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Karla groaned loudly in agony. Her head was throbbing and she couldn’t remember how she got here, wherever “here” was. She opened her eyes. Blackness. Nothingness.
“Where am I?” She thought. Struggling to sit up, she felt her surroundings; she was in a small room that seemed to be made of metal. She tried to stand up but found that the ceiling was just low enough so she couldn’t stand up straight. The only distinguishing feature of the room was the small hole in the floor. Karla knew immediately what that was for and suddenly got very frightened. She sat down and tried her hardest to remember…
Her pounding headache was not helpful. Karla swore loudly and then began to cry softly. What had started as a normal day had turned into something from her worst nightmares. Her memory of the day started to come back in pieces. She had errands to run. Typical ones, nothing out of the ordinary – the bank, the grocery store, a stop at the post office, and then off to a coffee shop to study. A regular Saturday afternoon.
Karla could not remember if she had made it to study. The weather was so nice that she thought she should walk to the coffee shop. Along the way, she started to window shop. One clothing store had a display in the window she could not resist; a cute summer outfit was calling to her, a modest skirt and a bright colored strapless top. She couldn’t resist walking in and trying it on. This is where things got really fuzzy, Karla’s head started to throb.
She had been in the changing room, or was it at the clothing rack. There was the nice salesman, who was probably a few years older than she was. He offered to set her up with a changing room. Karla thought she remembered going into the changing room and trying on the outfit, but couldn’t quite picture it. Karla reached down in the darkness and felt her clothing. Yes, she seemed to be in the outfit she had tried on, she had started the day in jeans and this was definitely a skirt. But what had happened?
She was in the changing room admiring herself in the mirror. The door burst open and the salesman was there. “Is everything to your satisfaction?” he had asked as he grabbed her and put something over her nose and mouth. And now she was here, in this cramped dark room. She couldn’t even figure out where the door was. Karla was scared.
Now panic and claustrophobia were setting in. Karla started pounding on the walls and screaming. She wasn’t sure how long she was at this, but she stopped when her voice was completely gone and her hands were raw and bleeding. There was no response; there wasn’t even a sound. Putting herself in the fetal position in a corner, Karla started to sob and rock herself. She thought she would probably die here.
Without realizing it, Karla fell into a fitful sleep. It was only a loud clang that woke her up. With a start, she opened her eyes, but it was still pitch black. She felt around her “cell” and found a bowl of some sort of porridge and some water. She drank the water and tried the porridge, but put it down in disgust.
“EAT IT!” Came a voice so overwhelmingly loud that Karla screamed.
“EAT or suffer consequences.” Karla was still frozen.
Suddenly a tingling sensation rushed through Karla’s body. She yelped in surprise and froze.
“It WILL get worse. MUCH worse. EAT!”
Karla picked up the bowl and took a tentative sip. She gagged.
Another tingle, but this time worse and Karla felt her muscles contract.
“Do NOT hesitate. It will do what it is asked to do or suffer the consequences.”
“Are you talking to me?” Karla asked defiantly. A strong shock was the answer. Karla involuntarily convulsed on the floor. She had felt nothing like this before and it scared her.
Her heart pounding, Karla took the bowl and started to eat, ignoring the urge
to gag.
“Very good, next time you will know to be thankful for what you are given.” Said the voice.
Karla screamed, “What do you want with me? Who are you?”
She was met with silence. Karla huddled in the corner after relieving herself in the hole in the floor. She felt ashamed, but she wasn’t sure why.
Several hours later, Karla began to learn that her life was to change forever in ways she couldn’t possibly imagine.
****TO BE CONTINUED*****
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