I tried to open my eyes, my eyelids felt like steel doors as I slowly managed to crack them open allowing a dim light inside. Squinting as even the dim light was hurting my eyeballs, I tried to make sense of where I was. I felt I was lying down on something soft, comfortable yet strange, as in, not something that I was normally used to lying down on. My mind started to spin as I was trying to work out why I should be here in this position and just waking or coming round, from something?
I could hear distant noises, voices maybe, unrecognisable to my brain as it was yet to awaken like the rest of me. My head hurt, I felt like I had the mother of all hangovers. Focussing was impossible at this point yet as I blinked and tried to shake off the massive pain in my head, I could sense feeling returning to other parts of me.
I turned my head and noticed a bedside lamp and clock. The digital display read 1:46am, my mind immediately became even more confused as I could not recall anything that had happened over the past several hours. I lay there feeling my breathing quicken as a panic stirred deep within me, I was fighting to find any reason to find myself here, wherever here is. The not knowing or understanding was filling me with fear.
I moved my legs slowly bending each at the knees then moving my arms, all were present and correct. I was still clothed so that seemed odd, had I passed out? Had too much to drink or something? Where was I?
I was still struggling to focus, my vision was blurred and my hearing seemed as if everything was distant, that really worried me. Had I had some kind of stroke or something? No, I would be in a hospital surely, this was no hospital it was someone's bedroom. Where the hell was I?
The noises were more muffled, I tried to work out what it was but it was much quieter now. I tried to move my legs swinging them round over the edge of the bed. It seemed to take so much effort, what was wrong with me? I fell back trying to get my breath back before trying again. My eyes were slowly starting to clear so I looked round the room, as I did I brought my knees up and then down again trying to make them work. I did this for a few minutes until I could feel as if they were coming back to life. I clenched my fists and pumped my arms doing the same thing until I felt I had at least some control over my limbs. I could make out a bottle of water on the nightstand and reached for it, as I grabbed it I could feel the dryness in my mouth as if I had drunk or eaten something very acidic. I lifted the bottle of water to my lips and caught a slight scent of something that should not have been there. I sniffed the bottle, could there be something in it? I had a bad feeling as I put it back on the nightstand screwing the top back on.
Massive headaches, blurred vision, stiffness in the limbs, had I been drugged? No way! Could it be? Why though? I could not hear any more noises or voices so I started the slow move to get off the bed. My legs were moving better now, as I had to concentrate I willed them to swing round and felt them drop over the side of the bed. At the same time I found myself puffing and panting as I swung my upper body upwards to end in a sitting position. My head hurt! The pounding inside my head was intense but my eyes were clearing slowly. I gave it a minute before trying to stand up, with some considerable effort I stood, I felt my keys rattle in my trouser pocket. That comforted me for some reason.
I did not know what had happened but I was getting flashes of memory that flashed like exploding light bulbs and then were gone. The flashes were enough to tell me that somewhere in this house lurked danger, betrayal and my wife.
I am Warren, 41, married to Elise, 38. We have two teenage kids a daughter 16 and a son 14. My life appeared as bullet points, a series of one liners that my brain was spewing out as it rebooted. The events of the previous evening were sketchy to say the least but we had met two other couples, been out for a meal, had a few drinks, and ended up at one of their houses for nightcaps. Then more flashes that made no sense, mostly faces and then nothing until I awoke. It was obvious even to my seriously confused brain that I had passed out for some as yet unknown reason and ended up in the small bedroom. The how and the why will come later but for now I was consumed with a sense of foreboding and knew I had to get out of there. Wherever my wife was I was sure she either suffered the same treatment or was a part of it, but why?