Page 8 of Burn Me Down

I didn’t know what to expect, but a chair in the corner with stacks of my own clothes was not it. Turning in a small circle, I spotted a second door beside the desk I hadn’t seen in the dim glowing nightlight. It looked like it went outside, and I dashed across the room and flung the door open, ready to take on anyone on the other side. As the small light flicked on, I found a tiny three-piece bathroom. It looked and smelled brand new. There was no mirror, so I had no idea how terrible I looked, but there were washcloths, towels, and a shelf that held all of my same shampoo, conditioner, and soaps right down to my daily skincare routine.

“What the hell is going on?”

I couldn’t comprehend why someone would kidnap me and then put me in a miniature version of my room. The voice in my head was screaming hysterically that this was worse. If they had just killed me, then I would be dead, and that was the end, but this…this meant there was more to come, and I had no idea what that more was. I quickly brushed my teeth, pulled a sweater from the pile on the chair, and put it on like a piece of armor before going back to the bed and sitting down. I needed to think.

My mouth and throat felt like I’d sniffed gravel, so I inspected the bottle of water from the nightstand. The seal was still intact, and there were no pinhole leaks, so I took the chance and twisted off the lid. It was not lost on me that the water was still cool, which meant it hadn’t been sitting there long, I hadn’t been here long, and my captor wasn’t far.

I picked up the pills on the nightstand and recognized the brand. I scraped at the coating to make sure it was legit and then swallowed the pain meds. My brain had stalled out. None of this made sense.

Vi insisted that I was a prime target for Derek, but if this was him, why the hell would he go to all this trouble if he just planned on burning me alive? I shivered at the thought. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to feel the pain of all your nerve endings burning away as you slowly died. No, I couldn’t go there. I was a good person, yet that thought didn’t comfort me now. Even good people died. Hell, I could argue I’d seen more good people die at the hospital than assholes.

I stared around the room, and there in the corner was a small camera by the ceiling. I glared at the lens, not knowing if someone was on the other end, but I felt compelled to say something anyway.

“Why are you doing this? Do I know you? Did I wrong you? I don’t get it. Just let me go, and no one will ever know about this. I just want to go home.”

Nothing moved, flashed, or made a noise. I didn’t know what was worse, the boogeyman jumping through the door at me right now or the complete silence that felt more deafening than being at a concert.

On the bed cross-legged with a pillow clutched to my chest, I sat until the sun began to rise. I watched the beam move across the floor until I couldn’t take it anymore. I jumped up and went to the window, but the thick trees and what looked like a field beyond did nothing to make me feel better. I was in the middle of nowhere.

Deciding that I needed to take advantage of being upright, I went into the small bathroom to pee and realized that even the hand soap was the same.

Opening the door, I froze as I stared at a plate on the desk. My heart hammered as I glanced around the corner expecting someone to be on the bed, naked like a fucking creeper, but the room was empty. So either my captor could walk through walls or had been waiting until I needed to use the bathroom to slip in and out without being seen.

My lower lip trembled, and I clutched the hoodie around my body tighter. I could be here forever or for one more hour, and I had no idea which it would be.

I focused on the food, and my stomach growled. How did I know this wasn’t poisoned or drugged? Pacing the room, I stared at the bacon, eggs, toast, jam, and juice.

“Fuck it, if I’m going to die, then I’ll do it eating bacon. There are worse ways to go.”

Marching over, I picked up the plate and went back to the bed so I could keep an eye on the door. I shoveled the food into my mouth like it was my last meal and realized it was well past noon. The sun had moved on the floor and told me it was roughly three in the afternoon.

I smiled at the memory of my grandma and grandpa showing me how to tell the time using the sun.

“Do you know what that is,” Grandpa asked. I shook my head as I poked at the thing made of rock. “It’s called a sundial, and it was the first watch?”

“Why are there no glowing numbers,” I asked, and he smiled.

“Because at one point, there were no digital clocks, watches, or phones.”

I scrunched my nose as I stared at my grandpa and tried to picture the world without digital clocks or cell phones.

“Come on, you two, the lemonade and cookies are ready,” Grandma said, and I cheered, running for the back door.

Finishing the food, I looked down at the empty plate, and a tear trickled down my cheek. I didn’t think my life could get any worse than the spinster, non-cat lady who kept picking men who cheated, but I had managed to do it. I drew the attention of a crazy psycho who kidnapped me instead.

My head snapped up as it dawned on me that for this room to look so similar to my apartment…shit, he’d been in my home.

Could I get any lower than this moment?

As the room darkened, I struggled to keep my eyes open. I wasn’t sure what I planned to do if someone did come in, but I had to try and escape or negotiate my way out of here.

My head bobbed off my chest, and I gasped and sucked in a deep breath. Had I been asleep? The room looked the same. Getting up, I did twenty jumping jacks, then wandered over to the basket of snacks. Oh my god, they were gluten-free and all of my favorites. I picked up cookies, and the wrapper crinkled in my hand. He knew everything. My body trembled, and I had to cover my mouth to try and keep it inside, or I was going to lose it for real, and I didn’t know if I would ever stop crying.

Morbid curiosity had me opening the fridge, and sure enough, there were all the drinks I preferred. Some of these I hadn’t even had for a couple of weeks.

“Are you hungry,” a man’s voice asked. I screamed, ran across the room, and jumped onto the bed with my package of cookies in hand. Holding them out like a weapon as I stared at the open door and the massive shadowy figure who stood just outside of the soft light in the room.

“Who are you? What do you want with me,” I asked, as every muscle trembled.