“Time for you to go nighty night, princess.”He laughed heartily.
Before she could react, the cloth was pressedto her nose and darkness overcame her.
---
Jessica awoke, bleary-eyed and with arhythmic, heavy pounding against her temples, that made her moanaloud. She felt dizzy and groggy, and knew she could fall backasleep, if she wanted to. She remembered she was in danger, andforced her mind to focus on the here and now.
She remembered being abducted, tied up andgagged. She couldn’t feel her fingers, as her bindings were tightenough to cut off her circulation. It took her a few moments tomaneuver them, so she could sit up, and push herself against asolid rock wall with her feet. The surface felt cold against herback, and with her fingers, she could feel in some places it was assmooth as glass, and in others, jagged.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust tothe darkness that engulfed her. She could hear the constant drip,drip, dripping of water falling into a puddle. The sound echoed andit wasn’t hard to figure out that she was inside some kind ofcave.
Despite the fact it was nearly November, thetemperature inside was amazingly comfortable. If she had to guess,it might have been around fifty degrees, maybe more. Her woolslacks helped to keep her comfortable, as did her matching suitcoat and the lightly-knitted scooped-neck sweater she woreunderneath. When she felt, a steady cool breeze blowing in fromsomewhere to her right, it ruffled her long hair and made her skinprickle.
“Where in god’s name did he bring me?”She wondered.
A strip of tape had been plastered over hermouth to keep her from calling out. She could feel her bag wasstill strapped across her chest and the familiarity of it gave hersome sense of comfort.
She knew she wasn’t alone. The quick chips ofnoise she heard overhead along with the flapping of wings, told herthe cave was occupied by a colony of bats. It didn’t much botherher, because she knew they were known not to attack humans.
She wondered how long she had been out cold.All she could remember, was how sweet the liquid smelled, when theman named Sy Corbat, pressed the cloth against her nose and mouth.Almost immediately, her legs and arms went numb, her visionblurred, and her hearing faded. Then, puff, that was it. She didn’tremember anything else.
She tested the bounds around her wrists,again. There was no give at all and she moaned from the pain themovement created. There was no way she would be able to work theknot free, unless that is, if she kept rubbing the rope up againstthe jagged rocks behind her
Maybe, I can strip it away enough to snapit.
Jessica wasn’t going to just sit there. Sheknew that. As much as she believed that Bryan, would find her, shecouldn’t sit idle and wait. She had to make good her escape, beforeCorbat decided she was no longer of any use to him. First though,she would wait a while. She knew that her captors most assuredly,would come and check on her.
Jessica prayed that it would be the youngman, instead of Corbat. She knew she could talk and sway him to herside. It was plainly obvious, the young man wanted nothing to dowith kidnapping her. Corbat was a bully, and the poor kid wasfearful of him. She was too. She couldn’t let her fear consume anddisable her and stop her from getting the hell out of here. Shealso couldn’t believe this was happening to her. She would lose it,if she had to stay in here too long in the darkness. God onlyknows, what kind of animals and insects made their home in here.Suddenly, she felt itchy and screamed inside her head.
“Stop it!”
She couldn’t let her mind, play such stupidtricks on her. No, she didn’t want to be in here. Yes, she wantedto be back at her office. But, as luck had it, she was someone’sprisoner. She had to stay strong and figure out a way to get thehell out of here. She had to make this work to her advantage.
She didn’t have to wait long. She heardsomeone entering, before she saw a soft glow of light emitting fromeither a lantern or flashlight. She could tell from the person’ssilhouette it was the tall, thin boy.
She started to moan loudly over-and-overagain. He had to remove the taping from her mouth. He just had too.She tried desperately to raise up on her knees. Jagged stones dugthrough the fabric of her slacks, but she did not care. She crawledforward on her knees, her eyes pleading with him to remove thetape, as she continued to moan.
The look of sympathy that shone in his eyestold her, that he was weakening, and she continued her plea, thistime whimpering.
The young man knelt before her, placed thetwo lanterns he was carrying down on the ground beside him.
“Don’t fret now. Stop squirming. This mayhurt a little cause I’m gonna pull it off real fast.”
She nodded that she understood.
He was right. It hurt like hell, and sheyelped loudly, as the tape ripped at her tender skin, making itsting. It felt as though he grated a worn razor over the entirearea instead.
“Sorry. Shit, I’m sorry!”
She tried to work her way into a sittingposition, but she lost her balance and fell to her side, slammingher right cheek against a boulder nearby. She cried out in pain andthe young man moved like a bullet to help her sit upright.
“Damn! This ain’t workin’ out too good.”
She knew the gash was deep and could feel astream of warm blood running down her cheek
Shit! Piss! Tits! That hurt!Her innervoice screamed.
“I’m … I’m just glad it’s you,” she gasped,“and not that mad man Corbat here right now.” She replied, gaspingloudly again, as she leaned against the boulder.
