BLISS

My eyelids fluttered open to the sound of raised voices. A door slammed, and then there was silence. I turned my head towards the sound, bumping it painfully against a hard surface. "Owww!" I groaned, rubbing my bruised temple. "Where am I? What time is it? What the hell is going on? Bliss? Bliss? Where are you? OMG!"

I sat up quickly, suddenly remembering what had happened with Bliss and I, and those two guys at the club.

Getting unsteadily to my feet, I surveyed my surroundings. I was in a room with a door, a window, and a desk. It was the desk I had banged my head against. I gently rubbed the still tender spot wincing. Leaning against the desk, I took stock of my situation. Where was Bliss? Had those bastards hurt her? Damn!

I felt fine, so I assumed they hadn't messed with me. My stomach clenched tight as I thought of Bliss lying hurt somewhere, or dead. My hands shook at the thought, and I angrily wiped the tears that came unbidden to my eyes. I didn't have time for weeping. I had to find her. "If they've hurt her, I'll...I'll cut their ball sacks off, that's what I'll do." I immediately felt better having said this.

"Well, my mission is clear, I have to find a way out of this room, find Bliss, and get us both out of here. If those guys try to stop me at any time, I am going to kick some butt." I talked softly to myself as I made these plans and then smiled. I was always teasing Bliss about how often she had conversations with herself. Now here I was doing the very same thing. But I was comforted by this action. It made me feel closer to Bliss, I didn't feel so desperately alone.

I looked at the door. The moonlight shining through the window showed me clearly that it had no handle, neither did it have a knob. I walked over to it anyway. My closer scrutiny showed that there was also no peephole.

Though I did not expect the door to open, I pushed at it repeatedly, and hit it with my open palm. It made a dull, thudding sound. My expectations were realized, the door remained immovable. It was an unmarked, unyielding, well-built seal for my cage. I had no intention of it becoming my tomb however. It stood to reason that my jailers were going to come back for me. But there were no guarantees, and I did not really intend to hang around to find out. So, how to get out, that was the question.

I walked back to the desk and sat on its corner, chewing on my lower lip as I tried to figure a way out of my dilemma. I felt some cold air and heard the sound of a fan. Looking up I noticed what seemed to be the possible opening to an air conditioning vent. "Nice!" I thought aloud. "Now, if I were Jack Bauer, I would get up into that vent, move about this building, find Bliss, beat up the bad guys, and get out of this place all in one hour." But since I was not Jack, I very much doubted that all I hoped to accomplish would be achieved. If I could just find Bliss and we could get away, I would be ecstatic. Therefore, for now at least, that would be my mission, those were more realistic goals anyway. Alas, my satisfaction in seeing the bad guys being beaten up would have to wait until I saw reruns of the series 24 on TV; or until the movie finally came to the big screen. I would definitely have to leave the administering of punishment to evil, wicked people who thought nothing of kidnapping beautiful, young women to my hero Jack Bauer.

Thoroughly motivated by this plan, I slowly, and as quietly as I could, dragged the desk directly under the vent. Sitting on the desk, I swung my legs up. I knelt, then stood upon it. Easily reaching the cover of the vent, I took it off. But my sweaty, nerveless fingers betrayed me, and the beastly thing slipped from my hands clattering loudly to the floor. I froze. Had they heard me? I wasn't going to wait around to find out. Boosting myself up into the narrow passageway I had just revealed, I started crawling. I thought about my rescue plan as I moved.

I was glad Bliss had worn the cologne I had given her for her birthday. It was called ACQUA di PARMA, and at one hundred and twenty dollars for a 3.4 ounce bottle, it had strained my budget some. But I liked the scent and had bought it for myself last Christmas. The fragrance was quite distinctive, and I hoped I would be able to sniff Bliss out if our abductors had her in a dark room where I could not pick her out quickly.

It was fortunate that both Bliss and I had worn jeans and flat shoes to the club earlier. Now the jeans would protect my legs as I moved on all fours and then on my belly. I also would not have to worry about my high heels getting snagged on something as I made my escape. I pushed forward eagerly, determinedly, hoping that I would be able to put some distance between myself and this room before my captors discovered I was gone.

- copyrighted by Kathi Harris

sponsored by Willow at http://www.magpietales.blogspot.com/