Chapter 3 Daydream to Nightmare

Leena's mind continued to wander as she pressed her hips back and up in downward facing dog. She imagined the firm ground her palms were pressing into were mystery maple syrup guy's pecs. Sometime in her daydream of him, she had begun to think of him as the man on all of the cringy romance book covers where the male lead was holding his damsel in an uncomfortable, yet sexy, embrace while his shirt was seemingly blown open by the wind.

He'd become that guy. And she'd become the female lead who was arched back in his arms with one of her legs hiked up around his waist. His hand would be precariously high on her bare thigh which showed through the long slit in the skirt of her dress. He would be staring down either at the beauty of her face or her fair and ample bosom.

"Step to the top of your mat, and slowly make your way to standing," the yoga instructor said.

Leena heard her, but she was too deep in her reverie to respond until her friend Adriene slapped Leena in the thigh with the back of her hand and snapped her out of it.

Reality was harsh.

Reality made her feel guilty because in reality she was engaged, and she knew she shouldn't be fantasizing about other men.

Leena rooted down through her feet and opened her palms to the front as the class stood in mountain pose. The instructor told them to press their hands into prayer and Leena followed along. This part was muscle memory, and she could do it on autopilot. She wasn't like Adriene who always seemed revived and renewed each time class ended.

Adriene always seemed to get something spiritual out of yoga while Leena did it purely for health reasons. When Adriene heard Leena talk about how unaffected she felt, Adriene would tell her to get out of her own way, get out of her own head, and she would see the world differently.

But it wasn't that easy.

At the end of class, Adriene and Leena parted ways outside on the sidewalk in front of the building. Adriene lived close by while Leena parked in the parking garage in the opposite direction. Adriene made Leena promise to go get a cup of coffee soon, and then she said goodbye.

Leena cursed the wind and the cold chill of the night as she walked alone to the parking garage. It was usually not a creepy walk, but in the right place at the wrong time, anywhere in Philly could become creepy really quickly.

And that is precisely what happened when Leena suddenly heard a man screaming for help as she made it up to her level of the parking garage.

"Ow! Please don't. Please, I'll have it in a couple of days I promise!" the man screamed.

He sounded so desperate and in so much pain. Leena slowed down and started to get her phone out to call 911. She crouched down between a couple of cars and peered underneath them. Several vehicles down, she saw a man lying on the ground on his back, and there were two sets of shoes standing on either side of him.

"I'm beggin' you, please!" the man said again. "I promise. I promise I'll have it this time. It's just been a hard month is all. I promise I'll have the money! I pro–"

A loud thud stopped the man from finishing his desperate cry. She froze in surprise and sank to the pavement. What was she supposed to do? She didn't have any self-defense training. She was a tallish woman with a resting b*tch face, but her voice wasn't that intimidating, so she didn't have much of a scare factor.

She couldn't face these two men, and it would be a death trap if she interfered right then. She stayed there, pinned against the car, as she listened to the poor man on the ground get cursed at and threatened and get punched and kicked. She felt bad that she couldn't do anything.

Finally, when it was quiet, and she heard the footsteps of the assailants recede, she peeked around the taillights of the car. It seemed to be clear, and she could hear the man wheezing and coughing and mumbling for help.

She got up and ran to him. When she approached, his face was bloodied and swollen, and one of his hands was definitely broken. A couple of his fingers were bent in the wrong direction. She almost wanted to hurl at the sight of him, but she took a deep, not-exactly calm breath and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

"Are you okay, sir?" She wanted to punch herself. Of course, he wasn't okay. That was such a stupid thing to ask. "I'm calling someone right now."

Just as she dialed the 9, her phone was slapped out of her hands. It clattered across the concrete floor. Leena looked up at whoever had just done that. It was a tan man with dark hair that was shaved nearly down to the scalp. He was clean-shaven but still looked rugged. His eyes were a strange kind of brown that she'd never seen before, and just as she was trying to zone in on his face, he swung at her, knocking her to the ground.

Her head slammed into the concrete and a sharp buzzing rang through her head. She tried to open her eyes, but the whole world had gone topsy turvy, and it was in black and white. She tried to blink away the pain, and she heard a strange disembodied grunting.

Then suddenly, her head was being wrenched back, and her head was being covered with something. She tried to scream, but a hand clapped over her mouth to silence her. Her first thought was to bite the hand, so she tried, and she got a chunk of what felt like the webbing between the index finger and thumb, but she was smacked dizzy again, and this time she couldn't keep her eyes open.

She drifted off into a terribly uncomfortable unconscious state.

When Leena awoke again, her head was still ringing, and her vision was a bit blurry. It took her a moment to blink away the static-like world and come to her senses. She tried to brush her hair off of her face and out of her eyes, but her arm was restrained.

In fact, both of her arms were restrained. She tried to move her legs, but they felt heavy. She discovered that her waist was tied down as well. In a panic, she began to thrash against the ropes tying her to the chair, but it was no use. She was too weak.

She huffed tiredly and looked around the room. It seemed like she was in a large, basement-like place. And it was cold here. She began to yell because that was the only other thing she could think of to do, but as soon as she started, two men busted through the metal door and charged towards her.

Leena couldn't help but flinch and shut her mouth. Who the heck were these people? Why did they kidnap her?

She slowly began to recall the moments before she was knocked out the bloodied man on the ground, the two men beating him, the man with the cinnamon-colored eyes who had probably been the one to knock her out.

"Who the h*ll are you?" he spat at her.

She furrowed her brows angrily. She had no idea what was going on, but it was all wrong. "Who the h*ll are you?" she bit back.