My eyes shot open as the rumbling of an engine and the smell of cigarettes rushed into my senses.

Blood rushed through my head, trying to escape my skull as it pounded and pounded. I couldn’t think. The smell was suffocating me. There was just confusion. My hands wouldn’t budge. The smoke in the air was suffocating, and I could barely make out the man in the front seat through the red strands. Something was reallyyy off about this.

I closed my eyes, the dryness of my eyelids made me notice the moisture between my legs.

I had pissed myself. My brain slowly took in what was happening as the weird music played. It was almost taunting me. I was supposed to be in my linear algebra 2 class right now, curiously watching as Mrs. Hellen rambled about a problem for 45 minutes. Which is to say I should’ve been napping right now, and not in the back of someone's car.

Breathe.

Rope was digging into my wrists.

My jaw ached. The plastic gag in my mouth tasted dusty and rotten. I wanted to throw up, but couldn't, the need was unyielding.

Breathe.

I resigned myself to the smoke. As long as I could get some oxygen, I might be able to stay awake. I just had to breathe, I told myself as my vision continuously grew darker and pixelated. I just had t-

I flinched awake. Music was blaring. My thoughts overwhelmed by the sound.

“Fucking burner. Gotta change that shit.” The driver spat. He looked in my direction for a moment, seemingly checking something before he pushed a button and the music went silent.

“What?” he growled.

He was on a call, but I couldn’t make out the person on the other line.

“Yeah, got a good one. Still alive and still a beauty. Has a netdeck too. Yeah, yeah. Flatlined the other whore so you don't gotta worry boss. I’m expecting hazard pay though, because I was fucking worried.” The man chuckled and took a drag of his cig.

I pulled at the rope on my wrists, and suppressed a wince as it got even tighter.

“Ha, good one dickhead. Fuck off Marcus, I got dibs on this one. Wake Eddy up, thinkin’ B will finally let us into the Strom with this haul.” He said after a puff of smoke.

“Yeah, be there in a few.” He hung up as he stopped behind a truck and began fiddling with the radio.

I tried to extend my legs for some relief, but they were tied with two loops of scratchy rope that wouldn’t give.

Hundreds of hours of mindfulness practice paid off, and I managed a moment to gather myself. The pixelation in my vision eased, and the pounding slowed. My brain stopped protesting about the fact that I was being kidnapped. I knew that this could end up really poorly for me.

I grew calmer.

The stupid fuck finished fiddling with the radio, deciding on some shitty pop-rock track, and stepped on the gas. I could make out some of the neon signage as he took a hard right and my head slammed into the door, the centrifugal force deciding to fuck me over too. The pixelated blackness making its return, crawling in from the corner of my eyes stopped me from questioning the creak in my neck as reality jumped in and out of focus.

Breathe.

I only had one shot to do this.

I looked at the back of his neck to see what I was dealing with. There wasn't enough room to do it, but I could try. I turned my thoughts to Mrs. HelIen, taking comfort in her monotonous voice as I bit down as much as I could on the gag and pushed my left arm hard against the seat I was laying on. My wrist bruised as I pushed to try to separate my forearms from each other. Something popped and my left forearm went numb as my wrist twisted within the binds.

But that was okay, because there was enough space between my arms now.

Very slowly, I nudged up the side of the door. I could see the excitement all over the side of his face as I quietly watched through the smoke.The piece of trash was taking another puff, stomping on the gas while further reducing his visibility.

What a dumbass.

He dropped his cigarette as I hooked my right arm over the headrest and around his neck and pulled. My knees going up into the back of the seat for support. His fingers dug into my arm as the strangled sounds escaped his mouth. My arm was on fire but I held with all I could. Until his arms finally seemed to go limp.

My stomach dropped as I realized it wasn’t over. The world slowed as he angled the pistol my way. Two rounds boomed out as I tried to dodge away, my ears were ringing as the headrest was nearly torn to shreds. I tried to headbutt him through it in a panic, but he didn’t budge. He fired again and I felt something go through my face. It was silent, my ears not making out anything. My mind white hot with pain. I yanked back, and the headrest broke as the pistol’s roar shook the car.

I tumbled back into the seat. The wall was fast approaching. The terror drowned out by the realization that I was about to die.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

There was nothing I could do as the distance between the car and the wall became zero and everything went black.

>_<

I groaned as consciousness slowly returned to me. I was on something rough and wet. Shivers coursed through the undercurrent of coldness in my body. My brain was pulsing, still wanting to escape through my ears. The gag was hanging around my neck; The shot had cut through it. My hands slipped out of the rope that was binding them, and I willed my only working hand to reach up to my cheek.

Numbness.

More Wetness. Red. Blood.

I traced the stream of blood with my finger and found a large hole in my cheek. I could feel the smoke drifting in and out of it as I looked at the cause of all of this. I stared up at him, my head on his lap. My eyes taking in the bits of skull and brain slowly running down the man’s shoulder. Strands of greenish blue hair sticking out through the muck.

My arm was throbbing as I watched the gore. The blood and smoke mingled, and the resulting concoction was slowly dripping into my throat.

I threw up, craning my neck to the side with a hope that I didn’t choke.

“uk” I cursed once it was all out, my voice not coming out right. I laid there, in pain. Focusing on just breathing, while everything ran its course for a bit.

I could hear something, under the ringing. A glitched out ding, it was stretched out and intense, like the dial tone from back in the day. It didn’t feel like a sound. Not really. Was it in my head? It didn’t feel like I was thinking it. The sound was just there, pushed into my head. Intruding.

Great! I was going crazy, but that was nothing new. So I guess I was going… crazier? Good job Scarlet. Proving your parents right once again

I dismissed the thought with a jump as I noticed the mush and blood sliding down my chest.

My legs were still tied, so I put my arm on the guy’s shoulder and pulled myself upright. I was sitting on the console, my legs on the cracked leather passenger seat. My black sundress was dyed a dark red in some areas. I pulled on the bottom section of the dress and it gave, the flimsy cloth ripping easily. Struggling with only one working arm, I managed to make a knot. I wrapped the makeshift bandage around my jaw and up to the top of my head. I was probably going to get an infection, but it was gonna have to do until I could get to a hospital.

Now for my legs.

After some wiggling and searching, I spotted the gun laying under the man’s foot. I grabbed it, wincing at the odor. Guy did not change his socks. Nasty.

Gun in my right hand, I lined it up in the dim light with the rope between my legs, my hands steadying as I held my breath. Then it occurred to me that I was holding a dangerous weapon. One mistake would blow a hole through my leg and I’d probably bleed out to some shitty ass music.

Maybe I should check around first? Or at least shut the music off. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

I spent a couple of minutes ruffling through his pockets and found mostly nothing, but a smile made its way to my face as I looked through his jacket.

“Jackpot!” I cheered, finding a retractable blade. Partly because my problem was solved, and partly because thank fuck he didn’t use it on me.

A sigh escaped me as I managed to cut my legs free of the rope. I popped the driver’s door open and pushed the fuck, his body let out a wet thud as it hit the ground. It was pouring out. We were in what looked like a back alley. There were green dumpsters stacked beside each other and a few boxes in front of them. The car was trashed, smoke rising out of the ruined engine. I looked around, pressing the flickering buttons on the controls until I heard the trunk pop open. The glovebox had some smokes and a computer chip of some sort. I’m not much of a smoker so I left those, but the chip looked interesting so I grabbed it.

Leaving the knife and chip on the dash, I grabbed the gun and stepped out of the car right onto the dude’s back. The rain stung as it hit the raw parts of my legs. The adrenaline was wearing off, and I was starting to feel woozy. I shook my head to push past it, and quickly checked the trunk. There was a bag laying there and a couple of mags that looked like they might fit the pistol.

Opening the bag, I found it halfway filled with what seemed to be hand-sized rectangular motherboards. One of the pockets had a bunch of thin, not-quite-plastic chips just like the one in the car. It looked vaguely familiar. Might have some value I guess. I shrugged and shoved the mags in the bag, tossed it on and closed the trunk. As I walked back up to get the rest of the stuff, I caught a glance of myself in the side mirror and froze.

That wasn’t me.

The person in the mirror wasn’t me. Her skin was different. Paler. Unnatural red eyes stared back at me through the darkness. My hair, a fiery red. I didn’t notice any of this in the dark. She I looked similar, but the subtle differences made it clear that this was not me.

I felt grief in my heart as I noticed the body I worked so hard was gone. My thoughts became a jumble.

“Waa??” I let out through the blood in my mouth, ignoring the white hot pain in my jaw. Where the fuck am I-

Panic pulled me from my thoughts as I heard the sound of an engine and screech of tires. Fingers trembling, I grabbed the knife and chip from the dash and ran down the alley, straining with every step as I forced my frayed nerves to move. It can wait. I need to find somewhere safe first.

Who I was didn’t matter right now.

The alley opened up into a lot. I rushed past dumpsters and garbage trying to make my way out onto the street.

Dread clawed at the pit of my stomach. My anxiety was at an all time high as I took in the road before me. The faint echoes of distant yelling pushed me to turn around. A brute-like metallic figure was kicking a lifeless body, and that body was the piece of trash I was forced to create.

I pushed down a wave of disgust as I rounded the corner of the building to my left. I didn’t think they knew it was me, or they would’ve ran my way, but I wasn’t gonna tempt fate.

There were a few people around. I caught some lady staring at me, her hands over a dim trash fire.

Litter was everywhere. Crushed boxes scattered out on the sidewalks; Graffiti and wear on every wall; Palm trees on damned concrete. The ads and signs were unavoidable in every direction. Smokestacks vomited gray clouds out endlessly into the depressing gray skies.

I was totally lost, soaked, and freezing in this fucking wasteland.

I flinched as I caught the distant sound of gunfire and sirens. There were a couple of strip clubs and an array of vending machines across the street in front of me. The whole scene begged to be called dystopian.

Nowhere looked safe.

I sprinted across the street towards the vending machines to get out of the rain.

A bitter chuckle escaped my mouth, drowned out by the ringing in my ears that only seemed to grow louder, and it dawned on me where I was. The kidnapping. The chips. The neon. The tech in my bag. The fucking XXL Burritos? What a sick joke.

I was in Night City.