He opened the door after her shower and led a terrified Sam back to the room, chaining her to the wall. She was wearing a similar dress to Madison’s, which was pale blue with lavender starlings flying all over the fabric. Sam’s was soft yellow with lemons and oranges. Both were buttoned all the way up their necks, nearly choking them. The man pulled out a thick permanent marker. It was the kind with the strong smell, like the one Madison had used to mark their boxes when she and Sam had moved out of the dorms at Montclair State University and into their new apartment just a few months ago. The two women had managed to save up enough for the security deposit by working all year at the campus book-store.

The one-bedroom apartment they’d moved into was definitely cozy, but it was all they could afford so they’d put in two twin beds and made it work. As best friends, Sam and Madison didn’t mind sharing a small space. If one of them had a date over, they simply took turns sleeping on the futon in the living room to allow some semblance of privacy. Their old box TV still worked fine, so they’d pooled their money together and bought a new stereo with a CD player. Between the two of them, their Case Logic CD wallet bulged with options. Excited to finally be on their own, they’d hardly noticed the tight quarters as long as they could blare Destiny’s Child or TLC and sing at the top of their lungs in the living room.

Sam had been sitting next to Madison on their tattered thrift store futon, studying for their chemistry exam on the night they’d been abducted. It was one of the first nights in a while that they were both dateless and free of other obligations, so it was a treat to study together, even though they were dreading the exam. Sam made flash cards and they took turns quizzing each other. Every time Sam got a question right, Madison threw an M&M up in the air for her to catch as a reward, which made the process much less painful. When the clock struck one in the morning, they finally packed up their notes and fell into bed exhausted. Waking to a rustling sound, Sam opened her eyes to see a dark shape hovering over her just before the sharp pinch of a needle pierced her skin. In the moments before she’d passed out, she’d yelled out for Madison, looking over to her bed. Madison had been silent and motionless.

‘Hold still,’ the man’s voice rang out, pulling Sam abruptly back to the present. He was crouched down in front of Madison, grabbing her chin, muscles bulging under his shirt sleeves with every movement.