It was really late and I already had three cups of coffee to keep me awake. Standing there ALL night was so boring. Like why do they keep the store open this long? There’s barely anyone coming in to buy any gas or anything from the store.
I pull my phone from my pocket and try to get a signal. Like always, I can’t get more than two bars.
Someone pulled in the parking lot. I think, “Ok, stay calm. He or she is just wanting a snack or something and they’ll be gone soon.” I watch them get out of their car and make sure all the surveillance cameras are working in case something happens.
They’re inside the store. It’s a couple, young, maybe in their teens. She has beautiful long flowing brown hair, his hair is brown too, short like any guy hairstyle.
She goes all over the place and he follows behind her, holding all the things she grabs off the shelves. When they check out they spend nearly thirty dollars on junk food and two liters.
My anxiety is gone now that they left. I drink from my fourth cup of coffee, this time I used some hot chocolate to spice things up.
***
I fell asleep… wait… w-where is the gas station…? Where am I?
I look around to find something familiar. It’s just too dark but I can smell dead fish so I must be near a lake or something. I can’t hear much cause there’s wind blowing everywhere. Next thing I know it I’m falling down a hill. When I get up I look around, I’m standing on a dock at the lake I used to go to in my teens.
How is this possible…? I must be dreaming, “This is only a nightmare,” I tell myself as I keep walking around the lake.
Sounds of splashing water, birds, and wind is all I can hear. I keep walking until I get to the lake office. I ask the security guard where to go… He just sits there with his headphones in and ignores me so I try a different approach… I bang on the door and I get his attention quick when he yells at me telling me to stop the banging and I yell back, “I just wanna find my way out of here!” He points me in the direction of a bunch of trials and told me to scram.
I murmur under my breath about how rude he was to me as I walk to the trails and look up at all the signs. There’s also a pamphlet with a map of the lake and surrounding woods. The trail to the left leads to the parking lot, but I don’t have a car, the one to the right goes to more trails. I just head to the parking lot and it’s a long walk.
When I finally get there I see only one car, it’s just that a*****e security guards car. I wanna jam a stick through the window and run but I know I would be put back on probation if anyone found out. So I just leave, annoyed.
I haven’t eaten in a while, or had anything to drink. My mouth is dry and my stomach is growling. I eventually get so tired of walking. I forgot how big this place was, it’s been a long time since I’ve been here.
***
I wake up startled by a loud truck on the road as the driver honks their horn at me while I’m laying there on the side of the road passed out. He jumps out of his car and goes to me and asks me if I need help. I tell him I do, and he tells me to get in his truck and he helps me in. I think, “What the hell are you doing? This guy… you don’t know him, never seen this guy before… why are you trusting him as much to get in his car?”
He hands me some food and a drink, looks like he was planning for a picnic, or a party.
He says, “I thought something interesting would happen and what do you know it, here I am helping someone.” (Silence)
“Pardon my manners,” he says, “my name is Brian Vincent, it’s nice to meet you.”
“My name is Mira Bailey, it’s nice to meet you too.”
“Where do you need to go Mira?” he asks as he pulls into the parking lot of the lake and turns around.
“Could you take me to the gas station on Royal Highway?”
“Do you know the directions?”
“Yes I do, you could drop me off there, that’s where my car is.”
“Alright,” he says kindly.
After a long time of sitting in the car telling Brian the directions to my job, he asks me what happened. I explain the best I can but I can’t remember what happened exactly. He gives me his number and tells me that he is there for me to talk to. I write his number down and put the paper in my pocket.
When we pull into the gas station he walks in with me, there’s no one else inside. I grab my purse, keys, phone, and head back out but just as I start walking Brian stops me from going outside, my anxiety kicks in and I get a bad feeling. I remember the surveillance cameras but can’t check if they’re running.
He says, “I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time, you’re so beautiful, Mira. Do you know that? Do you know what I’m going to do?”
“No, I don’t. What’s going on?”
I start panicking and run to the back of the store, why did he make me feel so safe before?
“Come back here!” he yells chasing me.
I keep running till I get to the door, he blocked it from the outside somehow.
He comes up from behind me and ties me up with ropes. His eyes are bloodshot and his mouth is dripping with saliva. I don’t know what will happen to me. I try to scream but it’s so muffled no one would be able to hear me so I don’t waste my breath too much trying.
***
It is… s-so cold in here, I shiver and notice that my clothes are gone except for my underwear. What did he do to me?
I’m stuck in what looks to be a basement. I guess he took me to his house.
He walks in with a vegetable peeler and a basket.
“Start doing as I told you,” he says.
“Y-you didn’t tell me anything?” I say back
“How could you not remember? I gave you instructions. And why aren’t you in your outfit?”
He makes me put on a skirt and top from the dresser by the door. While I’m getting dressed he takes some vegetables out of the basket and makes me peel them. Dice them. Then cook them in a soup. I swear he kept watching me like he was going to eat me. What if that was his intention?
“Mira, these last few weeks have been great,” he says.
I can’t move, I am so shook. So shocked. Weeks? What the hell happened?
“Do not just sit in silence like you don’t remember,” he says harshly.
“I don’t know what’s going on, why are you doing this?”
“I’m doing this because we were meant to be, you and I. I plan on marrying you and it is going to be amazing.”
I don’t know what to do or what I got myself into. I wish I was just at work struggling to stay up rather than struggling to figure out what will happen to me. I just know it’s not good.
