He was walking and talking fine before we came in here, and I didn’t smell any booze or anything on him when we were getting up close and personal a few minutes ago.
Was he drugged too? Or maybe he took something, and it’s just kicking in now?
The door swings closed, plunging the room back into darkness, and the loss of my eyesight is so disorienting I almost fall over, even though I’m still leaning against the wall, as it feels like the entire world tilts hard to the left, and I lose sense of which way is up.
Mustering the little bit of coherent thought I have left, I shove off the wall and half run, half stumble, in what I hope is the general direction of the doorway. By some miracle, I hit my mark, and I immediately slide my hands over the cool metal of the door, searching out the handle as my thoughts slow down even more.
The strobe light isn’t flashing when I get the door open, and I stumble outside, my head and ears ringing from the music swelling around me.
Reflexively, I scan the area around me, searching out any sort of threat as I use my finely tuned instincts to gather as much information as I can.
Or at least that’s what I would be doing if I could see anything other than blurbs and blobs as my vision goes in and out, like a camera auto-focusing on something that’s too close to it.
In a moment of clarity, my gaze lands on Helix as he staggers toward the projection screen, his arms out in front of him like a zombie. Just before he reaches the screen, he makes a sharp turn and stumbles away. Everything goes blurry again, but not beforetwo men step out from the shadows next to the projector screen and grab him.
The world tilts hard to the left again, and I fall against the wall next to the door as the two men drag Helix’s still body behind the screen.
Without thinking about what I’m doing, I lurch and stumble along the wall, my blurry eyes fixed on where Helix and his captors disappeared as reality starts to phase in and out.
The music sounds like it’s coming in waves, and everything around me is a blurry mess of shifting and moving streaks of light and color. My heart is beating so hard I can hear it, and my vision dims in time with the rapid thuds.
I can’t think, can’t process, and I don’t even know if I’m moving anymore as two dark figures seem to melt out of nowhere and strong hands grab my arms. Or at least I think they grab my arms. I can feel the pressure of their holds, but at the same time, I have no feeling in my arms, like the limbs have been treated with Novocain.
A bright flash of light takes over my vision, and my knees buckle as everything goes completely dark.
“Help.”
A distorted, faraway voice invades the cocoon of darkness I’m cradled in as I’m slowly pulled out of nothingness and into reality.
“Help,” the voice croaks again.
It takes more effort than it should to open my eyes, only to find more darkness. I lay there for a few beats as it feels like my body comes back online part by part, and the first thing that registers is the strange tightness around my wrists, and thesensation of thin strips of plastic holding them together as they dig into my skin.
Are they zip-tied?
I try to pull my hands apart.
Yup, they’re zip-tied. I flex my feet just to be sure there’s nothing binding my ankles, and the person on the other side of the room makes a startled sound when I make a weird noise, almost a cross between a grunt and a heavy sigh.
“Who’s there?” The voice is scared now. “Hello?”
Another groan escapes my lips as the reality of the situation hits. I’m zip-tied in complete darkness with a stranger, and I have no idea how I got here.
“Who are you?” The voice is high and raspy. Whoever it belongs to is terrified.
“What happened?” I manage to croak through my parched lips.
I try to clear my throat, but the scrape of pain makes me gasp. My mouth and throat are so dry it feels like I have strep, or maybe tried to breathe fire, but that’s impossible. There’s no way I’ve been out long enough to get sick, right?
Groggily, I pat my pockets, moving awkwardly with the ties holding my hands together. My phone and cash are gone, exactly like I figured they’d be.
“I don’t know,” the voice says, sounding a bit calmer. “What do you remember?”
“Not a lot.” I groan again as I push myself into a sitting position. “Are you zip-tied too?”
“My hands are.”
My body feels weird. It doesn’t hurt, not really, but every one of my muscles is tight and tense, and it doesn’t feel great now that they’re relaxing.
