Kidnapped: Happily Ever After

Part 1

Part 1

I don’t remember much of what happened that day, but I do remember one thing. I was scared speechless. In the blink of an eye my life was changed forever and the world I knew disappeared.

I remember walking home from the store, with a grocery sack swinging from my arm, not a care in the world. I was happy with myself and with the world, delighted with the results of my first job interview. Could life get any better? Maybe not, but it sure got worse.

I was passing in front of a building - I don’t even remember what building it was! - when a man suddenly backed out of the door near me, with a pistol in his hand. He froze when he saw me. Then he grabbed me roughly by the arm and carried me before him, shoving me into the backseat of a foul-smelling car that had been waiting by the curb. Before I could register what was happening, there were two men in the car, one driving, and the other in the passenger seat in front of me. The latter man turned around and glared at me, but I was dazedly watching the scenery whiz by the window. Where was I going? But more importantly, what had just happened?

“If you make a sound, I won’t hesitate to gag that pretty mouth of yours.”

I recoiled at his convincing tone, and dug myself farther back into the seat, ignoring the smell of cigarette smoke that permeated the space around me. Something crackled at my side and I realized I still had the bag of groceries with me. Odd how something like that can make one feel better. Perhaps it’s the familiar, everyday routine it symbolizes, that makes an unexpected, terrifying experience a little more bearable. And I was terrified. To be kidnapped by who knows what kind of men, taken heaven knows where, to - forgive the expression - God only knows what, is rather nerve rattling.

I was too frightened to notice what was passing outside the car window. My mind was...blank, if you will. Making any kind of fuss was the farthest thing from my mind, for my captor’s words rang continually in my head, and I believed him. I didn’t even dare move the grocery bag, for fear the noise would startle him into action.

The two men said nothing, or if they did, I payed no attention. My mind was in torture over the thought of my family, and what they would go through when they discovered something had happened to me. That they would search for, and if possible, find me, I had little doubt, even in my confused state.

I don’t know how long we traveled, but I vaguely recall pulling up to a run-down shack and being unceremoniously dragged from the car. I was shoved into the shack, and the door closed and locked behind me. I heard the car’s motor gradually fade away, and then I fainted.

I woke up to complete blackness. As the preceding events came back to me, I jerked myself upright and felt around me, more from curiosity than any reasonable purpose of attempting to find a way out. I was sitting on a rough board floor, and by crawling a short distance I reached a wall made of the same. I pulled myself to my feet and began exploring my prison as a blind person would, for in the pitch dark I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. I tripped over something, and found it to be my grocery sack they must have thrown in after me. I didn’t feel hungry, even though I knew there was ready food in the bag, and the hopelessness of my situation induced me to kick it across the floor.

That was when I heard the noise. It scared me at first, as anything one can’t see is bound to do, but after my heart quieted down enough for me to listen, it came again, and I immediately formed a picture of a baby in distress. It sounded just like a baby. Again it came, a high-pitched whine, coming, from what I could tell, from the direction I was facing. I began to slowly feel my way towards it, at the same time wondering just how many suffering prisoners were in this shack. As I came closer to where I judged I had first heard it, another sound came to my ears; a shuffling of some sort, as if a body was moving, trying to get away. When I thought it was just at my feet, I knelt down and using my hands scanned the area within my reach.