MAD LOVE

Chapter 2

"I'm sorry, but I can't give you a room without an ID card," the receptionist said with an artificial smile.

"Come on, can you see how long the queue is? If you want, I'll leave my backpack as collateral. All the documents in your database, we left them at the time of booking. We will leave our things in the room and I will bring you the card," I pleaded as I tried to establish at least some contact with her, but to no avail.

"I am sorry, miss, but I can't. There are cameras everywhere. Please, don't make the other people wait."

So I had to step back and settle down on a couch. Maybe I should have been more audacious, but the woman next to me was already pushing me aside.

She is uncomfortable. Can you believe it?!

"How could you forget our documents in the car, Mom? We've wasted so much time!" I knew I needed to pull myself together because it could happen to anyone. "Okay, what's there to be indignant about? Wait here, I'll go get them. Oh, and I'll never trust you to keep them safe again," I said and kissed her on the cheek before going outside.

We came to spend our vacation and celebrate my birthday at one of the mountain ski resorts close to New York. Both in winter and summer, it offered several services. The resort itself comprised two parts. The first one had all the apartments, coffee bars, restaurants, and a shopping mall. The second was designed for people with higher incomes: it had single cottages, fancy restaurants and nightclubs. We had no business in this expensive part, so we enjoyed the charms of the lower part.

Once outside, I looked around. The central pedestrian street of the town looked very much like Europe - I've never been there, but I've seen a lot of photos. Beautiful tall buildings in the classic Dutch style: large windows with orthogonal fragments, symmetrical facades, colorful brick walls, and stone garniture. Well-maintained flowerbeds all over the place, interspersed with playgrounds and comfortable sidewalks.

I got on a path and headed to the parking space. It took me seven minutes to get to my "oldie". The weather was wonderful, my earphones were blaring my favorite music, the street was almost empty as everyone was in those terrible queues at check-in. One would think that nothing could go wrong, but today was definitely not my day.

Having reached the parking space, I headed down the sidewalk towards my car. Out of nowhere, a sports car screeched into the empty parking spots, at the exact moment I was walking by. My self-preservation instinct kicked in immediately: fear threw me to the other side of the lawn and I bumped into a lamp-post. I struck my temple against it, and for a moment I had no sense of where I was. I felt a burning pain and when I touched it, my fingers came away bloody.

What a wonderful start to my vacation!

A young man, who occupied two parking places, went out of his car and he seemed to be in high spirits.

Oh, my God... It's still the same jerk!

"Loser!" he said, laughing and rushing in the other direction, without even considering the consequences of his actions.

"Jackass..." I whispered under my breath, offended and angered. I tried to hide it, but my tear ducts had already made their presence felt. But my "decency" had not gone unnoticed.

"What did you say?" He turned around and froze as if he'd seen a ghost. But...

I wish I were one... Oh, please, just keep going wherever you were going...

The guy stood still, considering whether he should come closer. When he finally approached, it scared the life out of me...

Within arm's reach, I heard something crunch under his feet and my heart leapt — it was my dad's gift! At that moment I realized that one of my earphones was missing, it must have popped out of my ear when I fell.

There you go — a disadvantage of wireless earphones!

The stranger raised his foot to see where the sound came from. I grabbed the broken pieces and whimpered with despair. Even the small gifts are very dear to me. In my whole life, I only ever got them from my parents.

"It's just an earphone, nothing to be upset about." His words were meaningless to me, so I didn't pay any attention to them.

Why does he keep talking to me? Why doesn't he leave? What does he want?

The stranger came very close and got down on his haunches. He peered at my face, and it was like some invisible force gripped my lungs. I started choking, though it might have seemed that I was just holding my breath. Unexpectedly, he cupped my face and turned my head to see the wound. This caused my eyes to flicker, and an image passed before my mind's eye. I could not hold on to it; I only heard an echo of an angry male voice: "I said, come here!"

I scuttled away from him, looking in fear at the young man's face.

Looks my age or a couple of years older.

"Get in the car. You need medical help. I know a doctor who can examine you," he said, as my condition dawned on him. He raised his hands, letting me know he was not dangerous.

You can't trust anyone... Even he said that he loved me!

"It's y-you who needs h-help," I said in a shaky voice, shivering as if from cold, "and psy-psychological h-help! Please, leave me alone!" I was shivering so hard that no sedative would have been able to calm me down. Anyway, the pills were still in my backpack...

I jumped to my feet, and despite the light dizziness, raced to my car. And only once inside did I finally feel safe. The young man was still sitting on his haunches, looking at my shelter with a thoughtful look on his face. Meeting such a psycho must have shocked him. I bet he had never met such characters, as handsome as he looked, and judging by his car, he came from quite a rich family.

Some breathing exercises helped me to calm down. I took the documents from the glove compartment, then found a plaster in the first-aid kit, which was actually half-empty, and put it on my aching temple. There were only a couple of scratches, but they were quite serious. I still felt dizzy and sick, and as bad luck would have it, there were no pills in the kit to help with that.

I'll have to go to the drugstore, but first I should get to the emergency room.

I called my mom to say I'd be a little late because of what had happened so that she wouldn't worry. Having finished everything, I went back outside in the fresh air. The guy was nowhere to be seen, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank God this lunatic left! Now I can safely continue my walk.

My hopes were dashed, as a black Dodge Charger blocked my way to the exit of the car park.

My heart was pounding in my eardrums when the same stranger got out of the car and walked towards me with a straight face. My mind screamed at me to run as fast as I could, but my shortness of breath and sudden dizziness from the surging panic did not allow me to even take a step to the side. The guy abruptly grabbed my elbow and, without saying anything, shoved me into the car on the back passenger seat. Having lost the ability to move, I have not forgotten how to scream. Trying to resist, I called for help and tried to escape from the death grip of this man's hands. It was not difficult for him to carry out his plan, because the forces were not equal. Before I could come to my senses, I was already being taken to an unknown destination.