Elastic Heart

-chapter fifty one-

DAY ONE

I'm not entirely sure what happened. One second, I was on the bus and the next, I had a pounding headache and was somewhere dark. I tried to force myself to open my eyes only to realize that they were open and it was just pitch black. 

I try to calm my frantic heart and quiet my shallow breaths as I try not to panic. My arms are tied behind my back in an uncomfortable position. I'm sure that if I tried to wiggle out of them that my arm would pop out of it's socket. 

I can feel the weight of the lighter in my pocket. I put it in there with my pocket knife because Felix always insisted on carrying these with me. 

Whoever took me didn't think to pat me down. They either thought me stupid or didn't care. 

That worried me. 

My dead phone was also in my pocket. I planned on charging it when I got to Isabella. 

Fuck, my sister. I hope she's okay. 

How long has it been? 

Where is my bag? 

Okay, take a deep breath. Calm yourself, Jo. 

I blink rapidly, hoping that my eyes will adjust to the dark. I lean forward, and I'm surprised that I wasn't tied to anything, just unable to use my hands. I roll to my knees and slowly get to my feet. I shuffle forward, realizing that I'm missing my shoes. 

I'm careful to not step on anything by just shuffling around. I'm starting to be able to see outlines of objects. 

I'm in a room of sorts, a basement? There is an army cot pushed against one corner. A bookshelf with locked cabinet doors so that I'm unable to access the books. 

Not that I'd be able to anyway with my hands bound behind my back. 

There is a door against the far wall from where I had been placed. It's wooden. 

I turn around and use my hands to grab the doorknob. It opens. 

It's a bathroom. 

I find the light switch on the wall and press it with my shoulder, wincing when the lights flicker on. 

It wasn't very clean with grout clinging to the walls of the shower. There is no mirror over the sink. 

I can see myself in the reflection of the faucet. There's a bruise on my face and my hair is a mess but other than that, I'm okay. I'm still in my pajamas. I close the bathroom door to find that there is no lock. Not that I'd expect there to be one. 

I then shuffle over to the sink again and work on getting my knife from my pocket. 

I end up pressing my hip to the sink and slowly crouching to push the knife upwards until it eventually slips out and lands in the sink. 

I reach over and bend backwards over the sink to grasp the knife with both hands. My fingers find the ridges and I try my best to open it. I end up nicking my finger on the edge as I finally pull the blade out.