Time For A Story Part II

Kassie shook her head, and said kindly, "May I continue now?  It's a rather long story, and I do have other things to do today."  The man nodded, glancing at his secretary, who shrugged.  The tape recorder whirred again, and Kassie continued.

"The congregation is letting out now and we slipped through the crowd and into the sanctuary. As if my ears are popping, I could hear again. The sound of wind and voices, music and laughter. I jerk my hand out of the blond man's grip and dash back out into the open. I must get away from here. A woman asks me whats wrong, and I ignore her. She can't help me. These men have brought me here, and I don't know why.

"I run into the trees, the blond man yelling after me, telling me not to, that I'll get lost and no one will ever be able to find me. Good, I think to myself, that is exactly what I want to happen. To be lost and no one ever finds me. I know how to survive out here, I've done it before.

"I keep running through the trees. They start to look familiar to me, not because I'm running in circles, but because I think I know where I am. Jumping into a tall oak, which is in full leaf of midsummer, and climb high, going as fast as I can. It is taller than most and I can see a ways over the tops of the trees. But I can't see one thing that would have made me feel so much better. The roof of my three story house is higher than all the trees in my yard, which rests beside this forest. Which means that I must be on the other side of the mountains. They are to the right of my view, not the left as they should have been.

"I slowly climb down, wondering where I am. My parents never told me what was on the other side of the mountains. I never found out. It is labeled as a forest reserve and then there are a few towns that only warrant a black dot in the middle of the trees. None of them are named, but there are dots. There were about eight or nine, and I guessed that I was now in one of those tiny towns. The border of the reserve. That was over three hundred miles from where I was from. It was out in the middle of no where, and the church hadn't even had electricity. There had been oil lamps.

"Why would such a huge church be out in the middle of nowhere? I remembered that there had seemed to be rooms for children, school rooms. The kitchen had been huge, and there was probably a large hall on that side as well. I remember a door leading from the kitchen that hadnt gone to the outside. Where was I?

"Just as I was about fifteen feet from the ground, I hear a stick break. The blond man walks beneath my tree, not looking up, but looking around. I climb down a little further, my noises covered by his shuffling through the leaves. The bottom of my foot scrapes on the bark. I wince, but I haven't had shoes on since I realized I was in a skirt. Now I'm about twelve feet from the ground. Still watching the blond man until he's gone, waiting until he's far enough away to not hear me jumping to the ground. Silence, or at least, as silent as a forest gets.

"I jump, and two strong arms catch me before I make it to the ground. I look up and nearly scream in delight. Ever since I'd entered the forest, running as fast as I could, my vision was fading.  I surmised that it was a side effect of whatever drug they had given me.

"So when I looked at the owner of thsoe arms, I remember being estatic, thinking, 'It's Eric.' I hug him before I realize he's still staring after the blond man. Except that the blond man is walking towards us. I struggle a little, and Eric puts me down, but still holds on to my wrist.

"The blond man is now two feet from us and he stops moving. His eyes are on mine, even as he pulls out a gun. I scream, but I can't hear it as the gun goes off. Eric crumples beside me, and I realize that it's not Eric anymore. Its the big man, and he's only been shot in the leg, but he's hurt anyway.

"I jerk my hand out of his loosened grip, and step away. But I'm not paying attention to where I'm going and the steely arm of the blond man snakes around my slim waist, and I can't move anymore. The big man gets up, his eyes glazed with pain. But I realize that he's not bleeding as he should be. Drugs can do that to you. I look at the blond man. He smiles at me, but this time I get the chill like I did from the other one.

"Despite the fact the he had shot the other one, I thought then that they appeared to know each other. But then again, the blond man just shot the other one, and so far hadn't tried to harm me.  I just got acomplete creepy vibe from the big man in general.

"Maybe the steely muscled man is less of a threat to my person than the big, beastly guy. I try to step away, and to my surprise, he lets me. The big guy takes a step toward me, and the blond guy twitches. His face is unreadable, but apparently the big guy has seen it before, and what came after wasn't pleasant, because he froze. I stepped behind the blond man's line of sight. His hand, quick as a flash, grabs my wrist, hard as a stone yet warm.

"He doesn't turn, but says, 'Ma'am, I cannot let you leave my sight. Orders. We must return to the church. They will find us out here.' His voice is low, but not incredibly deep. Its a nice sound, a friendly, professional, and dangerous sound. I step closer to him, because he's cutting off the circulation in my hand. He relaxes a bit, and the big guy turns around, a black look on his face for the blond man.

"Slowly, we all walk back to the church, the big man leading. I want to run, to go as far as I can, and to leave these two strange men behind me. They are not friends, but they are working together. So far, all I've done is scream. They apparently know who I am, and were told to keep me either hidden or safe, possibly both. Why would I need to be kept safe?

"I try to remember everything before the kitchen. I remember being a child, a teenager, in college. I remember a receptionist job at the local hospital, I remember my engagement to my longtime boyfriend, Eric. We weren't planning on getting married right away, a few years to get everything in order. He was a year and half older than I, and he wanted to finish college first. I wanted to get married before he went over seas to do his tour for the Army. But the last thing I can remember before the kitchen is a shadow coming up behind me in my own apartment, as I locked the door behind me, a bag of groceries in one arm.

"Then darkness. I touch the back of my head. No lump, though there should have been one. My ring catches in my hair as I bring it back around my head. I loosen it and pull it free with out tearing my hair out. I look to make sure the gem it still there, and almost jump. There, beside the sapphire engagement ring is a wedding band, with four small diamonds and two small sapphires in it. A symbol for forty-two, my favorite number. Only Eric knew that, and that any time I saw a two and a four near each other, I would feel the luck of my favorite number.

"I looked at the blond man. He was starting to look familiar, as if I'd seen him before. The cross that Eric had given me while we were still college freshmen hangs around my neck. It has been there nearly every day ever since he gave it to me, even though I had three long term boyfriends between the time we dated first, in the middle of high school, and during his second year of college. But I didn't remember changing into the skirt. Maybe I'd been wearing it the whole time, and just didn't realize it. I hardly ever wore anything but jeans, so it would be an honest assumption that I was wearing a pair. Especially since I didn't own this skirt.

"All the cars were gone, and the man led me back into the big room beyond the sanctuary. I noticed that on this side the church was a lot larger. There had to be at least seven room on the same side as the kitchen. There was a road leading between the trees, and a mailbox at the edge of the forest. They were near a town to get delivered mail. That was when I realized that I felt very strangely, almost like I did after my surgery with I was younger, that drugged feeling, as if I'm totally aware of my surroundings, but unable to feel my body. The gravel of the parking lot doesn't even hurt my bare feet.

"There was no one in the church. No minister, no old ladies, no punch and cookies. In the ten or so minutes we were in the forest, everyone had gone home. There had been more than five hundred people in that church. Surely a population that size would live in a town with a name. Maybe I'm not near the reserve, maybe I'm not even in America. Maybe the blond man will have some answers to my questions.

"The hurt man goes into the kitchen, not looking behind him anymore to see if we're still there. I am released, but the blond guides me through the sanctuary and into the rooms beyond. He locks the doors and the window, and pulls down a mirrored shade, so that the reflective side faces the night. It is a rather creative idea. There is one for the doors as well, though they are locked by a large slab of heavy metal that slid up from the floor and locked through the bars on the doors.  I was alone.

TO BE CONTINUED....