“You make it sound so glamorous,” I sneer at him.
“I’m sure it is. Not having to worry about anything. Bills, a safe roof over your head, or where your next meal will come from.”
“You don’t know shit,” I huff as I close my eyes and try to sleep. Fuck him. He doesn’t know my life. He doesn’t know anything about me, for that matter. And why should I tell him? He doesn’t care. He only wants the money, just like everyone else in my life. Money means everything to them.
“Tell me,” he says through a yawn.
“Tell you what?”
“What it’s really like if it’s that bad.”
“They hate you. They hate what you are, what you were born to be. All they see is a money sign. You’re not worth anything unless money is attached to it. Sure, you can buy all the things you want, but what does that get you in the end? You’re not happy. You’re not free. You’re living a life they’ve set out for you. All they see is what they can gain by using you or selling you out.”
“That doesn’t sound like what we see on TV.”
“It’s not. You see what they want you to see.”
“Then why not leave?” he asks.
“What do you think I was doing?” I huff a laugh.
“When we took you,” he adds.
“Yeah. I get what you think will happen, but that’s not what you’re going to get. He isn’t going to pay to get me back.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” he adds.
“Suit yourself. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I tell him as I close my eyes once more and try to get some rest.
I toss and turn most of the night listening to the soft snores of the man who took me. I’m not sure how he’s sitting up against the wall with that mask on, sleeping, but he is.
I glance around the dingy warehouse, but there’s nothing notable about it. I can see a bathroom, but I can’t get to it with this chain around my wrist. I lift it and blink, trying to see it to see if there’s a way I can get out of it, when I hear him speak.
“You can’t,” he says.
“What?”
“You can’t get out of it. Don’t even bother trying.”
“You don’t need me. You’re not going to get anything anyway.”
“Did you have somewhere else to be?” He taunts. I sigh.
“No.”
“Then you’re fine here,” he adds. I sigh and shove myself up, knowing I’m not going to get any rest. I sit with my back against the wall, much like he is. I can’t see his face through the mask, but I can feel his eyes on me.
“This your first time kidnapping someone?” I ask.
“Does it matter?”
“I guess not.”
“Then shut up.” I sigh once more and sit in silence, waiting for him to say anything. It doesn’t really matter to me what he says as long as he talks. I can’t stand sitting here in silence. But his words never come. He falls back asleep as I lie here waiting for the sun to come up.
When it does, it peeks through the window, and only then does he startle. He shifts and begins to pull the mask off his face before thinking better of it.
“I’m not going to say anything,” I tell him.
