“Mark,” I said quietly, feeling around with my hands. “Mark,” I said much louder, starting to feel panicked. I climbed off the cot I was laying on, dropping to my knees. “Mark!” I said again, my voice rising to a near scream.
I crawled around on my knees, holding my hands in front of me like a blind person. “Mark. Where are you?” I said choking on a sob. I continued to reach out my hands, finding nothing but cold hard wall. The darkness was beginning to taunt me as the sobs ripped out of me. I crawled back over to the cot and curled up into a ball.
I tried as hard as I could to stay calm, but the panic was beginning to overwhelm me. I closed my eyes and began holding my breath. Smother it out, I chanted in my head, smother it out. The room felt like it was spinning, leaving me groggy. Unable to keep my eyes open, I drifted back to sleep.
The second time I woke was less confusing as I expected the oppressive darkness when I opened my eyes.
I hoped my eyes would adjust to the darkness, but it was no use. There was not even the slightest bit of light to help.
I lay on the cot for a few minutes, trying to figure out why this was happening to us, and why Mark’s dad was involved.
“Mark,” I said trying one more time to see if he was with me, but there was no answer.
I cautiously sat up and was relieved that my head at least felt a little better. I swung my legs off the edge of the cot and stood up. Reaching my hands out, I took a cautious step forward encountering the rough bricks of a wall. I trailed my hands along the wall trying to get a feel of the room and its dimensions. It felt like it was about the size of my bathroom at home, minus the fixtures.
There was only one door which seemed to be bolted on the outside. The only fixture in the room was the cot I had awakened on.
I sat back down on the cot trying to control my senses. I had lost all sense of time and could not tell if it was day or night. I focused, trying to use my heart as a gauge. It was just beginning to ache, so I knew that meant I had been away from Mark roughly four to six hours. I wonder what Sam and Shawn could be thinking?
None of this made any sense. Why would Mark’s dad kidnap us? If only I could remember more of the details before I had blacked out.
Other questions of more concern pressed on me.
Where was Mark, and what had they done to him? What about my mom? What if she woke up and I wasn’t there?
My head began to ache again, so I lay back down to deal with the pain. The endless darkness made it difficult not to feel tired, especially lying there with my eyes closed.
Suddenly, I could hear the lock on the door being disengaged. Light flooded the room followed by the door being pushed open.
Blinking in the sudden brightness, I looked up to see a heavy duty florescent light above the cot. It was making a faint buzzing noise and was flickering like the bulb needed to be tightened. I stared at it blankly for a moment while my eyes adjusted.
After a few seconds I was finally able to focus clearly. I looked around at my surroundings and wrinkled my nose in disgust at what I saw. The walls were painted a dingy white and were covered in scuff marks and stains; I didn’t even want to speculate about what had caused them. I saw the door I had discovered in the corner of the room, it was in bad shape like the walls. It was made of steel that had once been painted, but was now peeling in multiple areas. I finished my scan of the room and was right about my earlier estimate of its size. It was roughly 6 feet by 8 feet.
A woman I had never seen before walked into the room carrying a tray, followed by a large burley man. The woman set the tray on the edge of the cot. There was some food and a bottle of water, but it also held several needles.
“Arm,” the woman said.
“What?” I asked.
“Arm,” The woman repeated. “I need give you this shot,” the woman said impatiently. “Either you can let me do it or Bruno can help convince you,” she said, nodding over at the man who was still blocking the doorway.
I didn’t feel like being held down against my will, so I didn’t fight as the woman tightened an elastic band around my arm. It pulled at the fine hairs on my arm, causing me to wince, but she paid no mind. She tapped the skin on the inner side of my elbow trying to coax a vein to the surface. I felt the prick of the needle as it found the vein and watched as she proceeded to inject me with several vials of a thick liquid. I cringed at the thought of them pumping something foreign into my body.
“It’s nice to see you so cooperative; your boyfriend could stand to be more like you.”
My head jerked up. “Mark, where do you have him? You have to let me see him! We have to be together.” My words tumbled out of me in a rush. The mention of Mark had made my heart start racing. “Please you have to let me see him, I need to be with him,” I pleaded.
“We know you need to see him. Why do you think we have you separated?” she said as she gathered her empty vials and headed out the door.
I heard the lock being engaged after the door was closed. What did she mean, that’s why they have us separated? Did they know that I got violently ill when he wasn’t around?
I was so frustrated that I grabbed the tray and chucked it against the door.
The metal tray hit the door with a dull thud, sending the food flying, but the water bottle bounced harmlessly off the wall.
“Well that did a lot of good,” I said to myself.
I needed to think.