Cassandra's Curse

Catch

I slowly blinked. It felt like pounds of pressure lay over my head, my breathing sharp and thin. My lungs slightly burned, and for a moment I thought I was underwater. Everything looked hazy, and considerably dream like. I couldn't have seen much even if I wanted to- everything around me was pitch black. I groaned and blinked again. The air in the space felt unpleasantly warm and cloudy. I'm in a small space. I reached out my legs and arms as far as they would go, which wasn't very far. My limbs had been crammed in unusual positions in order to fit in the tight space. I let out a groan as I attempted to move again. One of my shoulders made a loud popping noise.     I closed my eyes, listening to everything around me. There was a deep and familiar hum, but not much else I could quite make out. A light ringing filled the rest of the quiet spaces, the ones that would normally be empty of noise. The ringing was sharp and high pitched, making the ache in my head seem much worse. It reminded me of pure fear- yes, that's what the noise was. Something strange, and murky, and nebulous, something I could have almost convinced myself was not in fact the ringing of a concussion, but the singing of some demented, ancient entity, one that meant to cause me harm. Such an odd thought. Such a dumb thought.    I knew the sound was only the bells of a head injury, gained after the man hit me with the gun. But my childhood terrors and imagination were still running wild, and the noise still sounded like pure fear. 

I was a catch. I was taken. I was prey.

An abrupt movement made the small space rattle, causing me to let out a yelp. I think I'm in the trunk of a car. My head throbbed as I tried to recall what to do. Most thoughts were caught in that haze, like my mind was filled with spiderwebs and mist. After what felt like forever a thought escaped. I have to kick in the tail lights. I figured it would somehow help create an opening from the trunk, or at least alert other drivers of my captivity. I bashed my feet against the sides where I thought they might be. It was difficult to move in the small space, but I continued the best I could. Finally a loud cracking sound filled the stuffy warm air, a narrow patch of light creeping through. A small smile spread across my face.       I kicked and smashed at the dark around the light, more pieces breaking away. When a big enough hole had been made, I thrust my hand through and waved it around.           Without warning the crammed space jerked forwards and stopped moving. The rattling ceased. All was quiet but the ringing in my ears. The car had stopped. My eyes widened at the sound of a car door opening, followed by heavy footsteps. A muffled voice started from right outside, and quickly became clear as dim light flooded through the car trunk. "Hm." The man hummed and mumbled something else, but I couldn't tell what.   I blinked. The ringing seemed louder than ever, and the pain in my head grew worse. The light from outside the trunk was dim, and yet seemed so bright it hurt my eyes. It seemed, more than before, that I really was underwater. Or, perhaps not water, but something else. Perhaps more of a strange goo, all dark and foggy and far away feeling. Whether the water was real or not, I felt like I was drowning.                   "Still, it's happened before and I dealt with it just fine." I blinked again as the man spoke. His figure looked tall and menacing from the small space. It's just a man, I thought to myself. A simple man is all. It helped to remember that what I was facing was human. It was not the kind of thing- whatever those kind of things may be- that lurked in the darkness. It was not the kind of thing with sinister intentions- whatever the intent may be. It was not the kind of thing with patience- enough patience to wait, and wait, until the right wicked moment. Because even if he was the absolute embodiment of insanity, or a killer with malicious blood in his veins, he was human. Just human. And nothing else.                I bolted up, fiercely pushing the man over and jumping out of the car. The sky was colored pitch, with the occasional glimmer of stars. Walls of  evergreen trees stood on either side of the dark gravel road, all with dark skin and green capes over their branches. A Cheshire smile lingered high above the evergreens. I sprinted towards the line of trees- only to feel a tug on my hair. I let out a yelp as he pulled me back. His grip around my hair remained tight, and the pain in my head grew even worse.

"Ah, I should've restrained you. I guess I just figured you would stay unconscious until we get home." He chuckled. "My home, not yours. I really don't think you'll ever see your own home again." 

I tried to fight back but his grip made it difficult. "Help!" I yelled. The man stopped. I expected him to move, but he didn't. He just stood there, in the road by the old run down car, his grip still tight. "Fire!" I yelled again.        I screamed and shouted and yelled until my throat grew dry and my voice grew hoarse. I screamed as the man simply stood there, holding me. That made my panic grow even more. What does this mean? Why isn't he doing anything?!  I already knew the answer, but I didn't want to admit that to myself. Because if he wasn't doing anything to stop me from screaming, it meant he wasn't worried anyone would hear me. Where even are we? Are we still in the same town? Just outside the town?  The thoughts in my head were racing. Are there people near by? If there are people near by then why aren't they doing anything?!                  "Can anyone hear me?!" I screamed out again, although it hardly made a sound in my scratchy throat.

A sudden laugh bubbled from the man's throat. "You think there are other people out here?" He shook his head, grinning wide. "No one else is here but the ghosts. And let me tell you, dear, the dead ones won't do much to help you."

My eyes widened. The ghosts, the dead ones. He's killed people- lots of them, from the sound of it, and if I don't do something I'll be another ghost in the woods. I felt very cold and very stiff. "I don't know who you are." I said slowly. Talking hurt my throat. I knew it was stupid to try and reason with an unreasonable person, but I didn't know what else to do.  "If you just let me go I won't tell anyone. But don't do this. This is wrong."

The man rolled his eyes and tilted his head. "What, you think I don't know how wrong this is?" I didn't say anything, and he continued. "I know what I'm doing is evil. I know I am evil. But what does it matter, when so many other people are evil too? Sure, in a world full of wolves there is an occasional rabbit- after all, the wolves have to have prey- but there are far too many wolves in this world. Since there are so many- far, far  too many- then what does it matter when a few mangy, flea bitten, uncared for wolves die?" 

At first I thought he was telling some sick joke, talking about it like a kid's picture book. But the look in his eyes was dead serious. How can he say it like that? Like it's all just metaphors in some story? A sick feeling washed over me, and I fought the urge to gag.  How can he excuse what he does like it's nothing?           Something warm began to run down my cheeks, and my first thought was that I was bleeding, and warm sticky blood was streaming down my cheeks. But then I realized it wasn't blood, but tears. I was crying.  "Wh-What gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies? What gives you the right to play god?"

The man leaned down until his mouth brushed my ear. I shuddered. "Who says it's play?" He stood up straight again, staring down at me with the same wide grin. It reminded me of the Cheshire moon above us. I stared back at him. I don't know why. I would have loved to do anything else, but that was all I could muster to do. The man laughed again, louder this time. "What a catch you are." He dragged me back to the car trunk. I made as much noise as I could- I  thought my throat would bleed from the screaming, but I couldn't stop. I didn't know where he was taking me, and I hoped I would never have to find out. I whimpered, and yelled, and thrashed, and kicked, and punched, and yet it was all useless in the end. No one could hear me but the trees.      He tossed me inside and the darkness engulfed me. As I sat in the trunk, more tears swelling in my eyes and threatening to spill, I realized something. When I heard that laugh echo through the silent air, no other noise in the murky night but the ringing in my ears, it became all too clear to me. 

My captor was a man. 

My captor was human. 

But those things, the things that lurk in the dark, and hide and wait with sinister intentions. Those kinds of things- whether it's clear was they are or not. 

This man was all of those things.