Nowhere to Run

Etherea had always fantasized about being in bed with her teammate Sapphire from the cross country team, but this certainly wasn't how she'd envisioned things. They'd been out running together along their usual route, she remembered that much. They'd gotten off to a late start, and it was dark when they spied the black Volvo broken down on the side of the road. She remembered actually recognizing the car; she liked the model and had seen it traveling down route 780 several times when she'd been out running. There was a woman standing by the left taillight in what looked like black leather pants, a black leather turtleneck, black leather gloves, and some high-heeled shoes. She appeared to be trying to wrest the spare tire from the trunk as Etherea and Sapphy approached.

"Hi, could you girls help me?" the woman asked. "Do either of you have a cell phone or maybe know how to change a tire? My right front is flat and I've got no idea what I'm doing, and my cell phone is dead."

"Sorry, I don't have my phone with me and I've never changed a tire before," Sapphire said as she approached the woman, jogging in place at first and then gradually slowing to a stop.

Etherea came up right behind. "I don't have my phone but I can change a tire," she said, jogging right up to the trunk and looking up at the woman with a little smile and then leaning to look inside. The woman's face was almost completely in shadow, the only light coming from the little trunk light and the moonlight, but she was tall and graceful, her movements elegant. Etherea spotted the jack and picked it up, then gave a quick description to the woman and Sapphy on how to remove the tire.

"You two go ahead and get the tire out while I jack it up and then we can all change it together, it shouldn't be too hard," Etherea said, bouncing off around to the front of the car. She found the jack point with no problem, inserted the tire iron into the jack, and began to crank it. A few minutes later she had the right front tire slightly off the ground, but Sapphy and the woman were nowhere to be found with the spare tire.

"Hey ya'll, what's the holdup?" she said half-laughingly as she walked back around to the trunk, but Sapphire and the woman were nowhere to be found. Then she looked in the trunk and gasped in shock. The floor had been placed back in the trunk and Sapphire lay on it, seemingly asleep. "Sapphy! Sapphire are you ok?" she said, leaning in and shaking her friend. "What's wrong, what happened? Wake up!" she yelled, chattering at a hundred miles an hour.

"She's fine," Etherea heard the voice behind her say. "And you will be, too. Just breathe." Etherea tried to spin around but the woman's left hand was around her waist, pinning her left arm to her side. Something soft and cool and wet was pressed over her face, like a damp towel, covering her nose and mouth. She screamed in anger and surprise and a funny, sweet smell filled her nostrils. She tried to kick at the woman's legs and twist out of her grip, but the woman was strong and well-positioned, and all she could do was writhe in her grasp and breathe in more of the substance saturating the rag. It had a slight medicinal tinge, and the sweetness quickly became sickly and cloying.

"That's a good girl, just like your little friend. Slow, deep breaths," the woman repeated. Etherea's ears were starting to buzz and the world seemed to be rocking and then spinning. The edges of her vision blurred and grew dark, and the darkness started to close in around her. Her arms and legs felt impossibly heavy and she just couldn't keep her eyelids open.

"Go to sleep, sweetheart. I promise not to hurt you," the woman said, her voice sultry and comforting. "Much."

Etherea felt herself fading in and out of lucidity. She'd passed out before and the way she felt was reminiscent. She knew she shouldn't, but she was just so tired. It couldn't hurt to close her eyes, just for a moment...could it? Her eyelids fluttered for a moment and she went limp with a soft little moan in the cloth. The woman held Etherea firmly in her grasp for a long moment just to be sure she was unconscious, then partially picked her up and rolled her into the trunk beside Sapphire.

"Look on the bright side, girls," the woman said as she slammed the trunk closed, "at least you don't have to run that last three miles." She grinned as she walked around to the right front and lowered the car, then walked around to the driver's side and got in, dumping the jack on the passenger side floor as she slid onto the seat. "But don't worry, I'll be giving you both a thorough workout soon."

A second later the motor roared to life, the lights came on, and the black Volvo rolled off into the night.