Torture

From the Beginning

When they first got me, they tricked me by using Kai. I was living my first life, still estranged to what I was at that point. I was a 21 year old living in Los Angeles, pursuing a career in law, but like many 20 somethings in LA, I was broke. I was working odd jobs while taking a year off before law school, then a waitress at a beach seafood restaurant called Buster's. It was a normal day when a man who looked about my age walked in by himself. 

"How many would you like a table for?" I asked. I stumbled a little out of nervousness because he was so cute. He had a light tan and flawless skin complexion, almost black hair, and light brown eyes. The curve of his lips and his beautiful smile caught me off guard at first. 

"Oh, no table for me. I actually saw you as I was walking by and couldn't stop myself from at least introducing myself. You are incredibly beautiful. My name is Kai." 

He put out his hand to shake and I took it reluctantly. Had it been anyone else, I would have thought this was weird or uncomfortable, but in a crazy way, this felt right.

"Oh, thank you. I'm Kat." I smiled and directed to my nametag, not sure what to do next. 

"Do you maybe have a break soon? I'd love to take you to dinner or something." He smiled again with that wide smile. He really was charming. 

I wasn't thrilled with being hit on by a stranger, but he was a really cute stranger and I had been down on my luck lately. 

"I'm actually off in about 30 minutes." I glanced down at my watch to make sure of the time. 

"Great. I'll be back here then. I look forward to it." And suddenly, so did I. 

He was outside the restaurant the minute I clocked out, big smile and all. I had a good feeling about it at the time. He made me nervous. We walked a bit along the boardwalk to an ice cream shop and stepped inside. After we ate and talked for about an hour, I was really into him. Besides a few particularly weird questions he asked, he seemed perfect. 

"Have you ever had any near death experiences?" He asked.

"No, I don't think so. Thank god, right?" I laughed. This is when things started getting weird. 

"So you don't have any children?"

My face twisted in confusion at the wording of the question.

"No..." I checked my watch and decided maybe now was a good time to go. 

"I think I'm going to head home now, but it was so nice to meet you Kai." I started to get up and grab my purse. 

"Oh, okay, yeah. It was nice to meet you, too. Let me walk you to your car."

"Oh that's okay, you don't have to do that." Maybe he wasn't so bad, but the last few questions weirded me out. 

"I insist." He smiled that charming smile, and I figured it would be fine. He was walking me to my car, not taking me home. 

I nodded and we got up. We were pretty quiet during the walk, I think we were mostly enjoying the scenery of the beach. 

"Well, this is me." I half expected him to ask me for my number or kiss me even, but he just stared at me. After a few seconds I squeezed a smile out and went towards my car door. 

"Hey," he grabbed my arm, "I'm sorry." The look in his eyes and the seriousness in his voice sent shivers up my spine. A white van pulled up, screeching on the breaks in front of us, and three people got out dressed all in black. The rest happened so fast. I didn't even have time to scream before one of them put a towel around my mouth and everything went black. 

Later, Kai told me that they thought I knew what I was, that it was all supposed to go according to plan, but since I didn't know, it made everything that followed that much worse. And trust me, it got worse.