The Riddle of Enigmas - The Mentalist

Chapter 2

Chapter 2
Teresa Lisbon

I feel uncomfortable. Everything is so cold and the air is thick making it extremely hard to breath. The headache I’m suffering right now is so painful I can’t even open my eyes. I try to move my hand in order to check to see if I have a fever or something, when I realize I can’t. Something is holding it back. I groan and flip over onto my back and that’s when my eyes finally open. I can’t see much, no more than gray, dark blurs, but I do feel the concrete smash against my cheek. That's when it comes to me; the memory, or lack of, of the events that had occurred last night. I was supposed to leave the FBI to meet with Jane. Did I ever leave the FBI? 

I roll on my back once again and manage to maneuver myself into sitting position, back against the cold dusty wall. My eyes are still failing but I’m clever enough to know that I’d been hit on the head, that my hands are tied up and that clearly I had been kidnapped. 

Okay, Teresa, you’re whole training has prepared you for this day, you are the victim now. 

My headache is so hard I can’t really concentrate. I sigh, close my eyes and try to relax a little... My heartbeat is increasing and I know if I start to get nervous I might suffer a panic attack and that won’t do me any good. 

Head lying back on the wall I think about what I should do. First I know I need to try and find out where the heck I am. I wriggle my hands to my back pocket... My cell phone and gun had been taken away, of course.

The coldness of the wall helps me a little with my headache but I decide to keep my eyes shut until I manage to figure out a plan. 

A phone starts ringing. Okay, I’m in a house. Probably in a basement because I think I caught sight of a thin strip of light, bouncing on each step of a staircase. However I can't be sure, it may have just been a flashing brightness due to my increasingly heavy headache.

Wait, that phone is ringing too loud to be in another room. 

I open my eyes widely, it’s here, there’s a phone in this room. 

I start moving myself against the wall till I manage to shuffle to standing up. I prick up my ears, and start searching in the room. My eyes are still blurry but I’m able to distinguish things. There are lot of boxes, papers, dusty things, a broken TV, a pool table, some broken glasses and the phone! As I try to clear a small path through the boxes I knock a vase from the top of a pile of comic books and it smashes on the floor. I freeze and wait quietly but it doesn't seem to have disturbed anyone. I’m about to search for something that I can use to untie my hands but I hear a thump and then a grunt, quickly followed by the sound of the door opening.

With all my strength I run to where I was before and sit down, pretending to be unconscious, eyes closed and head down. 

"Hey, you little bitch, wake up. I brought you some company," a strong husky voice says. It sound familiar but I still pretend to be unconscious.
"Don’t be rude! Didn’t your mother teach you to always say hello?" He says and kicks me with his foot in my right leg, hard enough to make me open my eyes. Shit, I know this guy. Cho and I had sent him to jail for stalking and attempted murder 10 years ago. He swore vengeance on us. I look directly at him but my eyes go to the man beside him, Cho. We both look at each other for less than 2 seconds. I can see he's dizzy but that little glance was enough to know we are together in this.

A second later the man throws an almost unconscious Cho against the wall, making him lie down on the floor. He starts trying to softly sit down.

"Yeah, I’m gonna have a little chit chat with this slut here, so I want you, Chinese, to shut up okay?" The man sticks a strip of duck tape on Cho’s mouth, harder than needed. 

Cho tries to defend himself but like me, he has his hands tied up.

The man lets out a diabolic laugh and then walks towards me.

"What am I gonna do with you, huh?" He kneels a little closer to me than needed. He places a dusty hand on my chin, raising it up sharply.
"I never thought I’d have you all to myself…. Hmm, you are brunette like Miranda... Maybe I should kill you the same way I did with her?" 

He starts leaning closer to me, I can feel his breath unpleasantly tickle my ear. 

"Or maybe I should save you for myself?.." He says, his breath on my neck. I close my eyes, trying not to pay attention to it, when I feel his tongue licking just below my earlobe. 

Okay, that’s it. I promptly raise my knee, hitting him right in the chest.

He leans back and looks at me angrily. 

"You stubborn bitch!!!" He shouts, before slapping me sharply across the face, my headache increasing even more... I need to close my eyes otherwise I’m going to black out again, and for Cho, I need to be as conscious as possible.