A New Generation of Pan

Chapter Two

When I came to, all I could see was a suffocating darkness. For a split second, I believed that the bump to my head had thrust me into the darkened world of blindness.

Then, I felt something slide across my face. It took me only a moment to realize that the shadowy gloom was caused by a strip of dark, extremely itchy fabric. It stretched across my eyes and most of my upper face, effectively blocked my world from me.

A harsh buzzing rang throughout my ears and hammered in tune with my throbbing headache. It pulsed above all other noises and took priority within my mind.

The panic started to set in, stark and bleak. My heart rate sped up until it was pounding a throbbing beat against my rib cage.

Had I been kidnapped?

My breath shortened into sparse gasps as I tried desperately to focus on my mysterious surroundings. Why had this happened?

When my hearing finally cleared of that insistent ringing, I heard several masculine voices encircling me. Their voices were gruff as they crudely laughed back and forth.

They weren't speaking any language that I could recognize. Their accents didn't even sound remotely familiar!

Great! Not only had I been kidnapped, but it was by people I couldn't even begin to communicate with! There was no hope of talking my way out of this one.

My future looked harsh and unappealing in the distance ahead of me.

My mind raced as twenty unsavory scenarios about mafias, gangs, and killers crowded around my thinking space. My panic skyrocketed.

But one thought remained clear among the jumbled up mess. I had to get free! No matter what happened, to stay alive, I had to break away. No matter the cost.

I quickly tried to move, silently at first so that I didn't alert my captors to my struggle and awareness. I didn't want to attract any more attention than I already had.

Nothing happened.

So, the next time I yanked a little harder, a little more frantic as I unsuccessfully tried to break my limbs free.

Still, nothing happened.

Then it hit me all at once. Horrible sensations flooded along my body as my headache redoubled its intense efforts of pain.

My limbs felt like they were weighed down with lead balls and forced to swim through water for hours. There was a raw burning sting around my wrists and ankles from what I assumed was rope. I could feel crusted blood gathering around the bonding.

My neck felt like I had been sitting in one position for far too long and then forced to suffer in that same position for even longer. My throat was aching in a desperate, unquenchable thirst for water, and my eyes felt like they had been set alight in the hottest of deserts. No amount of tears would wash away the pain.

But none of that mattered as much as the realization that it was a rope that had me bound so helplessly. A rope was easier to break than chains or metal wire. There was hope yet.

And through all this discomfort and suffering, I learned almost nothing about my captors or my whereabouts. I sat quietly, trying to squelch the pain and just...focus.

All my battered senses could make out was a horrifically foul smell that seemed to burn as it made its way to my lungs. A cool darkness of shade was being cast over me, leaving me shivering in my cotton pajamas, and a gentle but extremely persistent sound that I couldn't quite place.

***

A few hours later, when I finally felt the sun warm on my back, two foreigners approached me. It was the first time any had dared to come even remotely close to my small form.