The world was pitch black when she woke up. It was eerily quiet and still. Her head throbbed with an unfamiliar pain. With great difficulty, she pushed herself up from the floor to a sitting position and winced as her joints ached.
When her eyes still didn't adjust to the darkness enveloping her after a minute, fear unfurled in her belly. Yet, the real terror set in when she couldn't separate her hands or even talk.
She felt a tight rope around her wrists and a gag over her mouth. The darkness was the result of a blindfold over her eyes. Samantha Hopkins let out muffled screams, writhing against the wall as she tried and failed to untangle the knots keeping her bound.
She froze at the sound of heavy footsteps advancing towards her. Her abductor or her savior? Whoever it was, the person stopped and waited. Was she being watched? She reached for her blindfold to yank it off but with each pull, her eyes hurt.
Why was this happening to her? Who could she have offended?
She heard keys jiggling in a lock. Was she in a cell? When the door swung open, Sam crawled away from the stranger. She didn't get far before bumping into a pair of cold feet. Horrified, she shrieked, but everywhere she tried to crawl to, there was hair, hands or a head in her path. Shock rippled through her as she realized there were other women in the cell with her.
They began to rouse awake as she stumbled on them. All around her, she felt them moaning with terror and struggling to make sense of their surroundings like she had just done minutes ago. Sam still sensed the stranger watching them. A woman who had successfully taken off her gag spoke.
"Hello? What's going on? Where am I? Who's there?"
Another lady cried. "Who's there? What's happening right now? Who's responsible for this? You've got the wrong person!"
Sam finally took off her blindfold first. She squinted as bright light washed into the cell. For a few seconds, her vision was spotty and grey. She waited it out for a bit before it adjusted to the dimness of the room. It was as she feared; she had been kidnapped along with a bunch of strange ladies
She stared at the lone stranger in a tuxedo watching her. He looked oddly familiar, like a man that had graced the cover of a business magazine at least thrice. He stood backing the light. Shadows danced around his face, making it difficult for Sam to recognize it. One thing was certain; whomever this man was, Sam had never met him in her life so it made no sense for him to abduct her.
Another woman cried out gutturally from a different cell, giving Sam more chills. There were more cells and more women? Her eyes tracked to the right as the stranger wordlessly strolled over to the next cell with his hands jammed in the pocket of his pants.
He gave the subtlest of cues and some uniformed men filed in behind him. After muttering instructions, he strode out of the cell. Just before he vanished beyond the door, he turned and Sam could have sworn his eyes glowed yellow.
The uniformed men unlocked and barged into all the cells, yanking off every woman's blindfold and gag. They untied them too. While massaging her red wrists, Sam saw one guard hefting a water hose. What followed was a rude splash of icy cold water on the women, drenching each girl till their clothes were plastered to their bodies like wet paper. Most screamed. Some cried. Sam fumed.
The men left wordlessly while the women hugged their knees, freezing with cold. Sam stared around her cell wondering if this was a human trafficking situation or something more.
"What do you think they'll do to us?" One girl asked after thirty minutes of general weeping. "Will they kill us?" Her eyes dilated as fear shimmered in them.
"If that was their motive, they would have done so already." Another one, hidden in the shadows, responded.
"Sex trafficking?" Came a frightened voice. "Oh god. I am a virgin. I am supposed to marry my high school sweetheart by weekend. I don't deserve this." The cries resumed. "How did this happen? The last thing I remember was being at a bridal shop, making final decisions for my bouquet. I remember nothing after sniffing it."
The girl from the shadows emerged. She had lush black hair like a waterfall cascading down her shoulders.
"Did you say you sniffed a bouquet of flowers?"
The crying ceased all around as more heads snapped.
"Yeah. Why?" The weepy bride-to-be asked.
The inquisitive girl turned to the lady sitting next to her. "What do you remember just before blacking out and waking up here?" Stunned, the blonde swallowed and tried to recall as accurately as possible.
"I was on a date with my boyfriend. I left to use the restroom and found an expensive bottle of perfume someone had accidentally forgotten on the sink." She winced. "I spritzed some on me but it was so overpowering I guess I fainted."
"Why did you take it?" I pre-empted the shadow girl.
"I love perfumes. I can't resist a good one, especially from big brands."
"And I love flowers." Sighed the bride-to-be. "My bouquet had been ordered last minute. It was a rare, fragrant flower that I felt was more unique than lilies and petunias."
"I didn't sniff anything." Someone said behind the bride. "I was sleeping in my new apartment, on a mattress and woke up on this hard floor. Hence, I don't think we were abducted because we all like sweet smelling things. Just wanted to put that out there."
"I agree." Shadow girl concurred. "Up until 9pm last night, I was working the night shift in my second job. I dozed off in my car and woke up here." She peered at everyone. "It's got to be something else."
"Did anyone recognize him?" Sam interrupted. "The man in the tux who was watching us? Did anyone get a good look at his face?"
"What man?" They all asked.
"No one else saw him?" Sam asked. She couldn't have been hallucinating, could she?"
The uniformed men returned and banged on the bars of each cell.
"EVERYONE, STAND UP AND FORM A LINE!"
The women filed out of the cells to form a queue.
"Cleo?" Shadow girl voiced at the sight of another girl being shoved into the line. "Cleo!" But a guard stood in her path when she tried to rush towards the girl.
"Kai!" Cleo cried out too.
"You know her?" Sam whispered.
"That's my sister." Shadow girl (Kai) explained with moist eyes. How did Cleo end up here?
The men pulled out a list and made a roll call. As they passed, each girl was expected to give her name, age and hometown. While the girls reeled out their details, something stood out to Kai and Sam; all the girls were twenty-two-year-old Woodbridge locals.
"Did you notice that we are all the same age, born and bred in this town? What could they want with us?" Sam whispered to Kai but Kai didn't give a response. Her heart spiked.
Not only was she twenty-four years old; she wasn't a native of Woodbridge.
"Name!" A guard asked as it got to Kai's turn. She was the last on the line. She inhaled sharply. If the details were important to their abductor, she might be dead the second she tells the truth.
"Name, age and hometown, now! The guard pressed. Kai's heart pounded furiously in her chest.
"Kai Sullivan. Twenty-four. Snow Lake, Bairmington city." Cleopatra echoed from the other side of the room. "She's my half-sister!" she added when the guards looked confused. Kai gaped in shock at her innocent sister who genuinely believed she was helping.
"You're over twenty-two and not a local?" The guard's eyes narrowed. "You're not supposed to be here!" In a flash, Kai was staring at the barrel of a sleek gun.