Chapter 3

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I woke up groggily, not knowing where I was or how I got there. I was feeling dazed, and I knew I must have been high on some sort of drug. I opened my eyes to scan my surroundings and noticed I was in a small room.

It looked strangely cozy and welcoming, but it wasn't mine. As I struggled to get up, I came to a dreadful realization. I had cuffs binding my wrists and ankles. The ones binding my ankles were bolted to the bed. Panicking, I bolted upright.

This can't be right; I must be dreaming! I thought.

This can't be happening!

I started hyperventilating, then heard some noises originating from outside the room. Someone was coming.

Scared out of my wits, I did the only thing I could think of, I lied back down and pretended to be asleep.

As I heard the door open, I held my breath. My heart was pounding so hard that it wouldn't have surprised me if someone heard it from across the room.

Then I felt the bed shift, and a cold hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently. I flinched away from the stranger's touch and curled into a fetal position.

"It's okay, Annabelle, don't be scared. I don't mean you any harm," I recognized the voice was that of a female, and relaxed a little, "I need you to get up, okay?"

I felt a strange need to look at her. I had no idea why, but I wanted to know if her face was as beautiful as her voice was. I slowly turned my head, and when my eyes met hers, my breath hitched. She looked like an angel. She smiled warmly at me and helped me get into a sitting position. I stared at her with my mouth gaping open, blinked a couple of times to see if she was real, and then eyed her suspiciously, slightly glaring at her.

"Hello, my name is Stella," she said.

When I didn't answer, she held something out to me. It was a bowl and a mouthwash. "Here, I'm supposed to give you this, just take it, and you can spit it out into the bowl. I'll bring you some food after. You must be hungry."

I looked at the bottle of Listerine, and then down at my cuffed hands.

"Here, I'll help," she opened the mouthwash and held it to my lips, "Drink it, go ahead, it's not drugged or anything," I felt the need to obey her, so I took the mouthwash and spat it out into the bucket. I did this a couple of times until I felt satisfied.

I then looked up at her eyes, and I noticed she had a piercing gaze, like the bartender at Gabe's party.

Shit. Gabe. Angie. The party!

All the memories came flooding back to me, including how I had noticed the bartender reach for something in his pocket before handing me a drink and then recognized him as the person who caught me when I fainted outside.

He must've drugged my drink! Holy shit, I've been kidnapped! I thought.

"Well, I'm going to get you something to eat. I'll be back in a minute." She got up and was about to leave when I finally found my voice.

"Wait."

She turned to me slowly, "What is it?"

I searched my mind for something to say, a way to get myself out of this mess, and came up with a little plan, "My ankles. They hurt where they're cuffed. I think the metal is digging into my skin. Could you loosen them up a little?" I pulled my best puppy dog eyes and gave her a pleading look.

"Um... Okay, I guess," Ha, she fell for it. Sucker.

She put the bowl and mouthwash aside before walking over to the door and locking it.

There goes my easy getaway, I thought.

"I can take them off for a little while," she said, "but you have to promise not to run away."

"Sure." No way in hell.

She walked my way and pulled a key out of her pocket, removing the cuffs that were binding my feet.

To my surprise, the cuffs really were pretty tight and left red marks on my ankles when she took them off. She sat on the bed and looked at me intently, probably expecting me to run over to the door, but I had something else in mind.

In one quick move, I jumped on top of her, straddling her and pinning her down on the bed. I pinned her throat with the chain of the cuffs on my wrists, cutting off her air supply. Her eyes widened in shock.

"You have three seconds to tell me who the fuck you are, where I am, and what I'm doing here, or I'll choke you to death."

Probably too surprised to speak, she just stared at me. I made the terrible mistake of looking directly into her eyes and instantly snapped into some kind of trance. I noticed her eyes were a beautiful silvery-blue color and were framed by long, dark lashes, which contrasted with her light blond hair. Her scent was strange and intoxicating. I wondered what kind of perfume it was, and why it was making me feel so lightheaded.

Trying to escape her piercing gaze, I looked down at her lips and noticed how full they were, and how her bottom lip was larger than the other.

Her mouth was kind of... sexy, for lack of a better word.

I shook my head, trying to shake these strange thoughts away, and caught her eyes again. Then the strangest thing happened.

I absolutely lost it.

I don't know what came over me, whether it was momentary insanity due to my panicked state, or whether I was still too drugged to think straight, but I did the most unimaginable thing I could've done in that situation.

I kissed her.