Ordinary Girl

Chapter Six: Alice

Alice

You know when someone says something that you find completely outrageous, and you bust out laughing?  And then that awkward moment when you realize nobody else is laughing?  That was me, sitting in the back seat of a jeep, next to the Hulk.  He’s looking at me with serious eyes and a face that doesn’t look amused at all.  I glance back to the girl in the front seat, and she’s got her mouth pressed into a thin line, and she’s glaring daggers at the guy.

I can’t even process what he said.  “Mate with me?  What the heck is that, sounds like something from a National Geographic documentary.”  I tried to scoot farther away, but the man just reached around me and pulled me back so that I was flush against his side.  I was all kinds of embarrassed because my shirt  is still wet from work, my sweat is starting to dry on my skin and it feels itchy and salty, I’ve just been abducted by this weird brother-sister duo, I should be in a panic… but on the other hand, there is something about this guy, feeling his rock hard body against my side, his thigh touching my thigh through my pants… instead of feeling afraid like a normal human being would in that situation, I feel… safe.  And a little turned on.  Oh God Alice, I said to myself in my head, That is so messed up.  You are sick, really sick.

“Look, don’t worry Alice, we will explain everything when we get home.  It might be a little shocking, but you don’t have to be afraid.  We would never hurt you or let anything bad happen to you.” The woman in the front seat said.  There was something about the sound of her voice that calmed me and soothed me and made me want to believe her… even though her words were contradicted by the fact that they just grabbed me in a dark parking lot and drove off with me.  I was confused, obviously.  Because the way she talked to me, the way she smiled at me, I was drawn to her.  I felt like she was my best friend and I could easily open up and tell her all of my deepest darkest secrets.

My head hurt.  My brain just couldn’t process the weirdness that was going on right now, so it was shutting down and throbbing stupidly in my skull.  I’m sure I should be doing something about this situation.  Wasn’t there some behavioral protocol for being kidnapped?  Shouldn’t I be screaming or fighting?  Shouldn’t I be trying to kill my captors and escape from their clutches?  But instead I just sat there like a rag doll.  The idea of hurting either of them actually repulsed me.  I even felt guilty for the fact that I’d bit the guy when he was man-handling me in the parking lot.

  I stared at the window and tried to track where we were going, but once we left town, the landscape went by in a blur of trees and greenery, and I was completely lost.  The road got narrower as we went, and we started climbing up into the mountains, until we bumped onto a winding dirt road.  We were driving at a break-neck speed, but the girl seemed to handle the car with confidence.  Still, I wished I’d had a seatbelt on, because the way my night was going…

We slowed down, and the girl rolled her window down.  The woman spoke to someone outside.  “Hey Charles.”

“Alpha!  I thought you were inside at the party?  Is everything okay?”

“Everything is great!” She smiled, “We just had to go pick someone up from town.  Have a good night, stay safe.”

She rolled up the window and continued on, more slowly now.  After a minute the jeep rolled to a stop.  The woman jumped out and ran around to open my door.  “Welcome home, Alice!” She said happily.  She took my hands and pulled me from the car, and I let her.

“Home?” I echoed faintly.  There was a massive house in a clearing, and it seemed like every single window was lit up.  There was the sound of music and laughter, like there was a party going on.  The huge man had unfolded himself from the back seat on the other side, and had come around to stand beside me.  I felt strangely small between the two of them, and both protected and trapped by their bodies.  This was weird.  They were weird.  I know its super-cliché, but I started wondering if I was dreaming.  There was just no way any of this made sense in the rational world.

“There’s too many people in there,” The big guy, George, said.  “They will frighten her.”  He grimaced, “Even more than we already have.”

“Oh right… lets take her in through the garage  then…” The girl took my hand and started leading me around the side of the house… if you could actually call it a house.  It was big, like a mansion.  It stood three stories.  It was painted grey with white trim and black shutters.  There was a multi-car garage attached to the side, and they lead me in through there.  I barely had time to glance at the array of expensive vehicles parked there before they pulled me in through a door, and into what I assumed was a storage area.

The woman was still holding my hand as she pulled me through the house… and it felt strange… warm and tingly.  It was the same feeling I had gotten when I was pressed up against the man in the back seat.  Strange, but also kind of nice.  I didn’t resist her as she lead me up a flight of stairs, and down two more halls, until they stopped in front a set of ornate double doors.  She grabbed the handles and pulled them open, revealing a beautiful bedroom.  It wasn’t a normal bedroom… it was like something out of a magazine spread.  It was a sort of rustic, hunting-lodge décor, with all of the furniture custom made from rough-hewn logs.  There was a massive cal-king bed, a stone fireplace, and there were deer antlers mounted on the wall.  Yet somehow it wasn’t as red-neck as it sounds… it was cozy and tasteful.  I imagined people would pay a lot of money to have their house decorated like that.

But what do I know?  I live in a tiny efficiency and sleep on a futon I bought at Walmart.

I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to glare at them.  “Okay, someone want to tell me what’s going on?  Are you pranking me, or something?”