The Playhouse Experiment pt. 3

Lorene was scared. No, uncomfortable was the right word. She had always been a stickler for precision of language. The man's skin was darkish, and he looked as though he was one of those people who spent so much money on trying to change their face, but none of the features quite fit together. His eyes were two different shades of brown, his nose was a bit too wide to be proportional, and looked a bit twisted. His upper lip was almost too big, and his chin was not in line with the rest of his face. He had tiny, almost healed scars all over his face. He stared intently at Lorene, and she started hyperventilating, she was starting to panic. But, then, a huge eighteen-wheeler passed in between them. Lorene sighed in relief. This had never happened to her before. The man wasn't there after the truck had passed. Lorene began to get up from the fire hydrant she was sitting on, when she saw him crossing the crosswalk. She took a deep breath, and began to walk away. She had only gone twenty feet, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. A voice then said, "You are Lenore, no?" The voice had a Russian accent, but it sounded practiced, almost faked. She turned around and saw it was the man who had been across the street. She then, without thinking, corrected him. "Lorene," she said, "my name's Lorene." She began to realize it had probably been years since she had said that to anyone, when the man interrupted her thoughts with a rude comment of "Whatever." She didn't even have time to be shocked, when he said, "You follow me. Now. If you want to live, you will follow me exactly. Come." He turned on his heel and walked away. Lorene was frightened, and was about to run away, when he was suddenly next to her again, whispering in her ear. "If you value your mother's life, you will come with me now. We have guns trained on you and her right now, and would be fine with killing her, but would prefer not to kill you. You are very valuable to us, Lenore, and would hate to kill you, but we will if we have to. It would be best if you came with us, though. If we killed you, we would have to kill or erase the memories of everyone here on this street. Although," he muttered, " the snow has kept most people inside. But, if you come with us, we will spare all these people, and your mother. Now, COME!" he said, and began to hurredly walked away. Lorene, knowing what was at stake, instantly followed. They walked quickly, taking a complicated route that no one would follow. Lorene kept her head down, walking fast,until she passed an alley. Someone yanked her into the alley, and covered her mouth. It was the same man, now picking her up and roughly cradling her, rushing towards a truck, the same one that had crossed in between them. She was thrown into the back of the truck, the man climbing in after her. The doors slammed shut behind him, and a moment later, the truck started up. Lorene had time to register other men in the truck, when someone held a rag over her mouth and nose. She breathed in the sent of chloroform, and in moments, she was unconcious.