I could smell dust and the dampness of the room they'd put us in. They'd blindfolded us, so I hadn't seen anything in quite a while. It was like living in darkness. I understood now, what it was like to be blind.

Caroline was still crying. I could feel her shaking behind me. My tears had dried up after the third time we'd switched cars. Now I just felt empty. I had nothing left in me. I had no idea how much time had passed, but I know we'd driven for many hours. They'd probably taken us to a completely different province all together. I vaguely wondered if I'd ever see the streets of Johannesburg ever again. Or if the police would know to expand their search. If they were even searching for us in the first place. My parents knew I was going out with Caroline. I'd even told them the truth... that we were going to a club. They liked it when I told them the truth. God I hoped they would know to look for us. I wondered what Caroline's dad was doing. He'd already lost his wife, now his daughter was missing.

Loud footsteps sauntered towards us. Caroline cried even harder. She was so scared. So was I, but I was trying to think of a way out of this mess.

"They are beautiful." A deep voice said from across the room. My imagination ran wild as I imagined a tall guy, dressed in a trench coat, leaning against the wall.

I heard his footsteps come closer and I tried to shuffle backwards, but Caroline wasn't moving. She'd frozen with the fear and anticipation. I didn't know what he was going to do, and I did not want to find out.

He grabbed a hold of my arm and pulled me to my feet. He was going to separate me from Caroline. I couldn't let that happen. I dug my bare feet into the floor, not caring that they'd taken my shoes away from me, not caring about the splinters.

"Now, now, don't be so difficult. I'll bring you back."

He dragged me out of the room, and no amount of shoving and stomping helped. My hands were tied, so I had very little movement. I couldn't scratch or punch.

He sat me down on a chair of some sort, and I could feel him start to untie the blindfold knot from behind my head. That wasn't a good thing. I remembered reading about criminals who wouldn't let a person live if the person saw their face. I shut my eyes as the material fell from my face. I didn't want to see his face. I didn't want to die.

"Open your eyes pretty girl."

I didn't move or say anything. I didn't want to even acknowledge him. It would probably get me killed quicker, but I couldn't find it in myself to interact with the guy who had kidnapped me and my best friend.

"Fine suit yourself."

Only when I felt him try to slip my dress strap down, did I open my mouth.

"Please don't?" I pleaded in a small voice.

I heard a chuckle in the background from another guy. And I swore I could feel the guy in front of me smile.

"I'll stop when you open your eyes."

I didn't know what to do. Fear was tingling throughout my entire body. My shoulder strap moved down with the help of his rough fingers.

My eyes snapped opened. The guy in front of me had brown eyes with flecks of gold in them. He was so close to me. And I could see the chapped skin on his lips as they spread into a wide grin. In the background I watched the silhouette of the other guy as he walked outside. I couldn't see anything else about him. I turned my head so I could get away from having to look at the guy in front of me.

His hand was still holding my dress strap, and he started pulling it lower.

"You... You said you'd stop if I opened my eyes." I could feel the tears starts pooling in the corner of my eyes. Apparently I wasn't as empty as I'd previously thought.

"I want you to look at me."

I couldn't face him.

"Look at me!" his screamed into my ear.

I reluctantly turned my head to face him. The tears were blurring my vision now. A small mercy.

"That's better."

His rough thumb wiped at the tears streaming down my face.

"I don't like it when you cry."

His voice was so gentle. I didn't know what he wanted from me. I could feel my body shaking, and my head pounding.

"I'm going to make you very happy, Ashleigh."

"My name..." I swallowed, "My name isn't Ashleigh."

"Don't lie to me!" He screamed into my face. I could smell alcohol on his breathe. And rot.

"Don't lie to me Ashleigh." He said in a soft, soothing voice. "I will have to hurt you, if you lie to me again. Do you understand?"

I nodded in a jerky motion.

"Say it. Say you understand me."

"I understand."

He stood up, with his body so close to me that I could see a bulge in his crotch. I turned my head. He didn't seem to notice, or if he did he didn't care.

I was shivering so much that my teeth started chattering. I tried to hide the fact that I was freezing but he noticed.

"Oh my. How could I be so rude? You're freezing." He took his jacket off and placed it around my shoulders. "This should warm you up."

The jacket smelled of smoke and another really intoxicating scent. A cologne of some kind. I hated myself for liking it.

I heard Caroline scream from the other room, and on instinct I stood up to go to her. I was rewarded with a bone jarring smack to the face, which knocked me back onto the chair and then straight onto the floor.

"I didn't say you could move. Did I say you could move?!"

He kneeled down next to me, leaning down so his face was right above mine. I could feel my cheek start to throb and the pain from the smack radiated outward.

"Answer me! Did I say you could move?"

I tried to open my mouth to say no, but my lips would only open so far, so I shook my head.

"Now look what you've made me do? Let me get you some ice. Are you going to move again?" I shook my head in a vehement no.

He crossed the room to what looked like a tiny kitchen, and opened a freezer. A few seconds later he came back with some ice blocks in a cloth, and placed it gently on my cheek.

More tears were spilling from my eyes. I felt so hopeless. And Caroline's crying from the other room wasn't helping.

***

School the next day was vastly different to my normal experience. When Karen and I arrived, Jordan was waiting in the parking lot for us.

"Looks like you have an admirer." Karen turned to me after she'd parked.

"He's just someone trying to be a friend."

Karen smirked.

I climbed out of the car, and walked over to where he stood.

"And you're waiting for me here why?"

"I have another question for you." He was grinning like an idiot as he spoke.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Definitely."

"Okay then. If you're sure, go ahead. What's your question?"

"Do you like art?"

I was taken aback. Of all the questions he could have asked, he went with that one.

"And remember." He said to me. "You can't lie."

"I didn't say anything about my answers having to be truthful, but this is a simple enough question. I love art."

My answer seemed to make him ecstatic.

"Good because I have a spare ticket to an art show, and I need to take someone with me."

"Why me?"

A cocky look crossed his face. "Isn't that what friends do? Invite each other out to places?"

I didn't know whether to laugh or tell him to go fuck himself. I went with neutrality. I just kept my face blank.

Karen walked passed us and noticed my weird stare.

"What's going on here?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm inviting Talita to an art show."

My sister looked at me, and then started to come to my defence. But before she could, I spoke up.

"I think I'm going to go."

My sister looked at me in complete and utter shock.

"What?" She said at the same time that Jordan said, "Really?"

"When is it?"

"In three weeks' time." He looked like a kid on Christmas, he was so excited.

I looked at Jordan and then at Karen.

"Jordan. I need to talk to my sister." I said to him.

"I'll meet you inside then." He turned on his heel and made his way into the school.

"Are you sure about this Tali?"

"Not at all. Which is why I think we should start our self-defence tonight."

Karen looked at me, her face blank. I would have given anything to know what she had going through her mind right then.

"Tonight?"

"Yup."

"This stuff takes time to organise Tali."

I chuckled. "That's why I'm ninety percent sure you've already organised everything you need to."

A guilty look marred her features.

"I'm right aren't I?"

Karen cleared her throat.

"Maybe you should wait. Isn't this moving too quickly?"

"What's moving too quickly? Me trying to have a life that at least resembles normal? Or me making friends with a boy?"

I could see my sister struggle to find the right words.

"You know Karen. You know what they did to me, what they took from me. You know I'm careful. And I want to be even more careful. Please just let me do this.

Her eyes glistened in the morning light. I knew if I carried on, I'd have both of us in tears, so I just tightened my lips in defiance and walked away.

Karen came running after me.

"All right. We can start tonight. And I spoke to dad. He said he'd foot the bill."

My stomach did a flip. Was I ready for something this big? I would need to call my therapist to get ready for such a big step.

I nodded at Karen and then breathed in deep.

"I'm going to give Geraldine a call later..."

My sister smiled. "You might just give her a heart attack."

I chuckled. "Probably."

Jordan didn't speak to me when I walked into the class; instead my phone pinged when I sat down. I switched to vibrate, and then read his message, hiding my phone under the desk.

'I have the list.'

I lifted my head and looked at him. He saw me and then started typing furiously.

My phone buzzed in my hands.

'I'll meet you in the art studio at lunch.'

'Why don't you just give it to me now?'

'I'm going to ignore the opening for a very bad joke. And that's not how James Bond would have done it.'

'How would you know? You've never met him.'

The whole time we were typing, the teacher was telling us all about the metaphors in Romeo and Juliet.

'I've never met him, but I've read every single one of his books.'

'You read?'

'You're surprised?'

'Didn't peg you for the type. You have too much energy to sit down and stare at one thing for hours.'

'I paint. I have the patience of a saint.'

The bell rang before we could carry on our conversation. I didn't want to believe that an entire hour had already passed.

*****

When lunch came around, I actually found myself looking forward to meeting up with Jordan. But when I walked into the art studio, He wasn't there. I took out my phone to message him and was disrupted by 'Mark', the art teacher.

"Hello Talita." He said, coming out of the back room.

"Oh... Hi Mark." A sense of dejavu washed over me.

I was saved from having to speak to him when Jordan walked in.

A dark look crossed Mark's face for a split second, before it was gone and he nodded while walking out.

"That was weird. He's usually a lot more talkative." Jordan pointed out. "He's new here too." He said as an added extra.

I shrugged. It didn't really matter to me.

"So where's this list?" I walked over to one of the desks and leaned against it.

Our banter could wait. I had more important things to worry about.

"Straight to the point. No code words or anything? How do I know it's you? You could be body swapped or something."

I smiled, not really in the mood any more.

Jordan dug around in his bag and pulled out a weathered notebook. He tore out one of the sheets and handed it to me. As the page changed hands, his fingers brushed against mine. It was such a small touch, someone else might not have even noticed it, but my skin crawled, and my heart beat sped up. I wasn't going to have a panic attack but I definitely needed air.

Jordan looked at me with concern written all over his face.

I couldn't handle it. I turned on my heel and walked out of the room. Jordan had looked so sad. He'd get over it. I hoped.

I didn't look at the list until I got home later that day. There was a surprising amount of names on it. And I honestly didn't know where to start or where to go from there. I didn't have any form of social media, not anymore, so how was I going to investigate? I would need to ask Jordan again.

I was slightly disappointed that he hadn't messaged me after the art studio, but when I looked at my phone, I found that it had died.

I plugged it in and waited for it to start up. Once it had enough power, it buzzed a crazy amount of times.

'You okay?'

'Hello?'

'Did your battery die?'

'I'm going to take that as a yes.'

'I have a joke for you. And you phone is dead so you can't stop me. Hahahahaha.'

'A panda walks into a bar and says to the bartender: "Can I get a....... Martini?" The bartender replies: "Why the long paws?"'

'Funny don't you think?'

'Message me back when you get home.'

I don't know why, but I burst out laughing. Karen came into my room looking puzzled. I showed her the joke and she almost choked on the tea she was sipping. She moved her hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle.

"That's a terrible joke." She said, shaking her head.

"I know," I replied,"But it made me laugh."