Slowly light begins to bleed in. Just trickles at first, hazy images I don’t recognize. As the seconds pass the images come into focus. Where am I? What was I just doing? Why does my leg hurt so much?! My reflex to look down and reach for my leg immediately brings up another question: why can’t I move my head or arms.
Darting my eyes down I see my arms are secured with bulky leather straps as well as what’s left of my legs. From what I can see the right leg is fine but I can’t see my left foot, or feel it.
Now the panic begins. “Hello?! Can anyone hear me?! I need help! Please!”
The next stage of the panic is the struggle against my restraints. I try muscling my way out, I summon all my fear and put it into pulling against my restraints but I can’t, there’s no overpowering them. Can I pull out of them? A brief attempt says no.
Where the fuck am I? Who did this to me?
Behind me a door opens.
“Hello? Is someone there?”
“Oh good you’re awake, I was beginning to worry I hadn’t gotten your morphine drip correct.”
“My what?”. My eyes search my arms and see the IV needle going in my right arm. “What the fuck is this? Where am I? Who are you?”
“Calm down John, or do you prefer Johnathan?” He takes a seat on a stool in front of me
“I prefer to not be tied down.”
“Ah, well that is something we’ll have to talk about then. First off, introductions, my name is James and you’re in my home we’ll call it. I already know who you are so there’s no need to introduce yourself. Secondly, and I this will probably be somewhat upsetting to you, but I can’t remove your restraints. Even without your left leg and the morphine in your system I’m afraid the adrenaline rush your feeling right now would allow you to overpower me and escape which doesn’t work for me.”
“Escape? What the fu-? Did you kidnap me?”
“What’s your last memory before waking up here? Can you think back?”
My mind immediately begins searching for the answers. “I was at home, I just got home.”
“That’s right, you had just gotten home from the gym, like clockwork, you stick to a schedule which I appreciate. It’s one of the things that makes you a great find. I love schedules and people who stick to them. It’s how I knew I had time to break in to your house and wait for you.”
“But what about….what’d you do to my….”
“I was hoping we wouldn’t get to this until later but she was my only obstacle. I did want to leave her out of this but she was in my way of getting to you. I’m not proud of it but I did what I had to do.”
The fear I felt drifts to the back of my mind as the anger and immediate hatred take the driver’s seat. “What you had to do? You killed my dog?”
A sigh and a nod is all I get.
A yell or roar comes out that I’ve never produced before. Immediately James stands and moves to the IV stand.
“I’m just going to turn this up until you’ve gotten past this episode. Your adrenaline is just burning through the morphine and I don’t want you to feel any unnecessary pain.”
I can’t look at him but I have to tell him something. I calm myself enough to get the words out without sounding emotional, I need him to know this isn’t an outburst, it’s a fact. “When I get out of this I’m going to kill you.”
James rolls his eyes before taking his seat again. “I guess it’s a good thing you’re not getting out of those restraints again because you probably could choke the life out of me with one hand.”
I give a slight chuckle to the idea.
“And that’s one of the reasons you’re such a get. You’re more of a challenge than most, your schedule made you predictable but I wasn’t sure that I would be able to get past your physical capacity. Thankfully the element of surprise and modern pharmacology worked for me, but I have no illusions that head-to-head I would be in trouble.”
A flash of a sting to my neck comes back, a sudden insect bite and then nothing. I try to shake my head but the restraints keep me from even that much movement. What the fuck am I supposed to do now?