Mantis

23. Victor reveals his hand

I woke up several hours later surrounded by a strong scent of vanilla. I looked around, glanced at the car clock, and widened my eyes in astonishment. I had lost a few hours of my life, and I was still sitting in Victor's BMW, even though by all geographical and temporal rules, I shouldn't have been there for a long time. Moreover, we weren't even in the city; we were speeding down the highway, and no buildings were visible on the horizon.

– Well-rested? – Victor asked in a cheerful tone.

– Where are we? – I asked, confused, looking around for some point of reference. – Do you have something to drink?

Victor rummaged with one hand in the back seat and handed me a bottle of mineral water, and I grabbed it as if I had just finished running through a desert.

– Not far from the Polish-German border – he replied to my question in a tone as calm and measured as if he were telling me what he had for dinner yesterday.

I nearly choked on the water I was drinking when I heard that and spluttered it onto the dashboard.

– Where? – I wheezed, coughing.

Victor smiled gently and spoke in a voice as if explaining something very obvious to a small child.

– As I said – he said, behaving as if everything was perfectly fine. – Not far from the border.

– I heard you – I snapped, glaring at him. – I'm asking you what I'm doing here? You were supposed to drop me off at my apartment.

Victor glanced at me quickly and then fixed his gaze on the road ahead.

– You were sleeping. What was I supposed to do? – he asked, shrugging his shoulders, as if he wasn't just taking me to the other end of Poland but merely late for some unimportant meeting by five minutes.

– Don't play dumb – I snarled, not hiding my irritation. – No sane person takes someone on such a trip without asking. You should have woken me up. No one sleeps so soundly that they can't be awakened. Unless... – I trailed off mid-sentence and looked at Victor, but he didn't look at me; he was stubbornly watching the road ahead.

Thoughts raced through my mind like mad, and the facts slowly connected into a logical and terrifying whole. My heart raced, and I almost felt the adrenaline reaching every cell in my body along with the blood. Oh shit!

– What did you give me? – I asked, still unable to believe he managed to do it. – And how? I mean... – I fell silent again and saw everything clearly in my mind. – The coffee...

Victor finally looked at me.

– Diazepam – he replied shortly.

I stared into his chocolate eyes, and all the thoughts that had been swirling madly in my head since I woke up stopped, and a small figure with a white flag stepped into the middle of the chaos, waving it in surrender. It was simply incomprehensible.