Somewhere…

 

“Where’s Wren?” someone asked at the wedding.

“She was supposed to be back from her trip three days ago, but no one’s heard from her.”

“Maybe she decided to take a little vacation.”

She wasn’t on vacation, though.

Wren twisted her wrists again, even though she knew that would do her no good. Her clothes were filthy, sticking to her in places clothes shouldn’t stick. She could feel bugs crawling over her feet despite the fact that she was indoors. She knew she was indoors because she could see the vague outline of a structure, could see windows that had been blacked out with something like black spray paint. But she had no idea where she was.

Someone had hit her with a Taser in Cormac’s room. That was the last clear thing she remembered. She’d heard a noise, begun to turn, but then she was hit with a voltage high enough that it caused her to black out. When she came to, she was in a dark space that she thought was probably the trunk of a car. She passed out again from lack of air, lack of water. When she woke again, she was here, handcuffed to what she thought might be a metal pole holding up a structure. A basement support, maybe?

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been there. Two days, maybe. Three. Food came twice a day, she thought, so that told her she’d been there nearly three days.

Or was it four?

There was a bucket for her to do her toilet business in, but she wasn’t really needing it that much anymore. The food consisted of a cheese sandwich twice a day, not really the most nourishing thing. And she was only given a glass of water a day. She was so dehydrated that it burned when she pissed.

She tugged at the cuffs again, telling herself that if she could just twist her wrists in the right direction, she might be able to slide at least one hand out. Then she’d be free to move around a little more, to find an instrument she could use to free her other hand. But she just couldn’t get past her thumb no matter how hard she tugged, no matter how hard she slammed her thumb against the pole, trying to break it.

After a few minutes, she had to stop. The pain was too much. She wasn’t getting free, but she was rubbing the skin of her wrist raw.

“Where am I?” she screamed into the darkness.

If she’d just seen her attacker. If she’d been able to put up a fight. If she’d thought enough to look through a tail light, to see where she was going or what direction. If she could have fought.

She couldn’t believe she was in this situation!

A door opened, and light filled the space briefly. She sat up, trying to neaten her little suit skirt as best she could. She wanted to present a nice picture to whoever it was coming down those stairs. She could never see a face, could never tell if it was female or male. She heard footsteps, and then a plate was pushed toward her, nothing more. But she wanted to look like she was behaving. Then, maybe, they’d let her go.

“Please, where am I? What did I do to you?”

“You shouldn’t have gone into that room,” a familiar voice said to her.

It was the first human voice she’d heard in days.

“What room?”

“That hotel room. You never should have gone in there, never should have snooped around. I told you, I’d tell you about my life if you were just patient. But you had to go on your own and look at things you didn’t need to know about yet. You should have kept your nose on your own face.”

“Cormac?”

He stepped into a pool of light, and she could see his face clearly. Cormac Delaney.

“Where are we? Why have you brought me here?”

“I’ll explain, but you have to be patient, Wren. Promise me you’ll be patient now.”

She stared at him, not sure what she was supposed to think, what she should do.

“Who the fuck are you? Why are you doing this?” She was growing hysterical, but she didn’t care. “How could you do this to me? You said…you promised…”

She was so angry she couldn’t even form words.

Then the door opened at the top of the stairs again, light filling the room. He leaned toward her, revealing his handsome face and the pressed suit he was wearing. And then she saw the Taser.

“No, please!” she cried, but it was too late. The volts were racing through her body, and the darkness was coming. Again. But now she knew.

Now she knew.