Trapped

"What am I going to do?"

I woke up some time later feeling nauseous and dizzy. My head was pounding, and my body was shivering beyond my control. The inside of my nose and throat both felt sore also. I slowly opened my eyes, which felt like the equivalent of climbing to the top of Mount everest in one day, and I looked around. I'm in a room with a dresser and a few other typical things you'd see in any regular bedroom. The floors and walls all had a modern-day cabin style to them, and across the room in front of me is a large window with the curtains pulled to either side. Outside, I can see what seems to be about a million trees and a mountain in the distance, all covered in thick white snow. A very breathtaking view in most other scenarios. I'm tucked under some blankets on a bed and when I go to sit up from the position I was laying down in, my arm suddenly gets stopped from coming with me, causing my body to be yanked back some. It hurt, but not an unbearable amount, thankfully. My right wrist had apparently been hand cuffed to the bed post farthest to the right side. The moment I realized what was going on my eyes began to grow wide and my heart seems to stop altogether with anxiety hitting me like a hard punch to the stomach, making the nausea feel 100 times worse now. "Michael is going to kill me." I thought to myself as I realized he's probably already out looking everywhere for me. I feel panicked, but I'm trying to stay calm and keep my cool. Freaking out in this situation wont do any good, and even if I could push aside my sore throat and yell out as loud as possible for help, it looks like we might be in the middle of the woods, so I don't think there's anyone else around that could hear me any ways. I tugged and pulled on the hand cuffs for a few minutes to see if there was any possible way of getting them loose and freeing myself from them or at least getting free from the wooden post, to no avail. I slumped down in my sitting position, feeling defeated. This definitely isn't the first time I've felt like this, and I somehow got out of those situations, at least temporarily, so my hope remains unbroken for now. It was only then that I realized there was a glass of water and two small pills on the night stand beside the bed. Next to it was a letter folded in half like a greeting card so that it would stand up in view. The note read, "Take these pills and drink some water. They both should help you feel better than I can imagine you feel now." Sorry again for having to do what we did." And just underneath it was a hand drawn smiley face. I scoffed and threw the note back down on the nightstand, just barely throwing it too far on accident, causing it to slide off onto the floor on the other side. I worried they might be mad at me for that, but I can't put too much worry in that part of this situation. "They're absolutely crazy if they think I'm just willingly going to take a pill or two that they've given me or drink water that God knows what could be in it." I thought to myself. I adjusted my sitting position again so that I could sit up against the wooden headboard and let out a deep sigh. The memory of everything suddenly flooded my brain with every image, feeling, and sound from when I peaked around that corner. The way that creature looked was almost like something you'd see in a nightmare or a really good horror movie. The sound of the door opening and dishes suddenly clanking together pulled me from my thoughts and back to reality. Anxiety hit my stomach again from the unknown of what was going to happen. The guy with the glasses walks in with a tray of food. He stopped in his tracks for a moment when he saw me. "Oh, I didn't think you'd be awake," he said, sounding nervous and trying to force a slight laugh. I didn't offer any reply. He walked closer to the bed and placed the tray of what looked like a home made chicken and vegetable soup with a bread roll and small piece of chocolate cake within my reach and looked over to the untouched water and pills on the night stand. "I see you haven't touched the medicine, or even the water I left here for you," he commented. I continued to stay quiet, unsure of what to say exactly. "Hey listen", he began softly, "I'm really sorry for having to do all of this, but punishing yourself won't help anything. We're really not bad guys, I swear. We will talk later about why we had to do this, but for now. " he pulled a key out of his pocket and reached over to the handcuffs to unlock them. I pulled my now free hand closer to my body and rubbed the area that the hand cuffs were, surprised that he so easily took them off without me even asking. "How do I know you didn't put some other drugs or poison inside of the water and food or that those pills are actually meant to help me?" I asked very seriously, trying to show no emotion. He sighed and touched his hand to his face and glasses, seeming a bit frustrated. Without saying another word he grabbed the spoon on my tray and took a small bite of the soup, then the cake, then he pulled a small piece of the roll off and ate it and then grabbed the water on the night stand and took a small drink. I gave him a weird look of confusion until I realized what he was doing. "If I wanted you dead or drugged or something, there would be much easier and less time consuming ways to do so," he said matter of factly. He grabbed the pills and continued on, "This small white one is for nausea, and the small blue one is to help with the headache that I'm sure you have. It might not take them completely away but should help them both become significantly more tolerable, at least. Now, are you going to take them and eat something so you can start to feel better?" He held his hand out as he ended his sentence and looked suddenly like he was feeling guilty. His lips pulled just slightly to the side as if he was biting the side of the inside of his lip. I nod yes now, realizing he made a good point and that it might not be as bad of a choice as I originally thought and reach my hand up just below his. He placed the pills on my palm and grabbed the glass of water from the night stand to hand to me. "Thank you." I mutter with a few glances back up at him as I take both of the pills with one big drink of the water. Although I'm still very much so on high alert and keeping my guard up, I'm not getting the feeling that he has any bad intentions towards me or anything. "How long have I been here?" I asked him hesistently. "About 27 hours, give or take an hour, I can't say I checked my watch the moment we got here." He replied, attempting to make a light-hearted comment to break the tension a little more. "And where is here exactly?" I continued on to ask, unintentionally ignoring his comment. He rubbed the back of his neck a little more uncomfortably and said, "I, uh, can't really tell you that information. At least not yet. It's technically considered top secret information, but like I said, we will get into all of that later." I'm sure a look of confusion painted my face again. "So I'm assuming any talk or questions about that creature?" I started to ask. "Will be a topic that we speak of later." He finished. I nodded in understanding. I dont understand why we can't just talk about everything now and why there's all this secrecy and "top secret information," though. I pulled my food closer to me to eat, and he continued to talk some here and there. "I do have something important to tell you, though, that you should probably know before I even think about letting you leave this room to meet everyone." He paused to let me process the level of importance of what he plans to say next. "Two out of the six of us who decided to bring you here weren't very thrilled to have you here. for many reasons involving topics we will talk about later, but also when you showed up and dropped those glass bottles, we all got distracted. Between that and having to separate,

Eli, the really big guy who grabbed you, well, his younger brother Noah, who was one of the ones that stayed with that creature, as you call it, ended up getting pretty badly hurt. Noah is in the hospital right now, and they both blame you for it. The rest of us don't, of course, but as a precaution, I feel I needed to tell you to be careful." I had no idea what to say in reply to that. What can I say back to that, really? So I stayed quiet and kept eating. "By the way, what's your name?" He asked, changing the subject now. I swallowed my spoonful of soup and stopped eating for a minute. "Alethia. What is your name?" I asked in return. "I'm Danny. It's nice to introduce ourselves officially. I wish it wasn't under these circumstances, but it's nice to meet you Alethia", He said with a soft smile. I nodded my head in acknowledgment. "I'm going to call my sister to grab you a few things and bring you some clothes." He said as he pulled out his phone. "Wait, how long am I going to be here exactly?" I asked concerned. "Michael is going to find me and blame me for not coming back home on time. What am I going to do?" I thought as the fear welled up inside. Danny let the hand that's holding his phone slowly fall to his side again and paused for a moment, clearly unsure how to answer or maybe if he should answer at all. To be honest, I'm afraid of both answers. Going home now, Michael will never believe me and will blame me no matter what, and I can only imagine how awful it will be, but im afraid to be told I cant leave and that I'm stuck here too. I don't know these people, I don't know what they want from me or why I'm here. "You're... not leaving any where Alethia... at least not any time soon. I'm sorry." He slowly let the words pass his lips, but I could hardly hear him speaking anymore. I suddenly got lost in my mind, and nothing felt real anymore. It all felt like some crazy dream that I would wake up from any second now. My mind letting me escape my true nightmare of a reality in any way possible, even if it meant being trapped somewhere else. The sound of my heart beating became deafening. "Alethia!" Danny called out to me, which finally brought me back to this so-called reality for a moment. "Everything is going to be okay. I will make sure of it, okay?" He said reassuringly. All I could do was nod to him in acknowledgment as tears started to stream down my cheeks. "I will be right back, I promise." He said and quickly walked out of the bedroom door. I jumped up as fast I possibly could behind him to try to catch the door knob just as it closed but I heard a soft 'click' sound and when I turned the knob, it was locked. I let out a frustrated and anger filled groan and banged my hand on the door a couple of times. So many emotions burst out like a dam breaking and flooding everything in its path. With no other choice, I just let the tears continue to fall for a few minutes and then forced myself to try to calm down again. I decided to pace the floor back and forth since sitting still sounded more like torture. "What is going on, and what am I going to do?" I thought to myself.