Trapped Where There Ain't No Future

11

I closed my eyes and Spot started playing with the hair on the top of my head with his other hand. And for a brief moment all was right.

*****************************************************************************

I strolled out of Tibby's happily, nearly skipping down the road. There was a newbie at work, a waitressing girl probably a little younger than me, so now I was allowed weekends off. Weekends off with no pay reduction. Tibby's was doing well, no doubt about that. There was a customer in the store nearly all the time. And I was going to meet Spot at the Lodging House, and then we were going to go to Coney Island! I had never been, and I was thrilled that Spot wanted to take me.
It had been almost a month since the incident with the Delancy's, and I hadn't seen them since. Which I wasn't losing any sleep over. I still carried around a knife (a new one, since my old one had vanished in the alleyway), hidden in the pocket of my dress, with an extra one-smaller-in my boot. Just in case the Delancy's show up again, I'll be ready. I thought, patting my pocket and nodding, a proud smile on my face. Jack and Spot had been training me to fight in a dress, with help from Em and Buttons, who had already figured out some tips. So if anybody came around, I was ready. I thought.

Then it happened. An arm shot out from an alleyway as I passed too close, dragging me in. I saw a flash of an unfamiliar face, which threw me for a loop, since I was expecting the Delancy brothers. Then something blunt hit my head. The last thing I thought was, Aw, I wanted to see Sea Lion Park. Before everything went black.

*****************************************************************************

My head hurt. But hurting meant I was alive. I tried to look around, but saw only darkness. I felt bile rising up in my throat before I realized there was a blindfold over my eyes, a thick coarse fabric tied around the back of my head. That was good at least. I wasn't blind. I swallowed the sick feeling back down into my stomach. I couldn't throw up now, especially since there was a rag stuffed in my mouth. Instinctively I reached up to pull it out of my mouth, but my hands were restrained. I fought to calm my panicked breathing. Think, Eva. What was the situation?

Alright. My hands are tied, my ankles are too. My head hurts. I am blindfolded and gagged. I'm laying on something hard, it feels like concrete or brick. A floor of some kind. I don't know where I am. More importantly, nobody else knows where I am. Besides who put me here. Too many negatives. Think of something positive. Spot will know something's wrong if I don't show up soon.

"She's awake." A voice cut me off from my train of thought, and a hard boot kicked me in the leg.

"Sit 'er up." Another voice. Both were boys. I was hauled into a sitting position none too gently, my tied ankles stretching out in front of me and my hands close to the floor, tied by a rope that was threaded through a metal ring sunken into the floor. My back rested against a wall. The blindfold was whipped off my head, and I blinked my eyes at the brightness of the lamp brought near to my face. My eyes quickly adjusted and I squinted beyond the lamp to the two boys behind it. One was the boy who had clubbed me in the alley. But one... the memory tickled at me like the faintest breeze, stirring the dust from the corners of my mind. I racked my brain, checking everywhere I could, but my head still hurt and I couldn't figure out who he was.

"Recognize me?" the boy leered, and I shook my head. Bad idea. It made the throbbing worse. The boy glowered at me, obviously upset by my answer.

"Whadda we do wit' 'er now?" asked the boy who had knocked me out.

"Shuddup, will ya?" hissed the other boy before turning to me. "A'right, Eva. I'll tell ya. Ise Fox. Da name ringin' any bells?"

I shook my head again, softer this time to try to dull the ache. The name had no significance whatever to me. I studied the boy again. Nothing.