Okay, so I may just be dreaming.
It feels unlikely, but I need to look at the facts. There’s a subtle, rhythmic vibration coming from under the cold metal bench that I’m sitting on, hinting at some sort of ground travel. Nothing makes any sense. I don’t know when I could have fallen asleep, nor when I got in a car.
Unfortunately, though, I can’t access any of the little tricks that I use to tell if I’m dreaming. I can’t count my fingers when they’re tied behind my back, and even if I could, there’s a ridiculous sack over my head.
Pain it is, then.
Imagining the chains binding my hands won’t be there anymore, or maybe just desperate enough to wake myself up, I slam my hands as hard as I can against them.
It stings like a bitch.
“Fuck,” I curse myself, gritting my teeth at the pain. “I’m not waking up.”
“That’s because you already are.” A male voice responds.
My whole body jolts at the shock—at just how bad my unawareness has been. He never made a single sound, and I can’t even see light and shadows right now.
These are simply fantastic circumstances.
I’m bound, kidnapped, and in a moving vehicle with an asshole that I don’t know. I can’t think of a better way to spend my night.
“Where am I,” I bite out.
“It doesn’t matter.” The responding voice is throaty and unusually deep, perhaps even a bit rough. Altogether unrecognizable, though.
There’s only one group of people who would go through all this effort to detain me, and I know virtually nothing about them. If this is the big, bad Adversary, I should probably be more afraid than I am right now...
“Are you going to tell me who you are?”
A short pause, and then, “Maybe later.”
Seriously?
“Look, I already know you’re with the Adversary,” I snap back.
In the silence that follows, I bite my lip, wanting to kick myself. I should probably be minding my manners with a goddamn kidnapper rather than baiting them. Even if I can’t die as a mortal anymore, I can definitely still be tortured.
Sighing, I do my best to humble myself. “I’d like a name,please.”
“You can call me the Devil, if you’d like.” There’s a slight jilt in his low voice, taunting me. And just like that, there goes my will to bepatient.
“Real funny.” To Hell with niceties. I’m pissed. “Why don’t you take this sack off so I can see your little devil horns, in that case?”
No response.
Dammit! I need answers, and I need them fast. If I’m being transported somewhere, I could be running out of time. Think, think, think… What does the Adversary possibly stand to gain from capturingme?
It wouldn’t make any sense for them to go through all this effort just to kill me. They have to want me alive for something. Information about the Abyss or the Elohim, probably. I’m the weak link, an easy target for torturing. They could be taking me as a prisoner of war and transporting me somewhere that I’ll never see the light of day… Yeah, I reallyneed to get out of here.
Shifting my body weight in an effort to hide the movements of my hands, I face them towards each other. My power’s yet to fucking help me with anything, but maybe fear for my life will finally kick it into gear. I just need something bright and hot, capable of burning a hole through the vehicle for me to escape.
Shadow, if you’re not dead, now would be a great time for you to return. I’d even suffer through listening to you talk again if you could save my life.
But… crickets.
Too many factors here are not in my favor. Even when I try to look for souls, there’s nothing. Nothing in front of me, nothing all around me. I didn’t even know it was possible to isolate someone like that. I’ve been so sorely unprepared for the capabilities of the Adversary?—
“If it stops your futile attempts to escape any quicker, I can promise you that whatever you’re trying isn’t going to work here.” His voice is deader than a grave, and I have to fight back the flicker of panic that tries to light within me.
