all god's orphans

Kite watched as the weigh station disappeared as a cloth bag was placed over her head and her hands were bound behind her back.

“Are you going to hurt my friends?” She asked in a low voice.

“Not if I don’t have to.” Replied her kidnapper. He put her into the backseat of a car and slowly rolled off the shoulder of the highway where he had stopped. Kite lay on the backseat trying to keep her wits together. Always there was a nagging talon tugging at her frayed edges, threatening to pull her apart altogether, but she resisted. She thought of Grey’s touch. Of Millie’s wit. Her friends. If nothing else, there would be someone left to mourn her should she die. That idea brought her some small bit of comfort and she tried to focus on surviving. She listened intently, searching for anything that might give her a clue as to the nature of her abductor, but he made no noise whatsoever. He didn’t even have music playing. All she could hear was the hum of the engine and the drone of the tires.

She could feel that the car was going pretty fast, but not in a panicked way. Merely the way one would drive on an empty highway. She tried to keep track of time, but soon she could no longer tell how long she’d been there. After what seemed like a long time, the car slowed down and she felt it veer to the right and up a ramp. They were exiting the freeway, she realized. At the top of the ramp, they turned left and cruised along in a straight line for several more minutes before coming to a stop.

Her abductor shut the engine off and sighed. He didn’t sound like a killer to her, but she wondered if that were nothing more than wishful thinking. After all, what did she know about killers?

“May I sit up, please?” She asked after a long while. She heard the car door open and then felt the cool night air rush in as he opened the back door and pulled her to a seated position. “Thank you.” She said. He raised her hood enough to expose her mouth and placed a bottle of water against her lips.

“Drink.” Was all he said and she accepted. When she was done, she thanked him again, hoping that manners meant something to him. It was a foolish hope, she understood, but it was better than nothing.

They sat in silence for a long time and she could tell that night had come one completely. When she could no longer take it, she ventured a question.

“What are you going to do with me?” She asked in a small voice.

“I’m going to bring you back to your friends.” Replied the man. “And if they give me what I want, I’ll hand you back to them.”

“What is it that you want?” She asked.

“That’s none of your concern.”

“My life is hanging in the balance.” She observed. “I am quite concerned.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He assured her. “I’m sure it will all be fine.” Something in his voice made her doubt that, but she decided not to dwell on it. Instead, she wondered why they were just sitting here. She had seen enough of the landscape to know that they were likely in the middle of nowhere.

“Do you live here?” She finally asked just to end the silence.

“Stop talking.” He said, but it wasn’t out of malice, she could tell. His mind was elsewhere and she was distracting him. Rather than prod him further and risk angering him, she sank back into the upholstery and waited.

Kite let her mind drift away and quickly lost track of time. She tried to remember every little detail that she had experienced in her short life. Sex loomed large in her memory. The taste of the fizzy drink that Brian had offered her recently suddenly came to mind. She could almost feel the sizzle as it went down her throat and the explosion of sugar into her brain as it hit her stomach. The beauty of the plains was something she wondered if she had ever seen, even in her old life, so alien and fascinating was it to her. She was lost deep in these reveries, silently awaiting her fate when she detected the beam of another car’s headlights slide across her hood.

She heard the other engine shut off and her abductor got out and closed the door behind himself, meaning that she could barely hear what was going on outside. Dim tones were all that penetrated the hood covering her head and she could tell that some sort of heated discussion was taking place. One of the voices sounded feminine to her, but she couldn’t be sure. There also seemed to be another, less involved person who only interjected when things got too hot. She hoped that was the voice of her kidnapper. He seemed to be trying to keep the peace, at least.

After several long minutes, the arguing abated and whoever was outside seemed to come to an agreement as to what to do with her. Her door was opened and she heard her kidnappers voice again.

“All right.” He said glumly. “Get out.” Fearing the worst but not knowing what else to do, Kite obeyed and stepped into the night air, trying to savor every sip of what might possibly be her last breath.