The Pandemic

Chapter Eight

I heard Nala whimpering next to me, she must need to go to the bathroom. My attempts to sit up were cut short as my body jolted back towards the bed. After coming to the realization of what had happened, realizing it wasn't just a sick dream my body came to its senses.

The 'bed' was hard and cold against my body. The room was dark, but I hear chains in the room as I tried to sit up again miserably failing. As my eyes adjust to the darkness of the room I look around.

I must be in a basement, brick walls surround me and the smell of dirt fills my nose. I felt something pressed against my wrist and ankles, handcuffs? As I raise my arm the chains become louder and echo through the small room.

I start screaming, but I hear nothing except my voice ricocheting off of the walls. I try to steady my breathing or I'm going to hyperventilate, it seems so useless. I start to hear footsteps in the distance and my heart speeds up.

The once dark room lights up as I hear a door creak open. My eyes finally adjust to the light and I notice steps in front of me leading up to two steel rusty double doors and man standing directly in between them.

My eyes scan around the room, I'm definitely in a basement. There's multiple televisions around the room, but all have black screens. There is a long black desk at the foot of my 'bed' which now I have come to the realization it's just a table with a blanket over it.

The man slowly walks down the stairs as if he's taunting me. Each step he takes I can feel my heart beat inside my chest.

"Hello Alexis." His voice was very deep and menacing.  He reached into his pocket and at that moment I was accepting my death. To my surprise he pulled out a small remote. With one touch of a button all the TV screens lit up.

My eyes went back and forth in between each screen. The rooms on the screens looked oddly familiar, as I took a closer look I realized it was my apartment. Each screen had a different room in my apartment and it even had the doorbell camera I had set up set on one of the tv's.

"Who are you?" The words left my mouth before I could stop them. I don't want to show my fear, that shows weakness. "My boyfriend and I have a date tomorrow, he will wonder where I am. My mom calls everyday at 2, I promise you I'm not the person you want. I have a lot of people who care for me and they will find me." I basically screamed. All I could see were his eyes, the rest of his face was covered by a surgical mask.

His tall body slowly made its way over to the table I was laying on. He sat down once he reached the table and his eyes traveled across my body. I felt so exposed even though I was fully dressed. I kept looking around the room to avoid making eye contact with the man. There were random pictures hung up on the walls, pictures of me.

As I inspected each picture I thought about the day each of them were taken. The day I went and got dog food and the screws for my door, there were pictures of me walking out to my car. Pictures of me at the outlook. Pictures of me at Dairy Queen. Pictures of me at Ella's. The walls were filled of random pictures of me.

As I kept looking one in particular caught my eye. I was in my bedroom, naked. It was the night Nala ran away and came back, it was from her perspective. From the collar. My body jolted forward as I felt the food in my stomach come up, my body was now covered in my own vomit. He flinched away as I vomited, but continued to watch me. He walked around the room and grabbed a towel and some raggedy clothes.

He ran the towel up and down my body "cleaning" the vomit off. It was his nasty way to feel me up. I squirmed around violently trying to remove his hands from my body, but my actions failed me causing him to touch me harder with more aggression.

"You don't have to worry about your people, I promise you they won't know you're gone." He said as he got up and walked out of the small room I felt caged in. He shut the double doors behind him and I was stuck in complete darkness only to be accompanied by my thoughts.