Taken (short story)

It felt like he was staring straight into the depths of my soul. I’ve always hated prolonged eye contact but this was something else. It was like I could feel him flipping through my memories and dissecting all my lies, secrets and bad days where I said something I didn't really mean. He was trying to work out what kind of person I was. Whether I was innocent, or deserving of this game he was playing. I glared back at him, trying in vain to provoke the same unpleasant feeling in him.

Despite being the victim in this situation, this ordeal hadn't really come as a surprise. I had known that someone was following me for the past week. Whenever I looked, it was always someone different but I had felt a presence everywhere I went. I was acutely aware that they were analysing every decision I made and every route I took. But what was I supposed to do about it? There was only so far I could run. 

I broke eye contact and shuffled around awkwardly on my seat. The metal was cold and the restraints on my wrists made the position I was stuck in deeply uncomfortable. This was of course, an intentional decision. They were trying to intimidate me, to put me on edge. But I wasn't going to break that easily. I was terrified, but I wasn't about to let them see that.

"You know, if you just tell us what we want to know, we'll let you go." the man said slowly, leaning in closer to me so I could smell the stale coffee on his breath. I tried not to gag.

“Oh I’m sure.” I replied with a smirk. Did he really think I was that stupid? They weren’t going to let me go. Not now. They had made their decision and now they had to see it through.

“We’ve been following you for nine days. Watching you while you made your dinner, got dressed and showered. We’ve just been waiting for you to slip up. We knew you would eventually and we’d have you.” He rocked back on his chair, smirking and resting his arms behind his head in a position that was supposed to seem natural but just looked painful.

“I realised you were following me. It took me a couple of days to realise, but considering your profession,” I snarked emphasising ‘profession’ in invisible quotation marks, “I would have expected your boys to be better at this.” It was my turn to smirk now. I wished I could mirror his stupid position, just to piss him off, but I was confined with my arms tightly wound behind my back.

“If you knew we were following you, why didn’t you try and run away? That’s what most people would have done if they thought they were in danger.” He said, offering me a drink with a slight movement of his hand.

I declined the drink. Who knew what was in it.

“Well, I’m not as thick as you. I knew you were following me so why run? You’d have followed me wherever I ran to. You were watching me 24/7. All I could do was make sure my affairs were in order before you came for me.” I told them. I could feel the numbness in my feet, which had been growing for the past hour, begin to spread up my bound legs and my left foot started to tremble, aching to move. I tried shaking it around madly in an attempt to soothe the prickling sensation that was building, unable to ignore it any longer.

“Nervous are we?” He said, referencing my spasming foot.

“Not at all. Don’t suppose you want to grant me the use of my hands? Or at the very least my legs? I can’t go anywhere with my hands still stuck.” I asked, looking up at him and grinning, squirming around in my seat to emphasise my point.

He smirked.

“You’re not getting out of those restraints. Not until we are finished with you.” He sighed, obviously starting to get frustrated. We had been here for at least an hour, just staring each other down in threatening silence. “This is all in your control. We’ll stop, we’ll let you rest! We might even give you some food. If you just tell us the truth.” He shouted, finally losing all patience. He grabbed me by the shirt and shook me hard.

I laughed maniacally, throwing my head back.

“Honestly officer, I don’t know what you want from me. One minute she was alive, the next she was dead.” I said sniggering slightly.

“I’m getting a coffee… it’s going to be a long night.” The sergeant sighed, closing the door softly behind him.