Page 1 of Beyond the Temptation: Vol 2

CONFESSION

BY HELEN HARDT

A Short Story

PROLOGUE

This isn’t a story I ever thought would be mine.

I’m still not completely sure it hasn’t all been a dream… Parts of it are a waking nightmare.

I went to bed one night, thinking the next day would be like any other.

But I woke up somewhere else…

Somewhere dark and stark—a room with just the essentials. A bed. A chair. A small table. A toilet in the corner but no sink. A door with a keypad but no doorknob. The walls were bare concrete, and when I stood, the carpeted floor creaked beneath my feet.

I was taken against my will.

I never expected to be happy about that fact.

But I fell in love with my captor.

My name is Susanna Myers.

This is my confession.

CHAPTER ONE

I wake up the first day wearing only a pair of cotton bikini underwear and a white tank top that fits me snugly. The clothes aren’t mine.

My heart races. Nothing is familiar.

I blink my eyes, trying to whisk away the confusion. The ceiling above isn't the one I'm used to seeing every morning. I look around, dazed and frightened. This room isn’t mine. The walls, the furniture—not mine.

Where am I?

How did I get here?

Maybe this is just a bad dream. I used to have them all the time at the group home. I bring my right hand over to my left forearm and give it a big pinch.

No. This is real.

Cold sweat forms on my forehead as I shiver. My breathing is shallow and rapid as I run my hands over an unfamiliar bedspread, feeling its thinly threaded texture.

I scramble out of bed, head toward the door. I pound on it. “Help! Someone help me!”

My pleas fall on deaf ears, of course. Not that I expected anything else.

I scream and pound until my voice is hoarse and my knuckles are red.

Then I pace around the room, my hands clenched into fists, my heart still racing. I scour every inch of the prison for something to use as a weapon or to help me escape.

I find nothing.

I sit in the chair for a moment and then get back in the bed under the thin covers. My hope is that it will help me feel secure.

It doesn’t.

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