Dead Connections

Chapter 1 - Abducted

Chapter 1

Death: It’s a mysterious thing. It’s a ghost that lurks around every corner, a witch watching over you over your shoulder, a demon that takes your future from you. No one knows what truly happens when you die.

Some people believe in heaven and hell, some people believe in reincarnation, and some people believe in nothing. I was one of the non-believers. I thought that when I would die there would be nothing. I thought that all that happened is that you died. Your body rots and you’re just… gone. You’re there one moment, and the next you are not.

But now. Now everything has changed. Everything changed when I died.

Darkness consumed me, stretching out in every direction, filling every corner, devouring every spot in sight.

I couldn’t see a thing, even though my blind fold had been ripped off just minutes ago. I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. I hadn’t done anything wrong and yet nothing could get worse than this.

I tugged at the ropes holding back my hands and feet, fighting the tears threatening to creep out of my large sorrowful eyes. My heart was beating so fast that it felt like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode.

I couldn’t hold back the whimpers of fright and confusion. I didn’t know where I was. I had been pulled away from everything I knew, and now I was in the back of a plain white van, driving towards the feared unknown.

‘I’m gonna die,’ was the first thought that jammed its way into my panicked mind. I knew how things worked. Having heard one too many kidnapping stories I knew exactly how things would play out; the kidnapper would take me somewhere dark and unknown, away from anyone or anything that I loved. He’d beat me, hurt me, put me through hours and hours of pain and torture, then, when he became bored, he’d kill me! He’d murder me, hiding my corpse somewhere that no one would ever find me.

I couldn’t control myself. My whimpering got louder. The tears got heavier, trickling down my red cheeks and dropping onto my tattered clothes.

What were my parents thinking? Had they phoned the police? What had they told my twin brother, Zack? I could imagine my mum, pacing anxiously across the room, ringing her hands in fear and anxiety muttering over and over again 'Where is she? Where is she?'. My dad would be stood ridged next to the phone, drumming his fingers on the thick wooden table and biting his lip: a trait he’d passed onto me. He would have been the one to phone the police if any of them had, screaming and crying at them to find me, but that's the thing... Did they phone yet? Do they know I'm missing? It wasn't like I was always home on time. Yeah, I liked to stay out late with friends, it wasn't unusual to show up back home an hour or two late.

The van I’d been stuffed into took a sharp turn. Several unknown items collided with me, and I fell on my side, pain shooting up through my bony thin arms. I couldn’t scream. I wish I could but I had a gag in my mouth preventing me from doing so.

My eyes were sore from desperately trying to identify my surroundings, trying to look into the blackness to see if there was anything that I could use to get myself out. It was too dark though, so the only things I had to go on were the sounds, smells, and feelings.

I could smell burning petrol, as it was expelled out of the back of the speeding van: The van I was trapped inside of. I could smell my own salty tears, hot and fresh, as well as the blood trickling down my bruised face.

I could hear the vans engine, and the murmur of two people talking in the front. They were talking loudly and aggressively, as if arguing or sharing a joke, but they weren’t quite loud enough to make out what they were saying.