Taken

Shocked

I am walking along a dark street, wheeling my bike beside me. Then the hands grab me. I kick and scream, but no one can hear. My attackers have no features.

My eyes flash open, and someone is in front of me. It's Nick. He looks in my eyes with worry, his brows knitting themselves together. "What? What happened?"

"Just a nightmare." Sighing deeply, I adjust my position in the chair. My voice has become gritty and rough with disuse. I look at him. "What are you doing?" I haven't seen him since he defended me last week. He must go elsewhere during the day.

"You need to come with me. Quickly." He walks around to the back of the chair. I can feel his hands fumbling with the knot.

After a few minutes of him struggling with the ties behind me, the ropes around my body finally come loose. He returns in front of me and offers me his hand. I stare at it warily, my eyes searching his face for any signs of dishonesty. Detecting none, I slowly grab his hand and he helps me up.

As I stand fully for the fist time in weeks, my legs turn to Jell-o. My knees give way beneath me and I almost sit down again. But Nick slings my arm around his shoulders and supports most of my weight with his arm.

We walk over to the little door in the wall. Nick slips a small key from his pocket into the lock, turns it, and pulls open the door. He leads me through it and out into the chilly night air.

The sky is so black, so devoid of light, that I can't see two feet in front of my face. Nick must have thought of this, because he clicks on a small penlight. The tiny beam of light streams out in front of us.

Nick hurries me over to a clump of overgrown bushes and shines the penlight on a hole that goes through the branches.

A hole just about big enough for me.

He doesn't dare speak, but he gestures to the hole. I look at him with wide eyes, and he just nods. So I begin to climb through the hole, trying to make as little sound as possible.

Which completely fails. Every twig that snags on to my shirt is like thunder, and every breath is a windstorm. Anyone even remotely close to us will hear us.

After moving several feet forward, I hear Nick entering the hole. He crawls behind me. The hole is a tight fit for me, so I can imagine what it must be like for him.

We press on. It seems like this tunnel through the bushes is never ending, but then I see a small, rectangular outline on the side of the building next to the bushes.

A door.

I push on the rectangle, and it moves. I push harder, shoving my whole weight onto the wall. The block finally gives way, and I pull myself through the little space, into a room.

Kneeling on the floor of this room, I stop and rest for a moment, breathing hard. Then I get to my feet.

What I see returns me to my knees.