She rushed over to the bed, pushing and pulling on her grandma’s body, but still nothing. It was like someone had drugged them. All she could hope for now was that they would eventually wake up.
“I’d save my energy if I were you.”
Eva suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice. She lifted her head, and saw a thin, tall man, about as old as her grandpa. The only difference, was that this man was dressed immaculately, and Eva could see the ghostly paleness of his clean-shaven face. He was dressed in black from head to toe, so for a moment, she thought she was still seeing a shadow and not the actual man behind it.
“Who are you?” Eva managed to mutter, her entire body trembling with fear. “What have you done with my grandparents?”
“Nothing much,” the man nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, taking one step inside the room. “It’s a special sleeping powder.”
“You drugged them!?” Eva shrieked, checking her grandma’s pulse again.
“Actually, it is just an herb which makes you sleep for about twelve hours, without waking up once,” he explained politely.
“What do you want?” Eva took a step back, feeling trapped. But, she knew she wasn’t going down without a fight.
“This is not the time or place for this conversation,” he kept on explaining, equally politely.
Eva was confused. She was scared and angry, but a
t the same time, this man spoke in such a soothing voice that she was barely able to stay as angry as she thought she should be.
“I’m warning you, don’t come any closer,” she hissed, like a cornered animal, frantically looking around to find anything she could use as a means of defense.
“If I wanted to hurt you, don’t you think I would have done it already?” he asked, with a smug smile on his face.
The light in the hallway suddenly turned on, but instead of allowing her to see him better, it hid his face from her sight. She could see he was leaning on a cane, which he was holding in his left hand.
“Is there anyone else here?” she asked, eyeing the door, measuring her odds.
She thought if he was alone, she might try and take him on. He looked old and feeble, with that cane. Maybe she could buy herself enough time to run away. But, if there were others here, then she stood no chance. She was well aware of that.
“Like I said,” he continued, “if you’d be so kind as to come with me, of your own volition, I shall be more than happy to explain everything once we have reached our destination.”
“Destination?” she quickly replied, taking one more step back, but only then did she realize that she was now backed up against the wall.
There was nowhere she could run to, nowhere to hide. She looked over at the bed, panicking. Her grandparents were blissfully asleep.
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” she growled, like a wounded animal, even more dangerous at this point.
“You are going, my dear, one way or another. I would much prefer the more civilized manner, but, as you wish,” he bowed down a little, bending his cane as he did so, then moved to the side.
Eva’s eyes glistened in the dark, waiting for his next move. But, it seemed like he was done talking. A second later, three, black clad men, much shorter than this guy, ran into the room, aiming for her.
“No, no, no!” she shouted loudly, hoping the herb they gave to her grandparents would wear off soon and they would wake up before she was kidnapped or hurt.
Hands grabbed her from all sides, as her body twitched uncontrollably left and right, looking for a way out, which was nowhere to be seen. She realized one of the men was raising up her left sleeve, then a syringe gleamed ominously in the light of the full Moon.
“No, no!” she twitched, trying to free herself from their grip, “leave me alone! No, no!”
“I do wish you had agreed to do it my way…” she heard the man’s voice, as cold steel punctured her delicate skin, and an unknown liquid oozed into her veins.
Her eyelids started feeling heavy and she almost lost all sensation in her limbs. She was like a puppet, sewn together carelessly, drooping down to the floor, left at the mercy of her creator. The man said something else, but she couldn’t hear him anymore. His voice echoed as if from a deep, dark cave, and, like Alice, she kept falling down the rabbit hole, deeper and deeper, until all she could see was darkness.
Chapter 3
When Eva woke up, she realized that she didn’t recognize anything she was seeing. She didn’t recognize the ceiling, or the windows, or the curtains, or the paintings on the walls. She propped herself up, pulling the cover off of her. She didn’t recognize the bed linens, either. The room smelled of fresh lilacs, and she noticed they were sitting in a little blue vase, on the desk in the corner of this yellow painted room.
She looked around. She was alone. She rubbed her eyes, thinking this might be a dream, a nightmare which started with her grandparents being unable to wake up, and she was still in it. Nothing was right. She had no idea whether that man from last night was part of a dream or if she really spoke with him. If she had, she had bigger problems than she had thought.