Free All of Her Men by Lourdes Bernabe

long black spider legs crawling into my eyes. Were they my eyelashes? Who else's would they be? They had to be mine. I blinked rapidly to see them flutter again. Yes. They were definitely mine. But nothing else came into focus and my chin dropped forward. All else was a distant blur.
    A prickly kind of feeling crept up my throat. I swallowed to clear it out but it was so much harsher than I expected.
    "Hello," I whispered hoarsely. No answer. "Hello?" I said once more.
My voice wasn’t carrying. I moved to get up and was thrown back against a cushioned chair.
What. The. Fuck?
Seriously what the fuck was going on here. I forced my eyes to open as wide as possible and looked down. I couldn’t believe my eyes. My hands were strapped down with duct tape to the arm rests of a chair. Was I still dreaming?
I knew I’d been having a nightmare. Was I awake or was I still dreaming? I squeezed my eyes shut as hard as I possibly could and then flashed them open. I shook my head from side to side like a wet dog and nothing. No. I wasn't sleeping.
    This was all real.
    Panic set in.
"Hello?" I screamed. "H-ELLOOOOOOO?" could no one hear me? Frantically, my eyes darted around the small room, taking in every morsel of information. I scanned the walls. Nothing. There was a door about five feet away directly in front of me. Where did it lead? Where was I?
Nothing looked familiar. I forcefully threw my head back and saw a dimly lit light bulb hanging a few feet over my head. A light blanket of dust covered it preventing it from giving off much light. But it was enough to see that room was empty except for one thing. Me. I continued to scan the room hoping something would jump out at me.
Think. Think Jolene think. What was the last thing you remembered? Huh? Nothing? Not a damn thing. The pounding in my head was even more intense. My shoulders slumped as I racked my brain for anything I could remember that could tell me how I got to be sitting all alone in this empty room.
There wasn't much. Nothing in my head gave me any inkling as to how in the world I ended up here. I closed my eyes once more and took in a huge gulp of air. My eyelids shot back open and I remembered that I had been home. Before I woke up here I was home.
I was home. The memories flooded back towards me in tiny incomplete and inconsistent waves. I was lying on the couch watching television when I fell asleep.
So how did I wake up here? As far as I knew, I could have been here an hour, a day, a week, a month? I hoped not. Could I have been out that long? Every question that skirted through my very confused brain brought with it another ounce of panic.
Overcome with fear, I cried for help once more. "Help!" I yelled. "Can anybody hear me? Hello!!!!!" I waited in silence. Where could I be that no one could hear my cries?
But then I heard something. Tap. Tap. Tap. There it was. It was something faint. Was that....tapping? It was too far and too low to be sure but it certainly sounded like tapping. Tap...tap...tap... It was getting closer.
No. No. No. Someone was coming in. Why had I screamed so damn loud? I thought it would be help but what if I’d just made it worse? Never in my life had I ever felt such sheer terror. Every muscle in my body tensed as the sound came closer and closer. Sweat trickled down the sides of my face and into my eyes as I drew quick breathes in and out of my nose.
And then the tapping stopped. I racked my brain for a clue. Anything. Anything that might help the situation but there was nothing in sight. Here in this empty room with my hands tied up I felt completely helpless.
Helpless. It's a strange disposition. And yet here I was, festering alone in this room waiting for what? To die? A colossal amount of fear prevented my synapses from functioning properly. That's when the door swung wide open and a man came in wearing the biggest smile I had ever seen on a man's face. All the thoughts I had been thinking before flew right out the non-