Valentina

Slowly, consciousness trickles into my mind and I open my eyes carefully, I quickly discover that I can only see darkness.

Have I gone blind?

Common sense returns to me in a haze and I can feel the material of a cloth against my face, I sigh in relief at the knowledge that there is a blindfold against my eyes and I’m not blind as I earlier thought.

Wait! There’s a blindfold against my eyes!

Where am I?

Realization sets in as I remember my kidnapping and it plays like a sequence before me.

Full awareness of my surroundings crawls into my senses alongside the sequence of my kidnap, I am bound to a chair with my hands firmly restrained to my back. I try to move, to break free from my restraints all to no avail.

My wrists burn from the friction of my efforts against the cordlike material used to tie them.

"Help!" I cry out, my voice echoing off the walls of the room. "Is anyone there? Please, help me!"

The response to my cries for help is total silence, broken only by the sound of