Lost in the music's rhythm, I sang along, unaware of what my fate had in store. At 2:17 am, everything changed. A surge of agony coursed through my body as I lay curled up in my closet space, frozen with fear, in fear that they might discover my presence. I silently pleaded, desperately praying for some divine intervention.
- - - -
"NO! LET ME GO, PLEASE!" I shrieked, my voice torn by excruciating pain as the rugged man yanked me from my cramped closet. Regret pierced my thoughts like a thousand needles. If only I hadn't been so daring, if only I hadn't succumbed to the temptation of peering outside. But the glimpse I caught was fleeting, interrupted by the forceful swing of the closet door. Amidst all the chaos, my eyes fixated on something - a pendant dangling from the man's neck. A dog tag.
- - - -
As if one life-altering ordeal weren't enough, I found myself thrust into the shadows once more, ensnared in a place where my very soul recoiled. An instinctive surge of rebellion overtook me, and I sank my teeth into his arm, breaking free from his grip. My body propelled itself towards the door, desperate for salvation. "IN HERE! HELP ME, PLEASE!" I cried out to the men cloaked in darkness, FBI written on their caps in bold. My eyes locked with the piercing depths of his dark brown eyes. Despite the pain that seared through my body, I limped towards the threshold of hope. But before deliverance could embrace me, a wicked force severed my connection to salvation. The man behind me savagely slammed my head against the unforgiving wooden edge of the bed, making me surrender to the void.
- - - -
"My dear Delilah, In this awful world full of chaos, you are the melody that brings harmony to my tainted soul," he confessed, as he raised my hand to his mouth, planting a soft kiss on the inside of my wrist, a kiss that felt nothing less than a promise of eternity.