Shock freezes me just long enough for another arm to lock around my waist, lifting me off my feet. My phone slips from my fingers and clatters to the pavement as I’m dragged backward.
I try to scream, but the hand over my mouth presses harder, cutting off the sound.
No—no no no?—
I thrash, kicking wildly, but it’s like fighting iron. He doesn’t even flinch.
I’m hauled into an alley, the bright city vanishing behind me as shadows close in. The smell hits next—garbage, rot, something sour and unclean—and panic claws up my throat.
At the end of the alley, a van waits. Door open. Dark inside.
They’re shoving me toward it.
I fight harder, twisting, trying to bite, but someone grabs my wrists and wrenches them behind my back hard enough to make me gasp.
“Be easier if we drugged her,” one voice mutters.
“Boss wants her clean,” another replies. “You think we can’t handle one girl?”
One girl.
I try to scream again, but it comes out muffled against his palm as I’m shoved forward into darkness.
The van swallows me whole.
I hit the floor hard, metal digging into my side. Before I can even process it, something bites into my wrists—tight plastic.
Zip ties.
“Careful,” that same voice says. “No damage.”
“Please—” I choke out, but something is yanked over my head, cutting off my vision. Fabric presses against my face, stealing my breath.
The door slams.
The engine is already running.
And then we’re moving.
I scream.
I can’t help it. Terror rips through me, raw and uncontrollable. One second I was walking to meet a friend—and now?—
Now I’ve been kidnapped.
The word doesn’t feel real.
But what else could this be?
“Breathe through your nose,” a voice says, flat and controlled. “You’re hyperventilating.”
I don’t want to listen.
But I can’t breathe.
So I do it anyway. In through my nose. Out through my mouth. Again. Again.
The panic doesn’t go away, but it dulls enough that I can think.
