Wild Card

Chapter 3 | Claire

A manly voice tells me to close the door behind me. I do so and turn around to face him. He's about the same age as the woman who called me in. He has short brown hair, turning slightly white, strong and hard features, bushy eyebrows and small eyes who look as if they will kill you right there. He starts telling me to sit down on a chair, to make myself comfortable, all those things people say when they meet someone new. He asks me questions about myself, my family, my hobbies, until I feel as if he has known me for years. He then tells me to get up and strip down to what I'm comfortable to show him.

"What? No! I'm not showing you my body. I have questions too! What does this tattoo mean? Who are you? Why did you kidnap us? What do the other girl's tattoos mean? And, most importantly, why do you want me to strip down to my underwear in front of you?"
"One question at a time, Claire."
"How do you know my name?"
"I'll start with the first one. Your tattoo means that you're the Wild Card, the one that I did not pick."
"So let me guess, you chose the other girls, so P for Picked. I'm guessing H for Hand, because you hand-picked them."
"Josh was not wrong, you are very smart."
"I was going to be an Honor Roll student before you kidnapped me. And who's Josh?"
"Moving on. You girls are here to compete for to be my son's future wife. He's Josh."
"So you know my name because you needed info on how I could be a possible contestant."
"Exactly. I need to see your body so I know if you have any sicknesses that could harm people around you, if we need to heal wounds and know what Josh sees in you."
"Oh, okay." I still don't like the sound of this.

I take off my polo, my uniform pants and my socks. He looks at me, surprised. I'm guessing that the other girls were naked in front of him. Gross. He asks me to lift up my hair, because it hides my entire back. Happily I waxed my armpits yesterday.

"Tell me, why do you have little zits on your back and your chest?"
"Oh, um, I'm a lifeguard and when I'm not yelling at people to stop running around the pool, I spend a lot of time doing laps almost every day. In the water, there can be a virus that infects your skin and makes little or big zits. It's contagious."
"Thank you. That also explains how fit you are."

It's true. I have abs and they are nice and hard. That's how they're supposed to be. My arms also have thin, but strong, muscles. My legs aren't weak either. I'm not in a pitiful shape and that's why a lot of people are scared of me sometimes. I can take advantage of that too much at times.

"And the bruise on your stomach?"
"Oh, you didn't give me a high enough dose of chloroform to drug me," I say, glaring at him. "So I woke up in the truck and while I was being violently thrown around, I had enough of pretending to sleep so I head-bumped Bob in the jaw. He then dropped me. I tried to get away, but he kicked me in the stomach. Dave then arrived with a syringe and injected more drugs in my veins."
"So you're a fighter."
"I was planning to beat you up the second I got in."
"Okay, so try to punch me. I dare you."

I spread my arms wide, as if I wanted to hug him.

"Why would I do that? You clearly have the upper hand and you could easily dominate me."

I step closer to him at every sentence. He pulls up a small remote and presses the only button on it. Immediately, my arms are stuck together.

"Oh, very smart, putting on some magnetic cuffs on me while I was drugged. So I'm guessing that the remote activates the magnetic field in between the two. Snarky."

He presses the button again, releasing my arms. I'm guessing he won't talk to me anymore.

"My work here is done. I will let you meet Josh, because he is the reason that you're here. Oh, and by the way, you will keep on the magnetic cuffs until you are able to not be violent anymore."
"Then I'll keep them forever."
"One last thing, if he touches you, you let him without a second thought. If only he tries to kiss you on the lips or tries to get you in bed, those are the only times that you can push him away."

Without another word, he turns around and calls in his son.