Toto and the Boys I: Jackie

Chapter 29

I was cursing all the gods of all vehicles and even the boys for not giving me a freaking alarm. If they could install Siri or S Voice into smartphones, why couldn’t I have one? Why?!

What I felt that night was not something I wanted to experience again. I felt like I was in outer space floating around in an endless space of zero gravity. I could have strained all tubes, wires and leathers in me, but I didn’t move an inch. I couldn’t move an inch--or even a centimeter for that matter.

Georgie! Get your ass down here now and let’s go kill some sick, lanky HR personnel! I swear I would drive him down a cliff soon. I swear in the name of all Volkswagens, I would kill that guy if he as much as lay one finger on Jackie. I swear I would kill him to the point that hell would not even give him an admission pass.

Georgie! Dannie! Where the hell are you! Jackie is in trouble! Big, big trouble!

Shit!

No one was listening, no one even cared that a yellow Beetle Volkswagen was standing under a stupid acacia tree with a box on its hood and an orange bag just right beside the door. If everyone thought it was normal then I must have went through some portal and arrived in some weird dimensional world.

Shit! Jackie girl, hang in there. Be tough, girl!

*****

Jackie stirred from the sudden bump she felt.

Feeling a slight ache at her temple, she groaned.

If she was having a hangover, it was the worse because she couldn’t see a thing when she tried to open her eyes. They found it hard to focus when everything else seemed to be moving.

But wait.

She was moving.

Her hand went to her aching temple and realized that her face stung as well.

This is not hangover, she thought.

Little by little, piece by piece, she remembered everything.

Dean. The resignation letter. The box. Toto.

Her brows furrowed into a frown when Brian’s face flashed across her mind.

Brian!

“Don’t panic, Jackie, it’s just me,” that creepy voice said beside her.

Her eyes widened. She heard herself gasp in fear and alarm.

Jumping on her seat, she realized she was strapped against it.

She looked around, trying to adjust her vision. She was inside his car.

“Brian!” she cried out. “Where are you taking me? Stop the car!”

“And then what, Jackie? You’re going back to that stupid car of yours and drive yourself to your jerk of a boss? There is no way I am going to let that happen. I warned him never to make you cry.”

“He didn’t make me--”

“Don’t defend him. I’ve seen how he had been treating you for the past few days. And you’ve suffered enough.”

Something in his eyes, as he threw her a fast glance, told Jackie that she was in real danger.

She was familiar of the route he was taking. They just passed by a familiar road, but if he was taking her to his home, she was not sure anyone would find her. Bacolod didn’t even have traffic cameras.

For all she knew, no one was aware she had been kidnapped.

The only witness she had was Toto who couldn’t even do anything for her.