Kassie wasn't sure how she got into the dingy basement on a filthy stained mattress with a bucket of ice cold water jolting her awake.
Truth be told the world had been a blur ever since she left the bar after celebrating with her boyfriend for managing to get through Finals Week without losing her sanity. Her boyfriend Jace had ordered them an Uber back to his place, because as drunk as she was, he was even worse, which was saying something because as stated previously, Kassie was drunk.
She vaguely remembered saying that the man who ushered them into his car wasn't the man whose picture was displayed on his phone, and his car was more blue than black. But Jace said it was fine, and they went. She also recalled slurring that the driver was going the wrong way, that Jace's apartment was north of the bar, not south. But she was ignored, and Jace had already passed out with his head leaning against the window, unable to confirm her fears or ease her worries.
Kassie tried to stay awake. Tried to reach for his phone and press the emergency button but the world was spinning too much, and sure enough, soon enough, the world faded to black, coming back sharply and fiercely sudden when a bucket of ice water was thrown on her, soaking her from the red hair atop her head all the way down to her toes.
She gasped as she sat up, running her hands over her face and shielding her eyes from even the dim light as she heard a man talking to her.
"Come on, my little cumrag," he said to laughter, "you've slept long enough. Time to get up."
Kassie swallowed hard as she forced her eyes to focus and her mind to stop racing as she looked up at the men surrounding her. There were three of them in total, and all of them looked to be in their mid thirties, A man with a stained white wife beater stretched over a great big beer belly who already had a bead of sweat on his balding brow, a dark haired man with no neck who towered over his companions who was so thick and big with muscles that one of his biceps looked as though it was bigger around than Kassies entire waist, and another, smaller in stature than the other two but still much more physically fit than the average man with blonde hair and holding a metal pail still dripping with the cold water.
The blonde had been the driver, she realized swallowing hard as she looked up at him. Already Kassie's heart was pounding against her ribs as she did her best to sound calm, confident, and as authoritative as a 115 pound 5'4 twenty one year old girl could when faced with three hulking men leering down at her.
"Where am I?" she demanded. She flinched as they laughed at the shake in her voice. "Who are you, where's Jace? Jace!" she yelled, trying to keep the panic in her voice to a minimum. "Jace, if this is a joke it's not funny!"
"Who the fuck is Jace?" the fat one asked with an amused grin looking at the blonde.
"The sad sack riding with her." The blondes' lips curled into a smirk. She watched as he picked up another bucket at his feet she hadn't noticed before. "I think you need to spend less time worrying about your limp dick boyfriend, and spend more time worrying about how much entertainment you can give us before we decide to let you go or not."
