You Killed Him

Captive

I lifted my head slowly as I felt the strain in my stiff neck. I attempted to support my neck with my hand and that was when I realized that I couldn’t move my hands. I blinked hard a few times. “Where am I? How did I get here?” I asked myself. My hands were strapped to the arms of an old wooden chair. I started twisting and turning my forearm but the ropes around my wrists didn’t loosen but instead, it felt like the friction was burning my skin. “Déjà vu”, I muttered to myself as I recalled my recent dreams. Dreams, or nightmares, don’t repeat, do they?

I was in an empty room that looked like it was part of an abandoned warehouse. The room seemed to be underground. “Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no. What if I’m in the basement of an old house where no one would ever find me?” I cried out mentally. There was only one small window but I couldn’t see outside because there was a dirty rag hanging in front of it, presumably a ‘curtain’. “It’s okay”, I said to myself, “Colin will find me. He can track my ----“. I lost hope when I realized that the pocket of my jeans wasn’t stretched and I couldn’t feel anything against my thighs. I didn’t have my phone with me. “Okay, plan B. I have a plan B. everyone has a plan B.”, I repeated in my mind, trying to think of ways to escape.

Then, I heard the faint sound of a door closing, which must have been from the room above, followed by the shuffling of footsteps down a flight of stairs. Shortly after, the door behind me creaked open. “Finally! You’ve been asleep for almost one whole day”, the man laughed as he made his way in front of me. He didn’t look familiar to me. “Well maybe it’s because you drugged me, you cantankerous old man. So why don’t you set me free and we can both continue our lives without one of us being harmed, that one being you”, I answered back. It probably wasn’t the smartest decision I made. But it was too late to back down now. “Firstly, I am not old. And secondly, why would I do that?” he scoffed. “Look, mister. Do you know who my father is? You’re going to be in big trouble if he finds me. I mean, when he finds me”, I replied. “Pfft. It’s because we know who your father is, Kayla. And him coming to find you is exactly what we want”, he said, grinning like a villain, as he walked away and exited the room.

“Wait! Who’s we?” I asked but there was no answer. I was the only one in the room again but this time, it felt much less of a dream. So, I did I thought any person would do in my situation – scream. I was shouting at the top of my lungs, hoping that any passerby would hear my cries for help and call the police or something. And in the midst of that, I thought to myself, “If anyone hears me, they better not come in to investigate because that’ll probably mean another person tied to a chair like this.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, Kayla, shh”, said the person entering the room. It was a familiar voice. “Oh my gosh Colin, is that you?” I asked, my eyes widening as I turned my head to look. The guy was wearing a pair of black Converse sneakers, denim jeans and a red hoodie with the number 91 on it. “Hey”, he said with a subtle smile, “Keep your voice down, okay?”

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you. You need to get me out of this”, I said, gesturing to the ropes on my wrists, “Quick, before the creepy guy comes back!” Colin just stood in the corner of the room, avoiding eye contact. Why wasn’t he helping me escape? Was he paralyzed? “Hello? Did you hear me? You didn’t just get a heart attack or a stroke, right?”

Then, he looked me straight in the eyes with an emotionless face without saying a word. Something was definitely different with him. After a few minutes of silence and exhausting brainstorming, I finally came to a conclusion. “How did you find me, Colin?” I asked slowly, without the intention of knowing, “You’re not here to rescue me, aren’t you?”

“Look, Kayla, everything’s going to be fine. Just a few more hours, think you can do that for me?” he asked as he did a half-squat-half-sit in front of me. And that was when my world came crashing down. My emotions were messed up and at that moment, my mind went blank. I was literally a statue for a few seconds until all hell broke loose.