Her eyes were open, but all she could see was darkness. Like she was staring into a tar pit.

As her mind began to awake, she panicked.

Was this just another one of Jason’s sick pranks? She was getting help from her chemistry teacher after school, did she just fall asleep? Is this some weird sleep paralysis?

All she remembered was sitting next to her teacher as he taught her about Lewis’s dot diagrams.

The sounds that echoed through the mildewy room brought her back to reality.

She heard the footsteps on concrete, circling around her like a vulture.

“H-Hello?” she said to the darkness.

“Hello Jessica.” The darkness whispered back

“Wh-Where am I? Who are you?”

“Shh,” the footsteps stopped, “You don’t need to worry about that.”

She felt him graze her cheek with gloved hands.

Jessica’s head felt like it was on a teacup ride at the fair, but her feet were planted on the ground and her arms on the chair’s armrests. She didn’t even realize her hands were bound till she tried to take the blindfold off.

She tried to tune into her other senses. It smelled like a hospital and cologne so expensive it smelled cheap. He was walking again. He was coming closer.

Jessica tried to wiggle away, scoot away, claw her way out, scream so someone could come find her and save her, but no noise came out her mouth.

She felt the needle pierce her skin, and the liquid flow into her bloodstream.

In her last few moments of consciousness, she felt the same gloved hands lift the blindfold off her head.

The light behind him looked like an angel’s halo, but he was more like a devil.

Her eyes adjusted to the light, looking up at the man who had brought her here.

“Mr. Wilson?”

Her vision began to fade, and she heard his final words to her.

“You were never my brightest student, Jessica. If you were, you would’ve seen this coming.”