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Dear God, how many other people had met their end via the trunk of this stupid car!
I took a deep breath to calm myself. I was on borrowed time, but I had to stay alert, aware. If an opportunity came, I had to be prepared to make the most of it. I thought about Dante. About his confident swagger. How nothing seemed to get to him. I know that was part of who he was. He could detach himself and look at a situation without any emotion getting in the way.
My body squirmed with desperation. Tears poured down my cheeks. The fear of dying didn’t bring the waterworks; it was the idea that Dante loved me, that we could have had some kind of life together, and now that life would never be realized because I would be dead. I couldn’t even think through the pain. I eased into the most comfortable position I could find and let the tears take over. Eventually, the noise of the road fed my exhaustion and I fell asleep to the memory of piercing, dark eyes and the warmth that always surrounded me when he was near.
I woke to the smell - not the stench I had been lying in but a familiar scent that flooded my mind and body with memories. That salty brininess, so heavy I felt it against my tongue even through the gag. Memories of another time, of ocean waves, and sandlings along the shore. Of a tropical paradise where the shadows of palm trees played across bamboo huts.
The ocean. We were near the ocean.
And the car was stopped.
Was this it? Was this the end? Were they going to throw me into the ocean in my cocoon and let me sink to the bottom of the sea?
I heard doors slamming and for the first time, voices. All my other senses were unreliable and useless. My hearing was all I had. I remembered something Dante had said one night. “When your other senses betray you, channel everything into the one you have left.”
I kept as still as possible so I wouldn’t inadvertently make a noise. I needed to hear anything and everything I could. Find the opportunity, if one existed. Take it and make that bitch my one chance to get away. What else had Dante told me? So many things. Even though I didn’t know where he was, he was helping me get through this and he would never know it.
The voices approached the back of the car, but I didn’t recognize them. The trunk lid popped open. All I heard was, “You carry her.”
They said little, revealing nothing, and didn’t speak at all when one of them reached in to pull me from the trunk. I wanted to struggle, but I let my body go limp, so they’d think I was unconscious. I expected to be thrown over his shoulder, but instead, he cradled me in his arms and started walking.
Someone finally spoke.
“Is she okay?”
“How the fuck do I know? She’s breathing, I can feel it.”
“He doesn’t want her messed up.”
He? Who washe?
“She didn’t get hurt while we were taking her, so unless she hurt herself somehow, she’s fine.”
The other one grunted. “There’s the boat.”
It was a boat. So that was it? Drowning in the middle of the ocean? My heart continued thundering in my chest. It was so loud they had to be ableto hear it.
I thought about flopping around. Maybe I could get him to drop me, but I had no idea where I was. Would I land on rocks and knock myself out, or hasten my own demise by inadvertently throwing myself into the water? It was close. The smell... the salt... it was as if we were right over the water.
He continued walking and the sound of his footsteps changed, becoming heavier, like soft thuds. He started walking up an incline. Gravity pulled me back against him. A pier. No - a gangway! We were going up a gangway onto a boat!
I fought the panic welling up inside me. The only release I had for it were the tears that continued to fall.
I heard the slide of what I assumed was a glass door.
“I’m going to set you down,” one of the unknown voices said.
I stumbled when he set me on my feet, then I had to lean uncomfortably against him while I got my footing. He kept one hand on my shoulder, barely touching me, making it even more difficult for me to get my feet steady. Jerk!First you kidnap me, then you leave me to wobble around like some inflatable clown?
I didn’t care if I was going to be killed or not, once this gag came out, someone was getting a piece of my mind before I swallowed my weight in seawater.
I searched for something to keep me calm. Something to help me get through this. I found Dante’s voice in my head.
“Easy, baby girl,” he’d whisper to me. “You got this.”
I took a deep breath and righted myself. I heard the swish of doors again. The atmosphere changed. It felt... cooler. We were indoors, on a boat. I strained to hear... anything... but it was quiet. The slap of water against the side of the boat. The screech of a gull. A slight hum from the mechanicals of the boat. Nothing to tell me where I was or why I was there!
I felt a movement as someone approached me. The ties of my cocoon were undone. I would soon come face to face with the person who would murder me.
