8. Dolly

8

DOLLY

I woke up to a throbbing pain in my head, the kind that made everything fuzzy around the edges and had a moan escaping from my too-parched lips.

God, why did my body feel so heavy? I wanted to place my hand on my forehead in the hopes it'd ease the ache, but my limbs felt weighted down, too heavy to even lift them. Another painful noise came from my mouth, and I clenched my teeth as the sound vibrated my skull.

I relaxed and sank into the mattress, just breathing through the discomfort. But the longer I laid there, the more panic rose in my chest as I struggled to remember where I was and what the hell was going on.

I wracked my brain for what happened that lead up to this awful feeling.

The last thing I could recall was heading home after shopping, passing by a tourist group who were snapping selfies outside the church. After that… nothing.

I tried to open my eyes, and after a few seconds of a grainy feeling and the grogginess fading, I tried to sit up. Everything felt so sluggish, my body unresponsive.

It was after long seconds of me getting my bearings and things finally settling around me that the genuine horror rushed through my veins.

Because I wasn't alone.

He sat there just watching me. Shadows created by darkness and moonlight surrounded this stranger making him glow ominously, evil even.

We didn't speak, and I sure as hell didn't move—not just because I felt like shit but because I was terrified.

Panic and sheer terror filled me because I knew him.

The man I'd seen several times, wondering if he was watching me. He had been following me. And the way he observed me made it seem as if he knew exactly who I was.

He didn't move, didn't speak, and just kept staring at me, as if waiting for something .

Fear gripped me like a cold, suffocating weight atop my chest that made it even harder to breathe.

Who are you ? I realized I only whispered those words in my head.

I tried to push myself up again, my hands trembling as I forced my body to obey because I'd be damned if I was going to be helpless lying on this bed. But before I could move more than a few inches, he leaned forward, and I froze.

The air seemed to thicken, charged with something dangerous and unsettling. And it all emanated from this man.

"What do you want?" It felt so stupid saying those words given that it was clear he'd brought me here… wherever here was… because I was the thing he wanted. It was for what exactly that I didn't know.

"I saw you," he finally replied, his voice low and deep and the scariest thing I'd ever heard.

My eyes felt bigger than my face as his tone sank in. And even though I already knew what he just told me—along with the next two things he said—hearing him speak them out loud sent shock waves through my system.

"I wanted you."

A shiver traveled throughout my entire body.

"And so I took you."

The finality in his words and the calm way he said them made my blood run cold.

And as it all really sank in, as reality waved right in my face like a red flag, I understood he'd seen me sometime along my journey, he'd stalked me all over Europe, he'd drugged me, and he had now kidnapped me.

I was trapped, and there was no mistaking the ownership in his tone. He wasn't letting me go.