Chapter 1

17th December 2019

Cathy's POV:

"Where am I?", I screamed through my sore throat which burned like crazy. I sucked in a deep breath and tried to swallow some saliva to wet my dry throat but in vain. I felt like I was deprived of water for years. "Is anyone here at all? Hello? Help?", my voice squeaked and broke echoing very quickly, probably a tiny room?

My eyes were blindfolded and my hands were tied above my head to a rope which probably hung from the ceiling. I was kneeled down on a freezing cold floor and my legs felt limp refusing to move. A dull pain rested on my shoulders as I swayed from side to side trying to pull my wrists off the knot. The place where I am held now stunk like corpses making me want to throw up. I tried not to breathe deep but that didn't seem to help.

My head throbbed in mild pain as millions of questions circled my mind. Why am I here? How am I here? How was I abducted? How long am I here? Who did this to me? Where am I?

I shook my head trying to recollect the most recent memory of where and with whom I was before all this happened. I squeezed my already shut eyes behind the blindfold and strained for pieces of information.

A faint picture of me applying mascara to my eyelashes appeared. That happened in the evening in my hostel room. I was getting ready to go out. But where? I shook my head harder and pushed on my thoughts. Where? Where? Where?

Another picture of me in the fun mall appeared. Renita was beside me. She shoved a small teddy bear on the shopping trolley which was already overflowing with so many different items that we had been listing for the past week.

Yes! We were shopping for buying things to decorate our new hostel room. We were shifted to a newly built dormitory block within the college campus. Two wards in a non-ac-room with the attached washroom. Ac rooms were too expensive for either of us to afford.

Renita was my room-mate for the new hostel room, though my bestie for a year now. My previous room-mate was a nerd, she would wake up at midnights to study though it didn't mean that she annoyed or disturbed me in any way. Renita and I always wanted to share a room and waited for a shuffle so badly. We literally freaked out when we received the circulars via the mail about the new hostel building and claiming new room-mates.

Oh, how excited we were to share the same room from here on! It's only been two days since we moved into our new hostel and we were out to purchase all that we listed to turn our newly painted room into a small fairy world.

Then what happened? Did we bill the items we purchased? Yes, we did. We divided the final amount and paid. Rs. 5237 each and I remember how she complained about the expensive dreamcatchers that I had selected turned out to be the ultimate reason for the expensive bill.

I chuckled silently and quickly stopped realizing the situation I am actually in. Where were you when I was abducted, Reni? Or even you are abducted and are here with me? I threw my head back and thought again. Next, where did we go?

The images of us walking out of the mall flashed in my mind. Then? The same thing kept reappearing. Oh no! Where did we go next? How much ever I strained I couldn't recollect what happened next. It seemed like a dead end. No no no! This can't be happening! Why am I not remembering anything that happened after that?

Am I dreaming? Maybe I am sleeping on our way back to the hostel on a public bus. But we won't feel pain in dreams! I cursed under my breath wriggling my wrists as the rope burned into my skin. A faint pain radiated through my arms down to my shoulder every time I made a move.

"Someone help meeee!", I shouted into nowhere frantically and waited. There was no other noise except the echo that didn't fail to hit me in the room or wherever I was held in. It was pin-drop silent.

"Can someone hear me? Is anyone here? Heelllpp!", I waited again only to be answered by the silence. I broke into tears unable to make sense of what was happening around me, What is happening?

Memories of my parents warning me over the phone about how they always came across a kidnap or rape case at least once every day, followed by the memories of how I had laughed them off saying they are being silly and I was far better than the other girls in my college who roam outside every single day played like a movie in my mind.

Usually, the victims get killed at the end. I have never come across any news columns talking about the police retrieving the victims safely, it's all about the corpses and the date and time they were spotted. A sudden panic raced into my nerves and my eyes burned with tears. Am I going to die here? How will my parents react if I do? That's all? That's all is my life on earth?

I could feel the heat invading my body as my stomach started boiling with fear and desperation. I was going to die! Suddenly thoughts of what will happen to me after my death started pooling in my head making me feel dizzy and weak.

I mustered as much as energy I can and quickly pushed the thoughts away. I raised my head before inhaling deeply with hope. What we think is what happens next. It's probably the fear that made other victims weak and get killed. No! I am not dying this young. Not here at least. I made a silent promise to stay alive and make it out very soon.

"What will you do if I go missing?"

Renita's eyes sprang open before it sent daggers at me. "I am praying Cathy. You can't say things like that now. Take your words back"

"I won't", I grinned.

She stared at me for two more seconds and then went back to prayer.

I felt my head slowly losing its senses and dropping forward pulling down more weight on my sore wrists.

Maybe she was right after all. That was the last thing I remembered before my thoughts swiveled into a circle and vanished into the dark.

HAPPY READING!