Sarah held her breath as the rope cut into her hands and down her thigh.
How did she end up here? It wasn’t how she thought her life would end… Trapped in a car, being kidnapped and taken who knows where.
The man in the driver’s seat was screaming something to the woman in the front passenger seat, but Sarah couldn’t tell what with the burlap sack over her head.
One moment, she had been feeding her cat at home, and the next….
It was all a little fuzzy.
They swerved around another corner, and Sarah was thrown against the back of their seats. She had been in the same position on her side for a long while, so the movement was a form of relief. As she was flung back into her place along the backseat, she groaned as her elbow hit the seatbelt buckle.
“We need to get to the house. If we don’t, someone will see her in the back!” the man yelled. Sarah tried to listen, having given up screaming for help a while ago.
They had been on the road for about an hour – as best as she could guess – and she had been trying to remember every turn they took.
“I know that Eric! I’m in this as much as you are. Just watch the roads, and let me handle the rest!”
Sarah was sure this wasn’t going to end well for her, but she couldn’t figure out why she’d been taken in the first place.
She was a teacher; a nobody. There wasn’t anything remarkable about her life, finances or relationships.
“We’re only halfway there, and we already need petrol,” the man said. Sarah could hear his frustration, and the car violently swerved again, with honking from another car filling the air.
They stopped and what felt like a gun was slammed into Sarah’s rib cage.
“If you say one word, we’ll kill you,” the woman hissed. A large blanket was thrown over Sarah and she immediately felt the heat around her.
She heard sounds of doors opening and closing, then silence. They had both left the car.
This was her chance.
Sarah moved her tied hands towards her pants pocket, trying to feel for her phone. It was gone.
“What now?” she asked aloud. Wriggling underneath the blanket, Sarah tried to get the sack to slip off her head so she could see around her. When it didn’t budge, she groaned. “Great job Sarah.”
“Go ahead, I’m listening.” The voice was familiar, but Sarah couldn’t place it. Had they taken another woman along with her? Why didn’t she realise before.
“Is anyone there?”
“I didn’t get that. Could you try again?”
The second phrase clicked, and Sarah smiled. Her phone was in the car; it could hear her voice and she had activated Siri.
“Siri, call 000.”
“Calling 000,” Siri replied.
Sarah quickly relayed her situation to the responder on the phone.
When the captors had returned to the car, Sarah left the phone on speaker in hopes that the operator could track her phone.
They sped away from the service station, and Sarah smiled underneath the blanket and the sack.
Finally, when they stopped the car again, she held her breath; this time, not from the rope along her thigh.
Doors opened and closed, and sirens sprang to life. Sarah heard two bodies being slammed against the car, and let out a sigh.
She had been rescued; thanks to Siri.
Christy Grace Scarlet Pen 