stolen from sleep.

2

I pull myself from the heaviness that is swirling around me, in me. My eyes open cautiously, but I'm greeted by darkness again. My heart begins to gallop as I remember what had happened before I was drugged? No, that couldn't be right. I fell asleep in my bed, didn't I? I just had a nightmare, they happen often since the divorce. As my eyes finish adjusting to the black space I know I'm not in my room.

      Grey walls surround me on all four sides and the smell of metal and rot sting my nostrils. I can see metal piping running up the walls, and the only color in the room is the smear of blood on the floor.

      I feel a roughness circling my wrist and ankles, rope. I struggle against them, the ropes chaffing my skin, rubbing them raw. Then a voice stills me.

     "Ah, sleeping beauty, you're awake." The voice drawls, confirming this in fact, not a dream. I remain silent, a slight hum sounds from the ceiling.

      "Chloe. Chloe. Chloe," my hands are shaking, and I press them against the metal of the chair, willing myself to seem calm, unafraid. "I'm so glad I get to meet you."

      The voice, and the humming, cease. I try to look around for anything, anyway to get out of here, to escape, but there's nothing except gray. I hear a slight creak sound behind me, a door?

      I see him as he enters my peripheral vision, the man from the parking lot. He steps slowly towards me, eyes trailing my face, my body, as if sizing up his prey. As he steps in front of me, it's the first good look I get of him. By the looks of it he is taller and built bigger, and stronger, than me, but doesn't look much older. His dark hair falls over his eyes, and calculating green eye search me. As he comes closer, he trails his hand down my cheek bone, and over the bruise he gave me earlier. I wince.

     "What I pretty face, much nicer than the last I had, if only it weren't marred," his hand lingers over my cheekbone, a throbbing ache pulsing there. "You take after your mother it seems."

      I intake a sharp breath, my stomach flutters as it rises in my throat, threatening to upheave itself. Not mom, not the baby.

     "Settle yourself, Chloe. I had no use for a mother or her unborn child," he whispers in my ear, enunciating each syllable.

  "Settle myself?" The rage that courses through my rips my self control apart and I lunge forward, only gaining a few inches before the ropes pull taut. He sneers down at me, his teeth flashing.

     "You're a lively one, aren't you? Well, for now anyway," he chuckles softly and begins to reach for me again. I manage to collect a wad of saliva in the mouth, despite its dryness, and spit it at his face. It lands right below his left eye. His smile disappears, but the calculating glint remains in his eyes. With one finger he wipes away my spit, then he turn and walks away. I hear the slight creak again, and then silence.

-

    Time doesn't register here. The same shade of grey remains, and there is no way to tell whether the sun is shining or if the moon has taken over the sky yet.

      I spend my time wringing my limbs against my restraints, but it only results in raw, bloodied skin. I am searching the room with my eyes once again, trying to spot any missed clues, when the humming noise returns. My whole body stiffens as I wait for the voice, his voice.

     At first he just does nothing except breathe, it then turns into a quiet laughter.

    "Oh, Chloe, you really should learn to control yourself," his voice broken slightly through the speaker, but I hear his next words clearly. "It's time for your first punishment."

   I wait, a moment passing, before it begins.

     Currents of electricity course through my veins, my blood, my bones. My chest is contracting, I can't breath, is it because I'm screaming? I really don't know, the pain is too much. A headache punches through my skull as my vision bursts into white. My pores are leaking out the last bit of moisture in my body, and I'm cold despite the heat. My muscles are contracting and seizing violently. I'm drooling and I think my bladder released its contents, my body no longer in my control.

    This goes on, and on, and just when I think I'm going to pass out . . it stops. The shocks cease and my body limps against the chair, completely numb.

    Then the humming returns, I expect to hear him speak, but instead a mist falls over me. I try to look up, to find the source, but I can't move and it's so dark. My eyes begin to burn. I attempt to take a deep breath to try to relieve my dry mouth, but it only made my throat sting too, traveling down into my chest wall. I gag, but nothing comes up, and no breath will come in. I feel my throat swell.

    The last thing I think about is my unborn sister, and how I'll never get to meet her.