The Wheel

10. Emma

Hearing me talking, all the other guys, who were in that dark glass room, woke up. I hear the questions 'Where am I?', 'What's going on?', 'What the hell?', 'What am I wearing?'.

I'm scared so I'm trying to breathe deeply and say a prayer inwardly. David comes closer to me and hugs me. Thank God, I'm not alone in here!

"It's okay, Emma," he said affectionately.

I'm looking around the room we are in – it's unlikely we are in Chris' house. Although maybe it's some secret place? Chris' country house is so big that it might be true... theoretically. Or perhaps it's a prank? Miguel loves that kind of things. But how did we get here? Why are we wearing completely different clothes? Have we been invited to some sort of a formal event? Okay, what is the last thing I remember? Chris was giving the speech; he was thanking everyone for coming. Then everybody raised their glasses, except for me, because I don't drink alcohol. Then Veronica suggested taking a photo: she took out her selfie stick, put her phone in it, started to count down, pressed the button, and then... it went blank. I can't remember anything! Nothing at all!

"Veronica?" asked Sam, getting closer to his girlfriend. "Are you okay?"

He began to hug and comfort her, because he knows that Veronica tends to panic when something out of the ordinary happens.

"What the hell?" Mike yelled, disgruntled. "Chris, did you bring us here?!"

"What an interesting and mysterious place," Miguel said joyfully, "a small cubical room, made of square black pieces of glass the size of a standard TV screen. Perhaps, these are the screens like those from an episode of 'Black Mirror'?

How can Miguel be so calm in this situation? What if it's his idea to drag us all in here? But how did he do that?

"You are having fun, aren't you?!" Mike asked Miguel discontentedly. "Is it one of you pranks, slink?"

"Stop blaming everyone around you, Mike," Kate growled in a drunken voice. "It looks like you are trying to throw off suspicion. You decided to have a secret orgy and kidnapped us?" she started laughing. "Hey, Miguel, do you have your camera on you? Mike would really need it!"

I'm trying to understand what's going on. It's a strange feeling – like all of this is not real! We are in a room, dressed like we are about to attend a ball, and asking questions we don't know the answers for.

"What did you say?" Mike asked angrily. "Are you out of your mind?"

"I'm just kidding," she said in defense, "you're just so funny, when you're angry. As a matter of fact, you're always funny."

"Say it again and I'll punch you!" he raised his voice.

"Hey, Mike, what the hell?" Chris started defending his girlfriend.

I don't understand! I don't understand anything!

"And you, boaster, don't piss me off," the boxer threatened.

"And you don't lash out at everyone!" Chris added fuel to the fire.

"Guys, stop it, please!" I screamed with difficulty.

The room got quiet and I felt a little relieved.

"We are all afraid and some are still drunk. Let's take a deep breath," I began calming everyone down, including myself.

Mike looked at me angrily.

"Please," I asked him quietly.

He rolled his eyes, but still did as I said.

"Guys, we are all in this together, so it's alright," Chris said. "Maybe someone has any idea how we got here?"

"Why are we dressed like we are going to the party with a special dress code?" Veronica asked, looking over her long empire-waist black dress. "Whose clothes are these? And the shoes?"

None of us said anything: looks like we were really kidnapped, and we are definitely not in Chris' house! We had a lot of questions and almost no answers. The only thing that made me feel better is that my group mates were with me.

"I like it," Kate said, amused. She was wearing a black vest, white blouse and light-colored pants. "But I'd rather wear high-heeled sandals, not these pumps.

In spite of a little difference between our clothes, we couldn't say the same about our shoes: Kate, Veronica and I were wearing pumps with low heels that had different colors; and the guys were wearing completely the same classic black shoes.

What's it all about?