Vicky woke up from her unconsciousness eight hours later. When she opened her eyes she couldn't tell where she was. Yes, she saw that she was on a bed in a room but she could not tell which house was this or where was it found. For some minutes, her mind was as blank as a distant horizon. Then she started recollecting her mind little by little.
She remembered Ed in the studio with her. The picture quickly changed to when she was stranded on the road. Then Jack had come. She had entered Jack's car and they were supposedly headed to her home area. Her heart started beating fast as she saw all the events unfolding in her memory. She immediately sat up on the bed.
That's when all hell broke loose. She felt excruciating pain from her abdomen downwards. She looked down at herself and immediately knew what had happened.
"How could he?" She started sobbing and feeling seething resentment against the man he had thought would be a gentle man. Never had she visualized that such seemingly kind people could turn so inhuman within a span of a few hours.
A few hours? she thought, "For how long have I been here?" Her mind could not place her exactly to how long she had been there. She only remembers that she had entered Jack's car and was supposedly going home. Jack had offered her a ride in his BMW vehicle. He had pretended to be a so nice person that even when he wanted to go to the bank to withdraw some money, Jack had so humbly requested Vicky's permission. She had been so impressed by him.
From the time she had sensed the effect of gases on her lungs up to now was about nine hours. But she didn't know this. Maybe it is just a few minutes or maybe just a few hours. She looked around the room. The bed was wide enough, there was a bedroom table and a seat on one side. There was also a wardrobe by the door. Vicky wondered if there were clothes in there. A door on the other side indicated that there was a washroom on the other side. A heavy curtain hung on the only window in the room.
She decided to walk over to the window hoping to catch a glimpse of the outside world so that she might know what time it was. Painfully, she stepped down from the bed. The floor was carpeted by a thick cotton carpet that soothed her feet as she stood. She went to the window and slowly parted the curtains. Looking outside, she discovered that she was on a multi-storied building. How many floors? She couldn't tell. But from a short distance away she could see many other skyscrapers like the one she was in.
"Oh my God! I am in the city!" She exclaimed. "But how? How did I get here so soon?" It was then that it dawned on her that she had been unconscious for a very long time. Jack must have organised his trick to work so perfectly well that she was knocked out for such a long time to be able to travel a distance of 200 miles without her waking up.
Vicky remembered her phone and looked for it everywhere in that room to no avail. Jack had ensured that she remains in total unfamiliarity. She went back again to the window and tried to peer around. The sky had started glowing a slight orange. She knew this indicated that it was dawning. It must be around five or six in the morning.
She went to the door on the other side of the room and it gave way inwards. She hesitantly pushed it and entered. Just as she had guessed, the room was fitted with a shower stand and a toilet. She went to the mirror to look at herself. There was an assortment of beauty products on the side table in the washroom. Some of them she had never used before. Most looked so expensive, just befitting Jack's class. What surprised Vicky was that all of those products were female oriented. Perhaps the house belonged to a lady after all and Jack was not a bad person as she had imagined. But no! what about the pain between her legs,how can you explain that? and why would someone go to the trouble of fetching you for over a hundred miles away from your home without your consent? furthermore, a stranger doing all this!
Vicky concluded that she had been kidnapped.
Then she heard the door opening in the other room, terrified, she went stealthily to look.
A strange man was standing there. He was not Jack. He was neither a person whom Vicky recognized! He was a total stranger.
Vicky stood there looking at the man. The man stared back at her as if sizing her up. Neither of them said a thing! Then the man started walking towards her.