Chapter 1

This is your world now Jodi.

......

One of the truths in life is people only appreciate the value and greatness of sunshine, once the darkness that surrounds us refuses to leave.

I blinked almost a hundred times in the hope to conjure light out of the darkness around me. I was getting afraid of the creatures lurking in the dark corners, more that there’s no other color than pitch black. 

A bump from a sudden halt awoken me. From then, nothing made sense and I grew futile trying to keep myself calm through the torturous throbbing in my skull-- hangover.

The memory of the night before kept playing like a broken record explaining not much of my situation but only worsening the thoughts dooming around my head.

"You look good," my mom said, appraising my reflection over the mirror. I smiled at her as she handed me the high heeled boots to go over with my black dress. 

With one last look in the mirror, I headed downstairs. "Bye, mom!" I shouted, getting out of the house to the car already parked outside waiting for me. 

I walked into the dingy club inhaling the intoxicating smell of mixed smoke, sweat, puke, piss, and something sweet that made me high. I danced through the beat of every song: swaying and grinding against the hundred heated bodies. Then going to the bar for a drink that turned into a couple and later on, an awful lot of drinking. I got drunk, putting a hole in my head until my brain wanted to get out.

"Coldwater might help," a guy's voice said. I looked up to see a smiling guy. I hesitated to reach for the water but thought otherwise and finished it in one gulp. 

Lastly, the feeling of succumbing to darkness: falling into a rabbit's hole.

A tear dropped the sides of my eyes. I scolded myself for being such a dumbass, it was a simple survival regimen: never. never trust a stranger. How could I be such an airhead? I sighed deeply as the unchanging blackness kept freaking the cat out of my body. 

I got no insight into my location: if it was still dark or light. I didn't have the slightest clue and that made me more scared. I badly wanted someone to talk to, anyone-- the last thing I would have wished for. I needed contact, preferably with someone alive and breathing. 

Anxiety didn't have any problem creeping through my weakened mind; an awful lot of scenarios flashed before my eyes. Questions kept running amok in my head, questions that I badly wanted to be answered yet at the same time not. There was only one thing I was certain about, and that was death. That not much longer, I would be facing my end-- my ultimatum.

That was it.

But I refused to believe it.

Standing wasn't an option, even crawling or any movement per se. The area where I was wouldn't even allow me to raise my hands let alone stretch my legs.

To no avail, I felt my surroundings bringing my two hands in front of my face to touch the howl I was in. I knocked on the unseen walls and a gasp escaped my lips as I realized where I was: in a freaking wooden box. Some kind of a psychopath caged me like an animal.

No! I didn't want to die in there, hopelessness was eating me whole. 

I banged my head trying to stop it from thinking murderously. Consequently, I let out another gasp as the box move. It glided abruptly in a smooth surface like I was in a vehicle of some kind. I could feel the bumpy road and the stops of the vehicle as it traveled to an unknown place. 

My muscles were killing me from lack of movement though breathing wasn't a problem. Being optimistic is the best weapon I got in the situation. However, my overrunning brain wouldn't stop screaming bloody murder to me.

I'm going to die soon.

Death wasn't in my plan as a seventeen-year-old, there's a lot for me to see and do.

There has to be something, a way of some kind. Anything. I couldn't just let myself drown from the overflowing negative thoughts. I got to do something, anything at all. 

So even if most of the time it might not help still, I screamed, "Help! Somebody out there, HELP ME!" Useless just as what I thought beforehand. 

I slumped my body down feeling defeated. 

A second passed and a rustle came from my left: the sound of a little mouse looking for food.

"It's no use. You know, shouting. You're just gonna burn your throat like the other one," said an unknown voice: a female.

Then, it wasn't just me in the place. A sparkle of hope flooded within me. At the very least, I still got a chance. "So, there are more here?" I asked for an unknown voice.

"Yeah, but I don't know how many exactly. I just know you and the other screamer." She sounded afraid, who would not be. 

I was too, my whole body was shaking rather uncontrollably. The odds were all against us-- me.

Never it crossed my mind that it would happen to someone like me-- plain and ordinary.

My mom. She would die worrying about me. I told her I would be home. Her image kept popping in my head torturing me to oblivion. I couldn't imagine what she would do after long hours of waiting. She might be at the station fighting with the cops to take all their forces just to look for me.

I need her to do that, I am in desperate need of that thing: a savior. A guy in shining armor with a white horse.

"Do you know where are we going?" It was worth the try, yet I already know the answer to the question.

"No. Hell I don't give a damn. All I want is to get the hell out of here," she answered voicing out my horrid thoughts.

I didn't ask any more questions. What was the sense in that? I'm an over-thinker. I take bad situations in the worst version it could be. And I knew, it wasn't any help at all. But I couldn't help it though! All I wanted to do was to go back home and see my mom. 

My dam was threatening to break, the feeling of a nightmare coming true to life was gnawing my insides. I then realized that no stars were falling at any moment for me to make wishes.

The box stopped moving, causing me to bump my head on the other side. It was that small crumpling my body in a tight position. 

The stop seemed to be different from the other stops we had and not much longer I heard a sound of a metal door being opened.

Steps came, men hustling over, yet another gasp escaped my mouth as I was being lifted out. No, the box was being lifted out. 

A few seconds later I was put down with a thud in the ground. My head connected with the wooden top that added another layer of pain to my throbbing head. There was no question that my body was covered with bruises, I was aching all over but it wasn't the least of my concern. I wanted the box to stay close. 

The idea of meeting my captors sent chills to my body. I didn't want the lid to be removed. I didn't want to see the light and the horrors it would bring.

I would have liked to stay in the dark. But, a lot of wishes never come true and it was futile to make one.

It was painstakingly slow watching the box opened up.

A soft yellow light came that blinded my eyesight, causing disorientation. I put a hand over them to serve as a shield. 

One thing immediately went over me: I wanted to stand and run the hell out wherever it was, I may be. 

But like before I didn't have a choice. It was as if I was glued to the box. I had been in the same position for far too long that my legs have gone stone stiff. I screamed for my legs to move, but it wouldn't budge. Crap. Shit. Ugh.

A face crept inside the box. The light was too blinding that I couldn't see its features. Though I was sure it was a man; two strong rough hands pulled me out. 

I tried my hard to wriggle and fight away but to no avail. He was far stronger than me. Then out of a sudden, I was dumped on the hard floor.

"Ah!" I groaned in pain. My hands went over the injured legs.

"Stand up!" came the angry command of the guy who pulled me out.

I didn't respond causing him to give me a kick on my stomach. It hurt so much I wanted to cry and I did. "I said stand up! I won't repeat it twice so you get your ass moving! NOW!"

I tried my best, I willed myself to move. I put my hands on the floor for support, arching my body into a kneeling position. Ugh. There was too much pain. It was too exhausting. I managed to hold my head up and that was how I saw the others. It wasn't just me who came out of a box. There were six more on my left and two on the other side. 

My stomach crunched; the scene made me think of all the hundred horror movies I've watched.

I took a lot of time to move and get up. Angry blows came to my sides, everywhere. He didn't stop he kept going even when the taste of iron circled my mouth. 

It shouldn't have happened to me, no one could have guessed it would. It was too far from my reality. Not to me, to someone like me. Not in my lifetime. No.no.no. It was a thought that never has crossed my mind, a thing that was far even from my darkest imagination.

The man got tired may be or bored, I don't know. The blows stopped and I was raised to my feet. 

The man's right-hand held me by my chin. I would have wanted to fight but I couldn't, it was too much pain, too overbearing. I was in too much pain. Everywhere. And I couldn't endure more.

The man stepped closer to me, bringing his lips to my ears. My eyes quivered and wanting to shut close.

"This is your life now, Jodi, " the man whispered sending shivers throughout my body. I wasn't dreaming. Reality started to bite in and I grew afraid for my life. "Disobey and you'll be punished!" the man added, taking his hands off my chin leaving me unsteady.

I crumpled on the floor, crying my eyes out. Fear inhabited me, the horrors were all real, they are not just in screens and dreams.

No.no.no!