Reduced to Ruin

Chapter 2

I woke up startled with a scream stuck in my throat. Frightened from the worst nightmare I'd ever had. It was so real, so terrorizing. I must tell Lisa about this at breakfast, I thought. She won't believe how vivid it was.

But when my eyes focused, I realized my nightmare was reality—I was in a moving van, lying on a sheet placed over carpet. There was a pillow under my head and a blanket over me. I felt lightheaded and could hear the van humming. We were going pretty fast, maybe on some freeway.

I looked around. The same two men were leaning against the other wall of the van. The one who grabbed my legs was reading a book.

"Look who's awake," announced the dick who grabbed me in the parking lot. He crossed his legs Indian style and leaned closer toward me.

"How are you feeling?"

I inched backward as close to the side of the van as I could.

"Relax. We're not here to hurt you." Seeing doubt and fear in my eyes, he added, "Honestly, we're not going to do anything. You just need to cooperate."

That was a big stipulation.

"Here, sit up," he coaxed.

He grabbed a sandwich from the cooler that was behind the passenger seat. Someone was in the driver's seat and no one in the passenger seat. That made three assholes. Somehow, I had to shake off this haziness and devise a plan of escape. How the hell could I fight off three men?

I stayed lying down, frozen.

"Sit up," he said again, nudging my head with his hand.

I obediently sat up, feeling woozy and nauseous. The sedative felt like blood rushing to my head. I wondered if they had used chloroform on me. As a social worker, I once had a case where two parents were using it to subdue their ADHD child. According to my research, I was feeling the same side effects.

He took the sandwich out of the baggie and offered it to me. But I didn't take it. The smell of food made me want to vomit. I fought off the need to throw up all over the carpet floor, panicked of what they would do to me if I made a mess.

Suddenly my heart rate skyrocketed when I realized my skirt and shoes were off. I peaked below the blanket and saw these weren't my underwear, either. I had on some pink lacy thing I would never have picked myself. I pulled the sheet up over my chest and held on tight.

Oh my God! They must've raped me! I thought.

I tried to sense if I felt any different down there. Pain. Leaking. I didn't notice anything. I would've noticed a difference. Wouldn't I have?

"My name's Dan. This here is Tyler. Why don't you try to get something in your stomach? You must be starved." He held out the sandwich again. I covered my nose and mouth with my hand and shook my head.

I couldn't stop thinking about my crotch. I stole a peek at my underwear again.

"Oh, you noticed your clothes. Don't worry. We only changed you because you, uh, had a little accident." He blushed.

I took the sandwich from his extended hand out of obedience. Not only was I not hungry, but I was afraid they had drugged it. I should've been hungry since I hadn't eaten since the night before when Lisa and I went out. But I was too queasy.

Lisa. I wondered how long it would take before she'd realize I was gone. Would the court officer in the deposition call someone? If she did, she would call my cell phone and office number. She didn't have my home number. My only chance to be discovered missing soon was if Lisa saw my car was still in the parking lot. With any luck she would notice I hadn't left. From there, she should have called the police. Or my dad. It was my only hope.