* * *

Muffled sounds. Blinding pain. Darkness.

Where am I?

 I was spinning, whirling through currents of water and fire, sucking turbulence and burning pain. I heard a soft moan that thundered through my ears with the strength of Hercules.

Oh shut up whoever you are. The moan came again, and I realized that it came from my own lips. I opened my eyes and saw stars flashing green and yellow against a wall of black.

 

  “Meg?” A whisper throbbed too close to me.

 

  “Oh stop screaming at me.” I sat up, feeling cold, hard cement against the palm of my hand.

   “Are you ok?”

   “Oh gee, let me think.”

   “I’m sorry, I blacked out before I could warn you.” The stars cleared and I could almost make out Marti’s pretty face, innocent and worried. She was looking like a toddler whose mother is just out of sight. I felt her soft touch on my shoulder. For some reason my confused visual state seemed to make my other senses sharper and I could feel the subtle ridges of her fingerprints as deep as canyons against my hot skin. I could smell grease and gasoline vaguely, and I figured we must have been in some sort of garage. “I’m so sorry Meg. So sorry.” For a minute I swear I heard tears in her voice again. But just like the flip of a coin, that choked tone vanished and sensible, stable, never-say-die Marti returned to me. “We’ll be out of this mess in no time, don’t worry.” She said. “Your folks knew you were coming over to my place right?”

I nodded, still trying to force my eyes into focus.

  “But they don’t know where we are,” Pushing myself up against the wall was the hardest thing I’d ever done. “And neither do we.” I reminded her. There. At last I could see more than blurry shadows. We were in a garage as I’d suspected. A black Jeep was parked there and two men were standing outside it whispering in grim voices. I felt blood rush to my head, fear pushing me to notice tiny details that probably wouldn’t matter. The Jeep’s key was still in the ignition, the garage door control was two feet above my head, the first man was wearing a red plaid shirt and the second had flip-flops on feet covered in dirt. And there was a gun in his hand.

Pointless details. But one of them would save my life later that night, and it wasn’t the one you’d expect to.