Chained Read Online Free Page A

if it came from a robot...or an alien.  “Don't worry.  It will be okay.”
     
    The locks on the car clicked closed. 
     
    This can't be happening.  Not in this town, not to me.
     
    In a panic I tried to open my door but it wouldn't budge.
     
    A strong hand clamped on the back of my neck like a vise.  I only had time for the briefest of screams before there was a sharp prick in the side of my neck, and the world faded away into a nauseating blackness.
     
    ***
     
    When I first became conscious, at first I thought I was still asleep.  The world was still black, except for a small square of lighter gray above me that twinkled with stars through the branches of some sort of plant.  I couldn't hear anything except a distant hum, like that of some large machine.
     
    My head was swimming, and my stomach was churning.  I was lying on something hard, and cold.  Concrete?  Was I lying on a floor?
     
    How did I get here?  Where IS here?   I slowly pushed myself up into a sitting position, which turned out to be a mistake.  My stomach heaved and I crawled a few feet away to throw up what little of the Chinese food was left in my stomach.  Acid burned my throat and brought tears to my eyes.  I gasped for breath as the spasm eased and crawled back to my previous spot on the floor, searching with my hands for a wall or any sort of furniture.  The spot of gray and stars turned out to be a window in a cold, cement-block wall.  The window was high in the wall, high enough that I could barely touch the glass with my fingertips.
     
    A wave of dizziness overwhelmed me and I sank to the floor, clutching my knees to my chest.  My toes and fingers were cold, almost to the point of being numb.  My head was pounding.  My throat burned and my nose was running.  I should be scared.  Why wasn't I scared?  I should be absolutely out of my mind with terror. I could barely feel anything but a sense of shock so deep it wiped out every other feeling.
     
    “Hello?”  I called out, my voice cracking on the second syllable.  I swallowed hard and tried again.  “Hello?  Is anyone there?”
     
    There was a distant sound that could have been a groan, or a stifled scream.  A click, and my eyes burned in the sudden square of light that came from the far wall.  As my eyes adjusted I could see more details of where I was.  It was a small room, smaller than my bedroom at home.  The door was in the wall opposite me, with a square opening spanned by bars that allowed the light through. A metal cot stood against the far right wall, a thin pillow at one end and two throw blankets folded on the other.  Next to that, almost touching the bed, was a plain desk with a metal folding chair.  In the corner nearest me to the left was a metal cart with an old TV on top, a VCR and a random collection of Disney movies below.  Just past that was another door, this one standing open, showing the shadows of what appeared to be a bathtub.  An extension cord ran from the TV cart, across the middle of the floor and through a crack underneath the door that admitted the light from without.
     
    The door had no handle on this side.  No way to open.
     
    I only had a few seconds to register all this before the door creaked open, and a figure was framed in the doorway.  He stepped forward, and I recognized him, at the same second as my memory of our date came flooding back, but my memory ended when I had gotten into his car.
     
    “Travis!”  I gasped.  “Travis, what happened?  Where are we?  What's going on?”
     
    He stepped toward me with a hand outstretched.  “Shhh.”  He gently stroked my hair.  “Don't worry.  It will be okay.”  His nose wrinkled, marring his perfect face.  “You stink.  Don't worry, I will be back.”  As quickly as he had come he disappeared, the door clanging shut behind him.
     
    I ran to the door and peered through the bars, shouting his name.  “Travis!  Where are you going?  Please come