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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Saturdead on 2024-07-27 01:12:59+00:00.
Back in early August of last year, my husband Quarren and I went on vacation. We were gonna do the tourist thing in one of the south’s larger cities, but our trip was off to a rough start. We got stuck in baggage check-in for two hours. The self-check-in machines couldn’t read our passports. When we finally got through, we got stuck in the security checkpoint and had to go through all our luggage. Because of all this, we missed our flight, and in turn, our connecting flight, and a hotel transfer. We weren’t pleased.
After re-booking, we ended up with a total of 7 hours in delays before we got to the hotel somewhere around 11 in the evening. At that point, it turned out we’d been double-booked. They were full. I was about to explode, while Quarren looked ready to sink through the floor. Luckily, the hotel had a second location downtown. It was more modern, a bit more expensive, and overall nicer. As a courtesy for their mistake, we got a replacement suite. An upgrade.
Finally, some good luck, right?
Right.
We took an uber there. The place was practically brand new. They had this electronic system where you didn’t get a key – you got a personalized code that worked on every door. Quarren handled the codes while I signed us in.
There was a 24/7 bodega with organic snacks, wine, and drinks right by the lobby. A sushi restaurant that closed at 11. A sauna, a gym, an indoor pool, and a whole bunch of complementary things. A couple of free robes to bring home, and a bottle of white wine with a little ‘for your inconvenience’ note attached.
While Quarren took a shower, I ordered us some food and unpacked. We’d been travelling all day, and all nearby restaurants were closed. As instructed, I included the code for the outer doors so they could drop the bag off by our door.
We got our late dinner by the time I was halfway through a shower. Quarren delightedly shared how he was going to town on our order. Apparently, it was ‘so good’ and ‘barely any left’. Bastard. They had included two extra orders of tiramisu as a little treat, but I couldn’t eat it. It had coconut in it – my one allergy.
All in all, that night turned out pretty good. We shared a lukewarm meal, watched The Office, and went to bed. We talked a bit about our plans for the next day, picking one thing each from our prep list. A tour of the local distillery. A museum trip. Dinner at a steakhouse. The good stuff.
So after a long day, we called it a night.
But that’s where the story starts, at 3 am that same night.
When someone opened our door.
See, one thing I hadn’t realized was that the code for the outside door was the same as for our room. It was a single personal code system. Quarren had been the one dealing with it, and I hadn’t thought too much about it. But what I’d accidentally done when ordering food was to, essentially, hand a stranger a key to our room.
And that stranger was coming through the door.
I tried to shake Quarren awake, but he didn’t react. He was completely out, to a point that it worried me. I could smell something sour on his breath. My mind wandered back to the order we’d gotten, and that extra portion of tiramisu. I hadn’t had any, so he had chowed down on both. What if it’d been laced with something?
The door hinges creaked, and I didn’t know what to do. I’m 5’3, unarmed, and in my underwear. I decided, on a whim, to pretend to sleep. If they were just there to steal, at least I’d be unharmed. They were expecting us to be asleep, so as long as I played along I should be fine. I held Quarren, closed my eyes, and waited.
Careful footsteps made their way across the hotel carpet. The door closed. A slow pacing back and forth next to our bed. I counted at least two people, maybe three. Someone could’ve stayed by the door.
“…just the guy,” a man whispered. “Bag him.”
They were unwrapping plastic. They weren’t in a rush. I could tell they’d done it before, they were quick about it. I held onto Quarren, debating in the back of my head what the hell I was supposed to do. I was leaning towards waiting for them to leave the room and then immediately run outside and get help.
But something shifted. One of the intruders made a hushing noise and waved the other one over.
“…what?” one of them whispered.
“…there,” another answered.
“…the spoon.”
Since Quarren was the only one who’d had the tiramisu, one of the spoons were left unused. Only one of us had taken the bait. They knew one of us was awake.
In the next breath, I was grappled. A hand covered my mouth and another my throat. I was pulled out of bed before I even realized I was struggling. I opened my eyes to three dark figures. They were speaking over one another in a moment of panic. One of them saying they were screwed. Another saying they should just go. And a third reminding them that they had no choice but to bring me. I got a gun pressed to the back of my neck.
“One word, and you’re done. Then we get him. Understand?”
I did. I stayed quiet. I couldn’t bear the thought of Quarren waking up without me, but what choice did I have?
“Get dressed,” they demanded. “Now.”
They brought me through the staff area, past the laundry room. There was only a skeleton crew working the hotel at night, and most of them were in the reception area. These three could walk me out the back like it was nothing. Right outside they had an inconspicuous sedan marked with a fast-food delivery service logo.
They were still talking as they put me into the back seat. They had to improvise a bit. They were supposed to take Quarren, and he was supposed to be out cold. I was wide awake, trying my best to memorize details about the intruders and their vehicle. One of them took off his belt and tied it around my head as a makeshift blindfold. They couldn’t drive around with masks on, that’d get them pulled over. They tried to camouflage my blindfold a bit with a trucker hat, and at a glance, you’d be excused for missing that it was a kidnapping.
“Why’d you wanna bring the guy?” one of them asked.
“Less hair gets stuck in the drain,” the other mumbled. “More meat.”
Sitting in the back of that car was surreal. All the familiar sounds of a calm drive. Braking, accelerating, the clicking of turn signals. But all the while I felt the barrel of a gun poking into my side; right next to my heart.
We were going pretty far out. There was at least a 40-minute ride, and we passed through a tunnel at some point. We must’ve used the highway; there were a lot of cars passing us. Then, we went off-road. The road got rougher, and the sound of other cars faded. As we came to a stop, they all drew a collective sigh of relief.
“Out. Now.”
They put their masks back on and took off my belt-blindfold. I only caught a brief glimpse of the outside area before they shoved me through the door. It was this large old industrial site. Probably abandoned; there was a chain-linked fence lining the property. There were no lights on the outside, but the place had power.
Stepping inside, the temperature dropped. Somewhere nearby there were these large fans, creating a powerful draft that swept through the building. I couldn’t see them, but even from the hallway, I could hear them. The place was close to freezing. I’d just thrown on my pants, a shirt, and shoes. I didn’t even have socks on.
One of the attackers went ahead while the other two stayed behind. We were in this long corridor with one door at each end; one leading outside, and one leading further in. We stood there for a couple of minutes while I heard raised voices in the room up ahead. Those who stayed with me didn’t say a word. They just looked straight ahead, keeping a gun aimed at me.
Not a word.
The door at the other end opened. The third attacker returned, now in the company of what looked like a woman. She had sunglasses and a white face mask and was dressed in what can best be described as dollar-store doctor’s scrubs. She seemed upset and was scolding the man in a foreign language. Not sure about the origin, possibly south-east Asian.
One of the two men holding me seemed frustrated. He grunted.
“Hey,” he said. “What’s the word?”
“I don’t know!” the doctor woman groaned. “We always pick the man!”
“So?”
“So?!” she scoffed. “Could affect harvest! I don’t know! Hormones!”
She smacked something into the hands of the man next to her and turned to leave.
“Prep her,” she called out as she hurried through the doors. “We try.”
I was dragged into a big, open space. It looked like an old warehouse. The doctor was nowhere to be seen – she must’ve gone ahead. There were doors all over, and I was taken into what looked like a shower room. They proceeded to hold me down and shave my head. These long tufts of brown hair sinking into the drain. I hadn’t had short hair since I was a kid; I felt naked. It just took them a couple of seconds. They were fast. Practiced.
They lead me to a pair of double doors. One of them checked a digital watch. Another opened and tested a padlock. There was a collection of buckets next to the door; stained by something thick and blue.
“Time?”
“Four ten.”
“Four ten, or four eleven?”
“Four ten.”
“Check.”
They made a note on a piece of paper taped to the wall.
“Should we tape her?”
“Doesn’t matter,” the one with the padlock said matter-of-factly. “Been weeks. He’s hungry.”
And that was it. The doors swung open, and I was pushed inside. The doors slammed shut behind me, and I was on my o...
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