explaining then, you're the one with all the knowledge."
I hear a creak and the rustle of paper bags, and the pungent smell of greasy burgers fills the room once again, making my stomach growl audibly.
"Sounds like she's hungry too," the new man says through a mouthful of food. "Good thing I bought extra."
The room falls silent again, the sound of chewing fills my ears. My stomach gurgles again, clenching almost painfully at the thought of food, making me wonder how long I've been out.
For the next few minutes I mull over what's occurred since I woke, trying to put together the pieces of an impossible puzzle. I deduce that wherever I am is quite secluded, due to the lack of traffic flow, so possibly a cockroach motel in the middle of nowhere. That thought sends panic flitting through my body, and before I can squash it my heart begins to race and my breathing noticeably speeds up. Before I know it, three lots of footsteps are making their way to my bedside, shadows filling up the inside of my eyelids and I can feel them so close to me. Resisting the urge to cringe away I force myself to calm down, counting to ten in my head and easing the airflow into my lungs. One of them lets out a grunt and a muttered, "false alarm," and retreats back to wherever he was sitting, while the other two remain.
The tense stillness fills the room once more, I wish someone would speak, just to drown out the sound of my heart beat thundering in my ears.
Eventually the other two leave my side, apparently convinced that I'm not waking up anytime soon, and I resist letting out a sigh of relief. In the quiet that follows, I begin to form an escape plan. From what I can tell, the front door is directly opposite the bed I am laying on, the take out man is sitting at a table or on a couch near there, the pacing man is somewhere to my left and the computer man is to my right. I figure if I act fast enough, I should be able to make a dash for the front door and, if it is a motel like I suspect, run like mad to the reception and call the police. I can't feel the weight of my phone in my pocket, so they must have taken that when they grabbed me.
Its now or never, I think to myself, taking one last deep breath before spurring myself into action.
As it turns out, I never even make it off the bed. As I snap my eyes open and swing my legs over the edge, preparing to leap for the door, I see my kidnappers for the first time and freeze in my tracks. Staring back at me from almost exactly where I had pictured them are three very familiar faces...