Where The Heart Takes Me

Chapter 1

Booming thunders and violent rain thrumming against the window panes pierced Keya's trance like state, jolting her back to consciousness. She came to lying on her side, her hands hugging her legs to her chest. Her limbs and back were stiff and sore from being in the same position for sixteen long hours. She sat up, her face cringing in pain. The ache in her body grew by the second; her stomach churned and she threw up several times on the floor beside the bed, as wave after wave of nausea hit her. Her insides felt like being pulled by cords that wouldn't let the churning end even after the vomiting stopped and she dry heaved for a minute or two. She moaned in pain and hugged her stomach that was assaulted by cramps. The pain in her head was unbearable as well.

With every ounce of will power in her body, she forced herself to concentrate on the surroundings instead of everything that was wrong with her body. Her eyes darted around. She blinked as the occasional lightning flashes briefly lit up the otherwise tenebrous room.

She recognized the room to be the bedroom in her husband Jana's guest house.

A shiver of sheer terror ran through her as she remembered the look on her husband's face when he'd lunged at her with a knife in his hand. In fact, that was the last thing that she remembered happening before waking up in this room; the rest was a blank. She panicked. Had Jana brought her to this isolated place to murder her? Was he around somewhere? Keya felt her throat constricting in terror. Fear clouded her perception of reality and she imagined hearing her husband's rage-filled voice ricochet off of all four walls of the room; she pressed her palms tightly against her ears in a futile attempt to shut him out.

Her body began to tremble. She felt cold; terribly cold. She realized that her body was as sapped as that of a mother who'd just given birth to a baby after a long, arduous labor.

What's happening to me? How long have I been here? What's the time now?

She slid her right palm off her ear, quickly jammed her shoulder against it and brought her hand close to her face. She peered through the darkness; she wasn't wearing a watch. She dragged her hand along the bed until she found her handbag on the edge of the bed. She yanked at it but its strap was tangled with something. She dragged her body to the edge of the bed. With fingers that felt numb, she reached into her bag and dug out her cell phone-the battery was almost dead. She gasped on seeing the date and time on the screen.

I've lost a day! How?

Without wasting another second, she dialed her mother's number but before her mother could answer, the phone slid out of her hand; her entire body went rigid, her eyes became glazed and her limp form met the floor in a cruel drop.