When reality comes crashing in you have to wonder if there is a moment in time, a nanosecond in the continuum, where everything freezes. Do breaths pause? Do falling leafs hang in the air for just a little while longer? Does your heart stop?

She could have sworn that these things happened as the liquid truths solidified in her mind into hard facts. Spencer Carlin, twenty four years young with the world at her fingertips, had become a prisoner. Her on again off again boyfriend Aiden Dennison was killed by the very person who held her captive. She was stuck in the basement of some house without any idea of where she might be.

After the brunette had left the room she took the time to analyze her situation as best as she could. No detail went unchecked and no guesses ruled out. She reasoned that she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and now she had to pay the price, or rather, her parents would have to.

Being held kidnapped by this Ashley character was frightening. The woman was a murderer, an unremorseful one at that. With cold eyes she had claimed that it was ‘Nothing personal. It’s just business.’ Just business… was she a hired killer, an assassin? It was the explanation that made the most sense.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the turn of three locks and an opening door to her left. The brunette strolled in again, this time with a pair of black sweatpants and a red shirt in one hand and the same knife as before, glinting menacingly against the light, in the other.

“Here.” Ashley said as she tossed the clothing at her feet. “It’s more comfortable than what you’ve got on.” She continued to circle around until she came up behind her and suddenly those lips were right next to her ear. “Now I’m going to untie you so you can change.” That voice, it had a raspy sultriness. Made the air push out from her lungs, “Don’t do anything stupid,” the hairs on her arms stand at attention, “or I’ll make you regret it,” a shiver run down her spine.

She nodded silently, confusion racking her thoughts until the feel of the restraints on her wrists became slack and fell away. A small grateful smile fell upon her lips as she rubbed the sore areas and rotated the cramped muscles. Again, Ashley walked around until she was standing right in front of her and just like before, crouched down. She took out a key from her pocket and undid the handcuffs on her ankles but she didn’t move her feet, afraid that her captor would mistake her movements for an attack and accidentally stab her.