Kara walked through the outer doorway of number 8 Carroll Street and left behind the hot July air that had dogged her through the neighborhood she had been finding her way around these past thirty five minutes, after she exited the #13 bus. She had double and triple checked the address on the small piece of paper her friend Laura had given her.
Kara stood in the small hallway connecting the outer door to an inner locked door.
On the wall was an intercom system with many room and suite numbers and a button next to each one. 12 businesses in all Kara noted, counting the buttons and room numbers. She had always had the habit of noticing things like this. Her mom called her a counter. She said Kara's father had been a counter. He would come home from the deli Kara's mom had told her and inform her how many men had been slicing cheese and how many, meat. He would tell her how many slicing machines the deli had and how many refrigerators.
Kara found the number written on the paper, and the name she had been given next to this number, on the intercom.
Kara read: Salacus Modeling.
She pressed the button and waited. She wasn't waiting long. As her finger left the button on the wall a buzz sounded and a gentle male voice issued from the intercom.
"Hello, how may I help you?"
"I ... um, have an appointment to have a meeting with Mr. Peterberry ... uh ...at four." Kara had spoken in her usual halting nervous tone. She was always a shy and sweet girl who didn't date, and had only a few friends.
The soft gentle voice answered her. "Are you Ms. Kara Wellmont?"
"Yes sir," Kara replied.
"I will buzz you in; you may come upstairs by using the elevator in the lobby. Thirteenth floor, our office is the only one on the floor, so just walk right in when you see our doorway Ms. Wellmont." The soft voice receded and a harsh buzz followed during which Kara pushed open the inner door and walked inside.
Kara was relieved to find the lobby incredibly cold. The air conditioning apparently was turned to the max, and Kara breathed deeply and felt her damp body dry nicely after the long walk through the streets on this hot summer day.
Kara looked in the mirrored wall of the lobby near the elevator and fluffed out her long blond hair, and examined her make-up. Kara found her face to still be very presentable, but she still took out her lipstick and reapplied some to her full lips.
She felt self conscious in the extreme in the revealing outfit her friend had recommended to her.
Her tight pink dress hugged her breasts and her shelf bra pushed them up and made them much more prominent than normal. She saw that her nipples which stuck out over the bra were hard and obvious in the cold air of the lobby, and she felt her face redden at this sight. Kara also wasn't used to wearing such a short dress. The hem came to just a few inches past her ass, which was round and enticing she had to admit in this dress.
Kara's legs looked longer than they were in this dress, especially with the high spiked sandals she wore. Looking in the mirror Kara's own assessment of how she looked was that she looked like a hooker. Laura had said she just looked hot, and to get a job at this firm she had been told you had to be hot. Laura has said that, no skinny aloof cold catwalk queens need apply to Salacus Modeling.
The elevator doors opened and Kara walked toward it. A man walked out and stopped to look her up and down. Kara shivered and smiled at the large muscular man and looked past him at the open elevator door. The big man did not smile back but simply continued to look at Kara as if she were an insect. She felt a watery feeling in her stomach and looked down and back up at the elevator again, wishing she was someplace else.
Slowly the big man, still scowling at her, stood aside and motioned her into the elevator. "Good day, young lady," the man said in a voice devoid of good wishes Kara thought to herself as she quickly got onto the elevator.
As the doors closed Kara saw the man turn and watch her, staring straight into her eyes. Just at the moment the doors finally slid completely closed he smiled a smile that seemed to be the least friendly smile Kara had ever seen.
"Have fun!" he called out as the doors closed.
'Why would he say that to me,' thought Kara as the elevator carried her upwards.
Kara stepped out of the elevator and was relieved to see the door to the modeling agency right in front of her as she exited. She hitched her handbag up high on her shoulder and looked down at her shapely legs and thought; I do look hot, and then stepped through the door.
Kara walked in and strode quickly up to the reception desk with an assured smile on her face, before she even registered what the room looked like.
Then it all came into focus.
The reception area was bare with nothing on the walls and no couch or even a proper waiting area. In front of Kara sat a man behind a desk. He was wearing a black t-shirt and as he stood she saw he wore jeans. He smiled a mirthless cruel smile.
"Hello Kara, glad you could come." Kara recognized the gentle voice on the intercom. Only now all gentleness seemed to have been bled from that voice, and in its place was only coldness.
Behind her Kara could hear the door bang shut and then a double clicking sound as if a series of automatic locks had closed.
Kara looked around quickly and saw that behind the desk was a wall that was open on both sides leading to a much larger room beyond, but the quiet and low lights told her that no one else was in this office, if indeed office it was. Kara had no idea how she knew these things but she felt sure it was true.
The man began to step out from behind the desk and walk to her.
Kara felt her stomach turn to ice and begin to do a flip flop, and she turned and ran back to the door, only to find it - as she had somehow known she would- locked. Kara fumbled to open her bag looking for her mace can. 'Not here!' she thought as she tore into her handbag. 'Why? Why didn't I take it,' she thought desperately. Kara found her house keys and made a fist around them, the point of her house key sticking through her fingers, and then turned to find the man right behind her.
She used her self defense training from the gym and thrust out the key into his face, only to find his hand, powerful, wrapped around her wrist, stopping her punch. He twisted her wrist hard and pressed into her muscle and she felt her hand seem to open on its own. The keys dropped harmlessly to the floor at her feet.
Kara remembered the self defense class and brought her knee up into his groin, screaming as she did so. "Ahhrrgg!"
Her knee connected with air as the man side stepped her blow.
The man grabbed her upper arm and brought back his other hand and punched her in a quick jabbing motion, in her stomach. He punched hard enough to knock the wind out of her but not hard enough to injure her badly.
Kara stumbled back against the locked door and looked up and made a fist and threw a jab which the man swatted away and then, stepping into her slapped her face with his open hand. She felt this snap her head back and her cheek burn.
