The Hotel at the End of Time

Chapter 9 - Emma makes a joke about license plates.

Emma's feet skimmed the ground as the salesmen dragged her from her house and threw her into the back seat of their car. The entire process took maybe thirty seconds. They had done this before.

Randomly, she worried that they hadn't locked her door. The blow to her head made it hard to focus. Her mind reeled through the crisis. The rational part of her brain attempted to gain control, but it was impossible. Raw, animal panic had taken over.

The car smelled like stale bagels and pizza. Crumbs on the upholstery stuck to her palms. When the car sped off, she realized that this was an actual thing and it was actually happening to her. She was being kidnapped. The crazy woman from the hospital had been right.

One of them removed the bag from her head and she shrank back against the door. Beside her was a man wearing a blue blazer. The two that grabbed her were in front. She recognized one by his stylish olive-green jacket; the other, with the sunglasses, was driving. Clothes and haircuts aside, they were identical. They all looked distressingly normal; three guys out for a drive, not a care in the world. Shouldn't they have been dressed in black or licking knives? Didn't kidnappers lick knives? She couldn't wrap her head around a world where kidnappers looked identical to ordinary salesmen.

"What do you want with me?" she asked. "Please let me go. I won't tell anyone about this."

None of them even glanced at her. Sunglasses continued driving, looking bored. Blue Blazer laughed at something on his phone.

"Please," she said again. "I don't know what you want."

Blue Blazer grinned with a grotesque, lecherous expression on his face. "We only want one thing, sweetheart." He licked his lips and she almost threw up, a painful cramp shooting through her stomach.

"Give it a rest, Wyatt," said Sunglasses from the front.

Wyatt shrugged and looked back out the window. "She won't remember any of this, anyway."

Everything they said was terrifying, and each individual statement propelled her further into this miserable kidnappee experience.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked.

"Settle down, little bird," replied Sunglasses. "This will all be over soon. Sit there and keep your mouth shut."

"Why are you doing this?" A hitch made its way into her voice.

Green Jacket turned to face the back seats. "Shut her up."

Wyatt shrugged and punched her in the chest.

The blow slammed her against the car door and her head bounced off the window. For what seemed like minutes, her world narrowed to her struggle for breath and the sound of small gasping noises coming from her mouth. Blackness bled into the edges of her vision.

They had now punched her three times. There was still a small part of her brain that didn't believe it was happening, but the animal part yowled in panic. She choked out a sob and huddled up against the side of the car, hugging herself.

"Nothing personal, kiddo," said Green Jacket from the front, "but here's the drill. You shut up nice and quiet. Behave for the whole car ride, and we won't punch you anymore. Good deal?"

She wasn't sure if they wanted her to respond, or if speaking would earn her another punch. The man in the back seat looked at her expectantly. She gave him a small, hesitant nod.

"Great," said Green Jacket. "We'll get along fine." The man beside her winked, and Emma had to close her eyes to press out all the tears that made her vision blurry. They made hot, wet tracks down her cheeks.