Captive - Prologue

      His hand was wrapped around her throat. She could feel the blood pushing harder against the veins within her neck; the pounding sound filled her ears. She opened her mouth, began to gasp for even the smallest amount of oxygen to enter her lungs and alleviate the burning feeling that was taking over her chest. Her body bucked and contorted as the pressure around her fragile throat increased.
      “Shhh…” she heard the man’s voice hiss out the command while the pressure continued to increase, “Just close your eyes and go to sleep, dear.” The struggle to breathe grew too intense for the young woman’s body. The burning sensations from her oxygen deprived lungs turned into tingling, her attempts to gasp for air became more frequent. Panic over took her mind and she fought against her attacker once again. Her hips bucked upwards, pinned arms attempted to thrash against their binds. Adrenaline shot through her body pushing her heart to work harder to attempt to save the young woman from the darkness which threatened to soon overtake her consciousness.
      Cruel chuckles taunted her failed attempts at freedom. Her eyelids grew heavier, her body slowly giving into the lack of oxygen to fuel its battle for freedom. In a final attempt at salvation, using all her force and what oxygen she had left, she screamed. Her once proud, demanding voice gave out on her. The sound that came was weak, crackled. She could barely hear it herself over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. As realization set in, her body finally gave up. The struggle for air took its toll on her muscles. The fight caused her muscles to demand more air than her constricted airway could pull in.
    Her eyelids slowly began to close against her will. Her arms and legs grew limp and finally both her eyes and mouth closed as she fell victim to the darkness. Her final thought was the man’s voice, “Just sleep…just sleep.” It echoed into her subconscious and resonated into blackout.