The Distant Blue

I remember the day I was taken in flashes. The aching blue of the sky as it disappeared, the wind moaning through flaming leaves and the hands pressing the stinking cloth over my mouth. I didn’t hear him come from behind me because I  was listening to my new favorite song, how stupid that I should be hearing something I loved and that is what led to my downfall. “Something filled up my heart with nothing, someone told me not to cry, now that I’m older, my heart is colder and I can see that it’s a lie.” Over the incredible majesty of it there was a thumping of metal as I passed out.

It had been a great day, a day destined for greatness since I would be having sex with my long time boyfriend for the first time. The last thing I did before leaving the library where I worked was restock the books that people had brought in, noted which ones were late and left. The smell of old books was still in my nose when I vanished.

Sit down and look closely at these words for this is an account of horror the likes of which is likely to make you sick, make you fall apart, well you get the picture.

When I awoke I was ice cold and my arms were completely numb from being suspended above me. The back of my fingertips touched damp metal and I knew even without light that I was in shed of some sort. The ground was covered in blankets and I heard the crinkle of old newspapers. Tears gathered in my eyes as the real terror set in. I was a prisoner.

            Hours later the door swung back awakening me. A tall dark figure stood outlined in the dying rays of the sun. So tall that I craned my neck up and still his face resisted illumination. “Hello,” he said lifting a flashlight up to his face as if  he were about to tell me a ghost story.

He smiled and walked towards me but stopped a few feet from me. Another set of footsteps was approaching. He turned and another even taller male was behind him. “Come and see,” the flashlight one said to him.

The moon was coming out and it flared their faces at the edges. Handsome, youngish, but still much older than me. They were probably in their mid twenties. It was too dark to really see the color of their eyes but something told me that the first ones would be light. “Please,” I couldn’t finish my sentence I was so scared.

The second one laughed a little. “Turn the light on Alicide,” flashlight said. A bare bulb came to life above me. My first thought was they were the most beautiful men I’d seen in real life.

I recognized the blonde one from the flashes I’d caught of his face. His eyes were ice blue with dark lashes and his hair was almost brown but lightened still from summer. The other one had curly black hair and green eyes or so they looked from here. I felt them appraise me, felt them devour me.

“Did she struggle?” the dark haired one asked and I knew that it was the blonde that had taken me.

He glanced at me with no expression. “A little but the chloroform did the trick.”

He crouched before me and I choked back a scream as his hand reached for my face. “Are you cold?”

I nodded. He smiled at this and I was surprised at how genuinely nice it looked. He stood and reached into his pocket and withdrew a single key. He unlocked the restraints and I sighed in relief. What a fool I was then. “Take your clothes off,” he stepped closer as did his companion.

I shook my head and pressed back against the cold damp wall. My head hit the empty restraints. They surrounded me. I felt massive hands reach for my hoodie and the sound of the zipper unclenching was a roar of sound. When it hit the floor they started in on my fitted henley.  “I’m only seventeen,” I whispered struggling as my bra was exposed.

“We know exactly how old you are Sookie Stackhouse,” the blonde whispered in my ear.

The button of my jeans slid out from its holdings and they pushed them to my ankles. I couldn’t escape this. My mind flailed around the dark room, looking for a way out. A memory of my last time kissing my boyfriend came to me as they fondled my breasts. I struck out at them and realized that I hadn’t been struggling enough because I was now clad only in my panties and lace bra. They each grabbed one wrist and cuffed them up above me again. “Do you know how easy it is to catch hypothermia in this weather?” the black haired one named Alicide said to me, close to my ear.

“When we come back you will be more pliable,” the blonde said searching my expression for some sign that I would obey.

I spit in his face and he looked shocked for a second. Then his fist came towards my mouth and I couldn’t move away fast enough.  Blood dripped from my lips and his smile never reached his eyes. His eyes were filled with excitement at the sight of it. Alicide watched us calmly with a tiny curving of his lips.

“What if she needs to pee?” Alicide asked.

The blonde took his sleeve and wiped away my spittle. “It will keep her warm…” he paused and laughed. “At least until it freezes her.”

The night that passed was agony. Since my arms were bound I couldn’t wrap them around myself. “We know exactly who you are Sookie Stackhouse,”  as the words came back to me a violent shudder passed through me.

They had been watching me. They had planned this. I knew that I was in trouble but my young mind couldn’t begin to grasp just how deep it would go. If I could only go back in time. But life isn’t a fairy tale, or maybe it is except in real life monsters are real and happy endings don’t happen.For how long I shook until sleep claimed me I can't say. Even in my dreaming I was cold. I spent hours looking for my favorite sweater, but I've heard that even dreams that seem to encompass days, really only last a few minutes. I never did find the sweater, nor a blanket. Dawn crept in through the cracks of the joined walls and from under the double sided door. I was chilled and mostly naked.

Gradually the sun rose higher in the sky and I could begin to feel my legs and and aching arms again. That's when I heard the sound of heavy boots approaching.