It was still dark, and she still felt like someone had kicked her.
Wherever she was, it was stuffy and smelled like toilet cleaner and bleach. Judy'd been here a few minutes, she knew, since the smell wasn't as bad as it was when she'd woken up. Maybe she'd been there even an hour or two—but she wasn't sure, since the smart watch she usually wore was gone and so was her phone. Even with those things, that morning in her mind was hazy. All she could remember were screams—and she wasn't even sure if they were her own.
The voice she had heard from before hadn't spoken since she heard that phrase—two for the price of one. She stirred over its meaning but wasn't able to focus much on it. Her wrists and ankles hurt, and she couldn't move them; she guessed they were tied but she wasn't sure why. Her conscious also felt odd, like she was straddling the line between a dream and reality. She tried to shake it away, but it hung on her perception like something had been forced there. It was unlike anything she'd ever experienced before.
Suddenly, more voices. Two of them, she figured. They were muffled, like they were far away or at least in another room. One was significantly quieter than the other. She stopped breathing, hoping it would let her listen, but it was just too difficult. Despite her incredible hearing the words were indiscernible. They blended together like some foreign language that nobody could understand. Maybe, she thought, I'm just so out of it that language doesn't seem real anymore…
Judy closed her eyes and let tears flood her eyes. It took a few moments, but the emotions built up in her and she began sobbing softly, her body trembling and her limbs retracting into her torso. Then she fell to her side without a sound, curling up into the best fetal position she could with her wrists and ankles tied.
All she wanted to know right then was where she was, why she was there, and why Nick wasn't with her.