Long Past Dawn

Wait, what the hell am I thinking? I'm not about to admit that this kinda does feel like a date. We're just friends... Just friends.

I sigh, my thoughts are getting too weird. I look around and see three men watching us from a distance, weird, I feel like I've seen them before... I shake off the feeling, it's a mall you're bound to see people you might recognize. But I still keep them in the corner of my eye, something seems... off about them.

"Want to grab a bite to eat?" Stephen asks while pointing over to the food court next to us.

I nod as my stomach rumbles at the thought of food. I only got one bite of donut for breakfast this morning, I'm starving.

Stephen laughs at the sound of my stomach and we walk over with our shopping bags in tow towards the food court.

Multiple fast food brands are sitting around the food court, I'm not sure what to choose. Stephen glances over at me, "Do you want to take the bags and find someplace to sit down? I can go grab us some food if you want."

"Y-yeah that sounds good," I've lost sight of those people from before. Maybe it was just a coincidence. I take the bags from Stephen's hand and look around for a table, the food court is full of people and most of the tables by the shops and stores are taken so I head over to a mostly deserted corner. I take a two-person table and drop the bags on the ground by the other chair and slide into the other one.

Fifteen minutes later and no news from Stephen, I mean sure the lines were long but maybe I should go see if he needs help.

I was about to get up and look for Stephen when a hand touched my shoulder. I smile a little as I turned my head, but then I saw the fingers on my shoulder wasn't the right shape nor the skin the excepted color. A voice behind me said, "Very sorry to interrupt, my dear, but you're coming with us."

The color drains from my face, they're the men I saw from before. I look around for help but no one's looking over here, not to mention most of the tables are deserted. I open my mouth to scream for help when the man's hand covers my mouth and nose so I can't.

I try to punch and fight them, hoping that if I can't hit them someone will notice what's happening and come help. But no one seems to notice, the man takes away his hand for a split second and I'm about to try to scream again when his hand comes back but this time with a cloth. I struggle for a second longer but the man has my wrist pinned against my back, that's when I smell it. It's a sweet but sickly smell that I instantly know I don't like, I feel my head get foggy and my feet give out along with my eyesight going blurry.

No f*cking way. These b*stards are trying to kidnap me like in some mystery novel. I try to fight some more but whatever they're using is starting to set in, I try not to breathe but the smell is stuck in my nose. I feel my consciousness fading as the chemical name comes back to me. Chloroform.

***

I suck in a raspy breath and slowly open my eyes, damn my head is f*cking killing me. My nose and throat are killing me too. Turns out having chloroform used on you isn't even a quarter as glamorous as the novels say it is.

I try to blink but my eyes sting, the room is dark and the air feels dank and moist. I try to move but I can't, in the little light there is I see my arms and legs are chained to something that feels almost like a pillar.

I try to swallow but it hurts. I hear a door click open somewhere and the lights click on with a buzz. At first, it blinds me but I slowly get used to it. I take in another raspy breath, a person comes through the door I can just see at the other end.

He comes over and stops three feet in front of me and I can finally get a good view of him, he has straight brown hair that falls past his ears, a white lab coat and glasses. But what scares me most about him is his eyes, one is a dark, dark red while the other is a blackish-brown color, but that isn't even the worst part, it's the crazed look in his eyes.

He lifts his hand up to cup my cheek. As his hand touches my skin I start trembling, he hasn't even spoken but I hate him already. I hate his touch on my cheek, I whip around and bite down on his hand.

He brings it back with a hiss, but instead of getting made he smiles. It's a crazed and wicked version of a smile and I flinch away from it as if he had hit me. My whole body is telling me to run but I'm frozen in spot, like an animal in a car's headlights. All I can think is this is going to hurt.

His smile only widens at my reaction. My mind is screaming at me that this man is dangerous, my lip starts to tremble and I can feel tears sting my cheeks but I bite my lip to stop from crying. I don't know who this man is but I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry. I glare down at the man and he chuckles.

"So full of fire, aren't you?" he says. A small smile flickers on the corner of his lips and flares wickedly in his eyes. "It's going to be glorious watching it burn you."

His voice is sickly sweet and seems to be oozing out of him. I hate it. I hate him.

I don't know what to do. I don't know where I am. Then I remember. Stephen. Is he here? Is he ok? Oh god, what am I going to do?

The man laughs a little and looks up at me, "I'm going to have so much fun with you." He blushes slightly and that crazed look is back, "I'm going to play with you until you're begging me to kill you and then you know what I'm going to do?"

I can't move, I can't breathe. This is just like a nightmare. This guy is scaring me so much and I hate it, I don't want to show him how scared I am but my body isn't listening to me anymore.

He brings his hand up to his cheek and I can see the bite mark on it, "I'm going to make sure you live."

I let out a whimper. I didn't mean to but I did. This only makes the man look like he's having even more fun, the crazed look only grows in those horrible eyes. We just sit in silence for a minute, daring the other to look away first.

I concede. I can't stand those horrible eyes that seem to take joy in seeing my fear any longer, I turn my face away from him.

The man laughs and I flinch away again, he then turns around and starts to walk away again. He only stops when he gets to the door, I think he might have stopped to turn off the lights but instead he speaks, "You'll get used to the smell."