Eve lay in bed still fully clothed and stared up at the ceiling. It was approaching midnight and she had been home for around two hours. She had missed the great party, she had broken her own promise to herself to begin her year in the most fabulous way possible, but how could she have carried on after what she had seen?
On her way back in the cab she had debated asking the driver to drop her off at a police station… but she had known the second she had seen those men in the shadows down the alley that they were likely to be the kind that the law couldn’t touch. Even though Eve had lived a sheltered life, she knew a criminal when she saw one, and those men with their leather jackets, their chains and their bikes were the epitome of danger.
She knew she couldn’t tell Cassandra and she knew she couldn’t tell the police. She was on her own with the burden and she didn’t see how the hell she was going to manage to fall asleep.
Could he be dead? She thought.
Did they see me?
It had all happened so fast it was a blur, but one thing she knew for certain was that now her life was never going to be the same. She was a witness to a serious crime and she was in trouble. Even if they didn’t see her there, she was going to have to carry the weight of the secret around with her for the rest of her life, constantly wondering what had happened, or if she would bump into one of them and recognize them, giving the game away.
She felt the tears prick the corners of her eyes. What a mess. She had been so determined and focused on herself and on beginning her new life that she had ended up going in completely the opposite direction. Now all she could think about was that faceless man and of how the great big biker with the beard had smashed in his skull with a bat.
She shuddered and pulled the covers up around her. Outside the city was still alive with chatter, music and anticipation of the New Year to come. As Eve lay wide awake in her bed she wondered what her neighbors were up to and whether they were all out raving and having an amazing time. She cursed the cab driver for getting them stuck in that jam and then she cursed herself for thinking that way. She had only missed a party… that guy in the alley… he could very well be dead.
She rolled over and buried her head in the pillow. It was going to be a long night of tossing and turning and even though her body was exhausted her mind was wide awake and buzzing with thoughts.
As the hours passed she became aware of the countdown drifting in from the street. She blinked tears away as the clock chimed midnight and she heard the cheers from the bars and restaurants and out on the street. When it went quiet again she closed her eyes and sighed.
Tomorrow is another day, she thought positively. Time to switch off and try to forget. Wrong place, wrong time… You were just unlucky, that’s all.
As she drifted off into a restless sleep she blocked out visions of what had been the end of her year. She couldn’t dwell on it. She had to forget and move on.
Lights from cars peeked in through the crack of the curtain and she sat bolt upright, suddenly awake. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end and her heart was pounding but she couldn’t tell why. She wiped her forehead and realized her hand had come back damp. She was sweating and shaking. She must have been having a nightmare. She breathed in and out deeply and slowly, trying to calm herself down.
“One, two, three…” she said aloud before she breathed in again.
She looked at the clock on her nightstand and saw it was 4:30am. She must have been back at the apartment for at least six hours and she was still a bag of nerves. She exhaled and lay back down and pulled the covers around her. Even though it was January 1st, it was still good and warm in the apartment and it made her smile and forget her worries for a moment. She had picked a floor right in the middle of the modern high rise, and as a result she rarely ever found it to be cold.
She listened again to the sounds of life out on the street and she was about to drift back off when suddenly something snapped her back onto high alert.
She heard a creak on the floorboards in the hallway outside of her bedroom door.
She held her breath as her pulse hammered through her ears.
Did I really hear that? She thought.
She was about to close her eyes when it happened again, but this time there was no mistaking what was happening… the floorboards weren’t just creaking… someone was walking down the hallway, right for her bedroom door.
Her heart almost burst out of her chest as she reached for her cellphone and scrambled to dial 911, but she couldn’t do it fast enough.
Within seconds the door to her room crashed open and a huge, hulking figure came into view. Eve was trembling and she knew that there was nothing she could do but scream.
As she bellowed so loud she thought she might burst her own eardrums, the shadowy figure in front of her came into view and her nightmare was fully realized.
She recognized the man.
He was clad in leather and had a long beard.
It was the bat-swinging maniac from the alleyway and he was there… in her bedroom…
This was no coincidence… Someone had seen her and they had followed her home.
They had come to make sure that the only witness wouldn’t talk.
“Please,” she stammered. “Please don’t hurt me!”
She held up her hand and cowered down as her cellphone tumbled off the bed and onto the floor. The man stomped on it with his huge steel capped boot and pulled her by the arm out of her bed and up towards him. He was so strong and powerful she knew she couldn’t resist.
Without saying a word he clamped a hand over her mouth and with the other handcuffed her wrists behind her back. In the haze she had no idea what was happening but in an instant a rag was shoved in her mouth and her world went black.
She felt him lift her over his shoulder and she heard the clomp of his boots as he moved down the hallway. She was powerless and terrified and she knew there was nothing she could do.
Whoever he was, Eve was at his mercy… she was being kidnapped.