Chapter One:

There is a darkness inside of me. I don't know how much longer I can contain it before it consumes me. The urges in a young adults mind. The fantasies that should remain unspoken. The desire for something more than just what is possessed.

At the age of 20 years, I am considered to be morbidly obese. Overweight all my life, it's fucked up to say the least. All I can think about is how there is nothing out there for me. I'm fat, ugly and will remain single my whole life. There is just no escaping that fact. My heart has never felt more empty and alone. When I'm not around my small collection of friends, I sit alone in my room, trying to avoid the annoyances. It's a lonely life but I get by, I guess… Today is no exception to the rule. I got up around 10:04 am and did my normal routine. Went down to the kitchen, listening to the floor creak from the distribution of weight of the worn down floor boards. The creaking always made me uneasy. I used to imagine our home was haunted but now I know it's just because it's contemplating falling in. I walked into the kitchen and got whatever I could find in the fridge. Generally there was nothing in there that was good, but I would just suffice for something. Today's choice: a few left over pancakes that had way too much of something in them and a cup of sugar free strawberry jell-o. I don't really enjoy pancakes but these ones were just bad. It tasted like someone had dumped sugar into the mix which just made them taste like something that was past its expiration date. Jell-o has never really bothered me any. It's not like it's enough to thrive on for breakfast, but it tasted better than the pancakes that was for sure.

I started to head towards the dishwasher, a daily chore of mine, when I realize that I forgot to bring my phone down with me. I can survive without my phone on my person, but I just like to have it, in case something should happen. I popped back into my room to retrieve it and noticed a text from an acquaintance of mine.

"hey" it simply read. This acquaintance was always full of short words. He was really hard to hold conversation with via texts. I hate one word texters.

"good morning" I responded.

"how r u" he asked. His texts are irritating. You're almost 21, sir; learn how to type out entire words.

"I'm good. Just got out of bed. How are you?" I replied to him. Then, I waited. He was notorious for spontaneously failing to respond to texts. After waiting for a minute or so, I returned to the kitchen to do the dishwasher. Once I was done with that, I walked once again across the creaking floor to head down stairs to do a load of laundry. Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrate.

Oh… my head… I woke up with a pounding ache in the back of my head. Opening my eyes, I looked into a black empty void… Where am I? I tried to get up off of what I where I was laying only to realize that I was restrained. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I was able to make out blurry shapes around me. My glasses were gone so I had to squint to see anything clearly. I appeared to be in a bedroom of some kind. There was a large bureau sitting in my frontal view. It appeared to be covered in some pieces of fabric, possibly torn. There were a few bottles as well… I looked over to my left. There was a wall covered with some wallpaper. It looked like it was from the 1960's, some dingy floral print that I imagined I would find in my grandmother's house. I tugged my left arm to see if I could find the source of what was binding me. Ouch… I could feel the hair being ripped from my arm. Duct tape… great… My head continued to pound ever few moments as I continued to assess my surroundings. Turning my head to the right, I saw a nightstand. Aha! My glasses! They were sitting on the stand next to me… The one lenses was cracked.. Unfortunately, whoever had brought me here had no intention of letting me leave. I moved again, feeling the hairs being ripped out of my pores on my arms.

Cringing, I attempted to kick my feet, only to find that they were also bound, once at the ankles and the also at my knees. I almost resembled a mermaid that hangs on the bow of a pirate ship. My arms, bound to the headboard and my legs manufacturally fused together. Pulling and tugging on my arms only hurt. There had to have been at least five layers of duct tape attaching me to the bed frame.

"HELP! ANYONE! IS THERE ANYONE THERE?" I cried, feeling a sense of helplessness in the pit of my stomach. I didn't know how I got there… I couldn't remember what I had done earlier that day that would have put me in this position.

Suddenly, a sound from the darkness emerged. It was a laugh… or a cackle… It sounded evil… I focused my eyes in to the area where the sound came from. A shadow moved. My heart began to beat, loud and fast. Thump… thump… thump thump thump. I could feel warmth slide down my face. A few tears fell from my eyes and flowed down my cheeks… "P..p..please… Let.. let me go…" I whimpered as a few more tears fell from my eyes. The shadow laughed again, moving closer to me…

"What will you do for me?" the voice responded. My heart stopped. I knew that voice. Or at least, I thought I did. It sounded like an old friend. "Hmm? What are you willing to do for your freedom?" He retorted again.

"I.. I… Anything… please.. don't hurt me…" The fear was running through my veins. He came out of the darkness holding a small knife, covered in a dark liquid. My heart sank.. I knew him… I knew what he wanted…