DANTE

My pulse hammered while pain shot through all my limbs. I groaned and tried to push myself up, then cursed and fell back onto the damp concrete. Planting my palms on the floor, I squeezed my eyes shut and winced through it. Tears gathered at the corners of my eyes when I laid my cheek against the ground; the chill on my skin felt good. Slowly, I pried my eyes open and took in whatever I could see around me. The space was dim and had no natural light at all. Water dripped from a loose pipe, the steady irritating sound echoing as it hit a widening puddle on the ground. The walls and floor were plain concrete, with no carpet and no decoration anywhere. I turned my head and stretched my neck enough to spot a weak strip of light near the top of a crooked staircase. Carefully, I sit up and start to rise, but the rattle of metal reaches me. My stomach bottomed out and I looked down at my feet. Iron cuffs circled both ankles. My heart dropped, right along with the Titanic and whatever hope I'd scraped together about getting out. I landed back on my ass, fingers tracing the long chain fastened to the wall. I frowned and let out a small pout; this wasn't okay. None of it was okay. What had I done to end up here? Piece by piece, my memory started returning. Two men in black suits with guns had come into my house about . . . oh god, what time had it been? I reached for my wrist and found nothing; my watch was missing. I distinctly remembered putting it on that day . . . Exhaling, I shut my eyes again and tried to remember... The day had begun the way any normal weekend did. I was standing in BWI - Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Baltimore, Maryland. It was about a forty-five minute drive from the house where I lived with my mother, Elaine, and my dad, Grant. They were leaving for Austria for the summer. I'd have the house all to myself for three months. At that point, it felt like heaven. "Now, Sweetheart, are you certain you'll be alright?"