Chapter 1
I'd say I was having a pretty rotten day before I got kidnapped.
I awoke with a start in a train compartment with red velvet couches and a small glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
The train made a soothig rhythmic sound as it hurtled down the track and white snow-caked hills rolled by outside. I felt groggy and tired and my neck felt rigid from the angle I'd been leaning my head on the side of the window. Where am I?
In front of me sat a petite girl with purple chopped and waxy looking hair, like she'd just bought it off a particularly poorly manufactured Monster High doll. She had dark circles under eyes that looked like they were either from eyeliner or exhaustion, it looked like both, and it dominated the most part of her very pale sickly face. She was uncomfortably thin and was dressed in black fashionless torn clothes with matching jewellery.
This wasn't the rotten part though. The girl eyed me sourly, twisting her lips around and regarding me almost apprasingly. She couldn't be more than 15 years old. How old was I? I didn't know.
"You know who I am?" she asked, her voice was sharp and shrewd. I shook my head, wondering how she expected me to know her when I didn't even know my own age.
"That's a rather odd question to ask" I said boldly. I sucked in my cheeks, shocked at the sound of my own voice. It sounded deep for a girl's and slightly foreighn in a sense that felt like it wasn't mine, which didn't make sense as it was.
The girl nodded, narrowed her eyes and stared at me for a long while, so long I had time to get over the embarrassment and shock of being surprised at my own voice and work up the courage to ask something else.
Just when I open my mouth, however, the girl merely shook her head calmly. As if I'd just asked for the permission to speak and she was simply saying no. She held up her finger and swiftly unseated herself, walked over to the compartment door, slide it open and walked out.
I could imagine what my own mind must look like: a dark, desolate, empty space in which I knew basic information should be, but wasn't. The more I tried to access it, the scarier it felt. Like I was desperately, mentally trying to reach out my hand to find something in space. It felt as if someone had blown up a balloon using my organs.
The sensation of my non-existent memories made me feel light and gapingly empty with no debth in me whatsoever to weigh me down. Whether it be from memories or images of joy, sorrow, loss, friendship, love for none of them existed. All such things were gone-or lost, either one it felt like I had just been robbed as the realisation of what I was experiencing dawned on me.
In the few seconds I sat alone in the compartment of the train I had managed to become postively angry and indignant with my own mind that acted as an almost barrier to what was trying to reach-an explanation.
Like there was a force field that buffered when I tried to think, actively denying me access to my own thoughts, it felt defective. And despite my inability to dredge up something old what I knew now was that something was very, very wrong.
It wasn't until the girl walked back in and a look passes over her pale face that I realised I was crying. It was then that I fully began to panic. I quickly wiped the tears away and stood up-regretting it instantly. I felt light-headed and dizzy and the boy who came in after the girl, who sat me back down was the reason I managed to stop myself from barfing.
He was tall and Asian with black shortly braided hair. He looked around the girl's age and wore a beige jumpsuit with Sharpie colourful doodles on his leather combat boots. I looked down at my own clothes and gulped at how out of place we must all look in an area like this.
I had brown skin and my arms were covered in a puffy turquoise sweater with white jeans. I felt like snatching the boy's hand from my shoulder that he used to sit me down and running away, but all I did was ask timidly; "What's going on who are you people?'
The boy suddenly stepped back from me as if I'd just pinched him.
"The sedative worked!" he exclaimed in an awed, and if I'm not imagining it, almost fearful voice.
The girl rolled her eyes and plopped back down on the Velvet couch. "That's what I said. Do we leave now?"
"Yes, immediately" the boy replied looking at me as if I was a violation of nature itself, frowning at me deeply and inspecting every inch of my face meticulously. Which made me feel self conscience as I didn't even know what that might look like.
I bit my tongue hard as the panic in my chest turned to thick bile rising in my throat.
"Okay, well, she looks terrified. Maybe you want to stop looking at her like that mate. We need to get her and leave!"the girl chuckled.
I realised that she spoke in a British accent and I desperately tried to connect it with something I might know. Something that would tell me, Hey, it's cool, you know this super skinny, purple haired British white chick. And the irrelevantly handsome Asian dude with her just fine, no need to worry. But nothing came.
The boy nodded, examining my face one last time before turning around and pulling down white puffy jackets and snow suits from the luggage racks overhead.
"Jade, go get the others and tell them to get their things together. We need to get to the extraction base and enter that code before the effects of the sedative wear off- and be discreet!" he warned.
The girl, Jade, nodded and slipped out the door again. I tried articulating a question that would sum up my confusion, but it was too hard and instantly gave me a headache so I asked something more basic.
"Where is she going?" the boy flinched and turned around.
"She's going to get the others. Look I know you're probably very confused, but let's just say we kind of need to go..."
I stared at him, preplexed.
Go? Go where?
"I heard the girl, Jade, is it? And I think you're mistaken. I'm not going anywhere with you"
"Well, how can you say that? You don't even know where we're going" The boy replied.
"Uhhh, I don't even know who you are" I said, my voice shaking, "and I dont think you know me either, I think you've got the wrong person"
The boy looked at me almost pityingly. He held the snow suits in his arms and handed out one for me to take.
"You don't even know who you are, do you? Just come with me, my name is Beck"
All I could think was that he must be the one who did this to me. He must know why I can't remember anything if he knew that was the case already. Because it was true, I didn't know who I was. And the way he declared it made it seem like something fleeting and indifferent.
There was an odd comfort to that, as if my panic was being told that it was being irrational and needed to sit down. Which I knew was incorrect, but still.
"You're right, I don't even know how that's possible. I think I have amnesia or something" I said.
Beck laughed and shook his head.
He thought this was funny!
The fact that his smile was so dazzling only added to my incredulity, that he dare to seem carefree in my practically catastrophic state.
"What?"
"Nothing, you don't have ammesia. Well, at least not the usual kind. People with normal amnesia don't forget their whole identities."
"Right, so you did this to me then!"
"No, you did this to yourself . I just let you. Now come on, take this, we're leaving." Beck said, thrusting the huge white jacket to me.
I scowled at him and didn't dare take it. Partly because I was annoyed and confused but mostly because of the apprehension I felt, for I did not know what it might mean if I did.
The doors slid open. I expected it to be Jade coming back in with 'the others' whoever they were. But instead it was the conductor dressed in a pinstriped suit and a brown fur overcoat with a huge belly poking out of it and a conductor's hat.
He muttered something in a harsh sounding language I didn't understand and Beck responded in the same way. The conducter nodded curtly, looking at us both strangely and stepped out of the compartment.
"Hungary" Beck said to my frown, "he was asking us for our tickets. Which means we're nearly at the station, which means we need to go!"
I was spluttering over my own spit by the time Jade poked her head through the door. She gave the 'OK' sign with her hand to Beck and called us out. We were in Hungary. I stared at the snow-covered hills out the window and considered the fact.
I made up my mind right then that though however little I knew what I could dictate for sure was that I did not belong in a place like this, and I was definitely not going anywhere with this boy.
So, yes, if you're wondering, this was how my kidnapping took place.
Beck had stared regretfully at my scared and resolute expression. while I made extra sure to keep my butt rooted firmly on the luxurios seat.
He'd uttered a small sorry and actually sounded genuine then grabbed me by the arm, carrying the heavy snow suits in his opposite hand, and dragged me out the cabin.
I had been way too shocked to even scream out, too stunned to bring myself to use my vocals at all and absurdly, honestly conscious of my surroundings to do anything dramatic. Because I did not want to disturb the quiet and intimidating atmosphere of the train ( even if my life was improbably in danger) Men and women dressed exquisitely sitting and dining in couch chairs and uniformed servers who waited on them, while classical music blared silently in the background, made me stagger more as Beck dragged me by the arm.
What on earth was I doing here? I felt like a street rat compared to these people. I thought one of them ought to notice me, to see me, and recognise something was wrong. To call out and rescue me.
No one lifted so much as an eyebrow as Beck and I passed by.
I thought even so, how could I trust them? I barely knew these people at all.
I struggled half-heartedly against Beck's grip, conflicted between accepting the helplessness of my situationand simply hoping for the best, and seriously figuring out a way I can out manuevour him and escape, improvising what I would do from there.
Although, even I knew it wasn't possible. I don't know if it was from my fear but I felt way too weak to do anything of the sort.
Before I had time to come to any solution, however, we arrived at the very end of the train after passing many passengers and dodging guards standing at every intersection.
We reached an interlock where the train we were on met the other (probably the second class train as I assumed this was the first) There was a run down equipment compartment that stood off to the side.
And I simply must say, that out of all the horrible things that ran through my mind as Beck shoved me through that cabin, what awaited us, was not in my dire imagination's ability to dredge up....
