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GABRIEL
I woke to a pounding head and blurry vision. I felt like I was swirling in a tornado, my body twisting and wrenching in unnatural ways.
I tried squinting to narrow my focus. I could see walls, a ceiling. Everything felt too close and like it was moving.
The ground gave beneath my shoulder, almost as if it were cushioned. I shook my head, but that only made the vertigo worse.
With slow, long breaths, I attempted to calibrate. Little details would help, anything would help. Rough and strong, some kind of bindings held my wrists together behind my back. The surface I was lying on was white—a bare mattress.
The space was small and dark, either a short room or perhaps the back of a van.
I moved my arms slowly, testing the binds. It did nothing but make my arms hurt.
I moved my legs, bringing my feet forward so I could see them. Thick ropes bound my ankles together.
“Are you awake? I thought I heard you moving,” a soft, feminine voice said.
I froze and closed my eyes.
“Your breathing has changed. You’re definitely awake.”
My heart seized in my chest, panic rippling through my entire body.
"What...what's going on?" I croaked.
My tongue felt swollen, my delivery clumsy.
Had I been drugged?
“It’ll wear off eventually,” she said.
“What will?”
“The sedatives I put in your water.”
I searched my memory for the events that had led me to my current predicament. I’d been at the television station, delivering the confession of my feelings to the world. The assistant had encouraged me to drink a bottle of water.
She’d drugged me, but why?
I tried to move, to twist and see her.
She hopped over me and scurried on hands and knees close enough that I could confirm her identity. She looked so familiar that I was sure I’d seen her somewhere before today.
She smiled wide, a crazed grin that suggested nothing good. As suddenly as it had appeared, her smile vanished. “I should have been the one making millions off our work. You pushed me out and took everything for yourself. Now it's time for both of us to get what we deserve.”
I shook my head, trying to clear the fog from my brain. “Our work? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Seriously?” Her expression fell.
I had no words. I had no idea who she was, except there was something vaguely familiar about her.
“We worked together for four years, Gabriel. In the same lab, doing the same research, as partners.”
That’s why she seemed familiar. I’d shared a lab in graduate school with four other students, including her. Her name started with a D, maybe, though I couldn’t be sure. I wasn’t entirelycertain we’d ever spoken before, but I was certain that I’d never had a partner in my research.
She barked a humorless laugh. “Doesn't matter now. I have you right where I want you.”
A spike of fear lanced through me.
