When I first opened my eyes, my body was flooded with pain, as my mind was flooded with thoughts of Tiffany. Where was she? What had happened to her? Was she alright? Was I alright? I whispered a silent prayer that Tiffany was safe, and this was all just a dream. This was all so strange, none of it made any sense. Yet somehow it was just like every paranoid vision that I had ever had. It was the fear of things like this that drove me to my violent actions. So, it had to be a dream, right? That would explain it all.

  That was right! Right? Why couldn’t I move my hands? What was that awfully bright light up above me? Everything felt sore and numb, like I had been shattered and glued back together very poorly. Every inch of my body was just so, so stiff.

  Focus, dream or not, I needed to find Tiffany. Dang it! It was cold here, wherever this was. I gritted my teeth and tried to swallow the pain. My body cried out and screamed protests at me as I forced myself into a sitting position. Tiny pops of dizzy pain bubbled across my skull before fading as my vision became clear.

  “Tyla? Tyla!” I glanced over to face the cry. Tiffany! Her pale face emerged out of the shadows. “Tiffany!” With a gasp, she rushed to my side. Clearly, she had much more energy than me. “You’re awake! Thank goodness! Oh! Y-you…can’t imagine how scared I was,” she said, gently helping me sit up. I could see her shaking hands and eyes that were wide from trying not to cry. I pulled myself closer to her.

  “It’s going to be okay. We are both going to be okay.” That was the first thing I needed to say, because that was the thing that we both needed to hear. She grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze.

  “Deep breath, Tyla, deep breath.” I closed my eyes and just focused for a moment on the air traveling through my lungs. In, out, in, out, I was okay…or at least I was going to be. Now that I had found Tiffany, I allowed my mind to process the room around me. It was very small and plain, and by that, I mean there was nothing else in the room besides us. The light that hung from the ceiling was blinding, but intensely focused on the center of the room. It left the corners, shadowy mysteries.

  “Are you alright, Tiffany?” The blood I had seen on her neck was gone and there was no mark of any sort of wound.

  “Yes, I think so at least. What about you? Did she hurt you?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I-I think I’m fine. I just feel a little shaky.”

  “Me too.”

  “Tiffany?”

  “What?”

  “I’m not dreaming, right?”

  “No, no, you are not.”

  “Dang it!”

  “Sorry, it’s not my fault; you aren’t dreaming.” We both burst out laughing and spent the next five minutes laughing, not because it was actually that funny, but because laughing made me feel less numb. Laughing was comforting. It was something we could do together. After we had finished laughing, we each took a few more deep breaths, and my mind was clear again.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “What happened? Tiffany, do you have any idea what’s happening?”

  “No, I have no idea at all! We sat down and the lesson was going to begin. Then, the moment we heard the door close as you left, she started attacking me!”

  “Attacking you? How?” And why?

  “Well, she grabbed me, and she held my head down, t-then she pulled out a knife and slit my throat. O-only I-I didn’t die. She waited a moment, then she slit it again… and again. S-she just did it over and over and over again. I begged her to stop, but she just kept going. I-I don’t know why! Then after she had done it at least twenty times she stopped and smiled at me. Then…”

  “Then what, Tiffany?” A frown crossed her face. Not an angry frown, not a worried frown, a confused frown. “She said, 'I finally found it'. Then, I-I think she jabbed me with something…then I don’t remember. Everything faded away and I found myself waking up here.” She shivered. “It’s so cold in here.”

  “Alright. What should we do now? I assume the door is locked.”

  “Yes, it’s double bolted from the looks of it.” Double bolted? How on earth were we going to make it out of here?

  “Well, that’s just great.” We took turns laughing once again. How come my fake jokes were even worse than hers?

  “But I’ll say, that tells us something about where we are,” Tiffany said, once we had finished laughing.

  “How come?” I glanced around the room again.

  “Well, not just anyone can afford something like that. It’s very high security between this and the camera.”

  “Wait, what? What camera?” Tiffany pointed to something faintly shining off in one of the dark corners. I squinted and leaned forward. Well, I took Tiffany’s word for it. I just never would have guessed that oddly shaped black item to be a camera. I would have had no idea what it was. Well, that was if I had been able to spot it in the first place.

  “I moved it. It was up higher on the wall before. I hope it’ll have more trouble seeing us this way. But everything in this room screams high security.” Well, Miss Roberts had been very rich. “I think the more we can use our surroundings to learn about the kidnapper, the more likely we are to get out.”

  “Tiffany, I’m sure you’re making a lot of sense right now. But my brain is still all bubbly, so I’m sorry, but how on earth does that help us?”

  “We need,” Tiffany said much more slowly, “to find out what she wants from us.”

  “Oh. Alright, I see.”

  “So, we need to learn more about her. She hasn’t killed us, at least not yet; she might need us for something. If she needs us alive and we can figure out what she wants, we can use that in some way.”

  “What if she’s completely out of her mind?” The thought of filthy city streets and toxic burning fumes filled my mind.

  “You think it’s the fumes?”

  “Tiffany! You read my mind!”

  “I’m not sure. Honestly, I’d be very surprised. She had been away from the city for quite a while. I don’t think the fumes would have only taken effect afterward. But it’s possible.”

  “I just don’t get it! What could she want from us if she’s not totally out of her mind! She’s the kind of person who has everything. I know Mama and Papa would pay to have us back with every single cent they own. But that will only add up to so much.”

  “What if…” suddenly Tiffany’s eyes were wide with fear and shock. “What if…she’s not who we thought she was. What if…one of us made an awful mistake and…oh no!”

  “What? What is it? What’s wrong?” All the color had drained from Tiffany’s face.

  “Tyla, I-I’m sorry, I’m so, so, sorry," she was shaking more than ever now. I took her arm and leaned her back.

  “It’s okay, you’re going to be alright. Mama and Papa will notice when we’re not home. Someone will come for us. We’re going to be alright!”

  “No! You don’t understand.” Tiffany sighed. “It all makes sense now.” Suddenly the room felt colder than ever. Icy air seeped in through every microcrack in the walls. The ceiling was getting closer and closer, and the walls seemed to be closing in all around me. Tiffany shook and squeezed her eyes shut. Was I seeing things, or was this really happening? Could she see it too?

  “It’s going to be okay… okay… okay,” was all that I could think to say. Everything was spinning and ringing and screaming at me. I tried to shut it out and keep my focus on Tiffany, but it was nearly impossible. Through the ringing and the screaming and our own gasps for more air, I could hear, coming closer and closer, slowly but surely footsteps. They were coming from somewhere beyond the door.

  My heart pounded like thunder. There wasn’t enough air in this room. I could feel my lungs begging me for more. What was this? What was happening to me? Fumes? All of these spinning, spiraling thoughts were silenced altogether as the door swung open. As a tall, unfamiliar, and strange figure appeared before us, my mind was taken over by nothing but a suffocating sense of dread.