Reunion
Chapter 1
“I just want to know if you’ve seen this woman. I’m not a cop, I don’t care about anything you did. I just want to know if you’ve seen her in the past 12 months.”
Chelsea held the well worn photograph of her and her sister Maya in her hand. The drug addict looked at it and shook his head.
“Nope. Sorry.” It was a response that Chelsea had heard alot in the past year. She put the photograph back into her pocket. That was it. She was done. She just wanted to get out of there now. Despite having a taser and pepper spray on her, she didn’t feel safe at all. Her fear elevated a bit when she saw a gang of drug dealers walking towards her. Cupping her hand over the pepper spray, she half ran to her car. She drove off before they got close.
Her quest started with contacting the police after Maya had gone missing. After that failed, she started her own campaign to find her. She posted copies of the one recent phgotograph she had of her sister all over the city, the same one that was now in her pocket. Finally she had gotten up the nerve to venture into the areas of the city controlled by gangs and drug dealers, all so she could get any leads, or at least get closure.
The best case scenario Chelsea could think of was that Maya was still alive somewhere, probably lying strung out in some abandoned house. If she was alive, she had probably been raped at some point in the past year. She knew that Maya had had sex for drugs before.
They had both lost their Mother and only parent to a stroke. Chelsea had been 11, Maya only 9. They had gone to a foster care facility then onto seperate families. They didn’t see each other for nearly 10 years. The reunion had been a dream come true for Chelsea. Then Maya’s drug use became apparent. She had been using opiates since her mid teens. When Chelsea found out, she did nothing about it. She couldn’t really blame Maya. All she could do was take care of her sister and try to coax her into getting help. It was probably too late now.
She was on her lunch break when her phone alerted her to a new email. Bored, she opened it thinking it was another badly spelled spam or scam email. She had posted her email address in many places during her campaign to find Maya, and some people apparently found it amusing to send her lots of scams such as the ”I kno where your sister iz, pay me $200.00 and Ill tell you.“ scam. This email was different. It contained no text. The body of the message was a picture of a woman. Looking at it on her phone’s tiny screen she couldn’t be sure, but the woman looked a lot like her sister.
She ran back inside and pulled up her email on her work computer. She wasn’t allowed to check her email at work, and the IT guys would know, but fuck them. She pulled up the email and examined the picture. The woman was wearing an expensive looking dress. She appeared to be dancing with a man whose face had been cropped out. It was definitely Maya. She looked pretty healthy. She was looking and smiling at whoever her dance partner was. She quickly replied to the email.
“Where’d you get this? Who are you?“
Throughout the rest of the day she kept checking her email on her phone whenever she got a minute to herself. Finally at the end of the day she received a text. Your sister is alive and well. You can see her if you want to, but the process will not be straightforward.
Chelsea quickly texted back ”Yes! I want to see her! I don’t care what I have to do I want to see my sister!“
A few minutes later she received another text. “I will be in contact with you later.
So, someone knew where her sister was. That someone also knew her cell phone number, which was not a comforting thought. What else might they know about her?
They apparently knew where she lived as well. After work, she arrived home to find her door unlocked with a note on it that simply said “Kitchen” on it. She walked into the kitchen. Sitting on the counter was a small glass of blue liquid and another note.
“As I stated in my last message to you, meeting your sister will not be a straightforward process. The glass next to this note contains a sedative which will cause you to fall asleep for several hours. Drinking this will signal to me that you want to meet your sister, and are willing to accept what might be done to you in order to meet her. The sedative will be good until tomorrow morning. If you do not wish to go down this path, just pour the sedative down the drain, and I won’t bother you again.
Next to the note were three more pictures of Maya. She looked pretty happy in all of them. Two of them showed her standing next to a man whose face had been blurred. In one of them he had his arm around her shoulders. Had she gotten married? Was she sober now? She certainly didn’t look strung out. Chelsea looked for track marks on Maya’s arms but saw none. Did she want to know what had happened? Hell yeah. Was she willing to follow this person’s instructions? That she wasn’t so sure about. She didn’t like the idea of being sedated at all.
She sat there in the kitchen reading and re-reading the note, eyeing the glass of liquid and looking at the pictures. Maya was her only immediate family. It was nice to know that she was apparently alive and well, but Chelsea really did miss her. What if the woman in the photos wasn’t Maya? They could be doctored photos. Maybe it was a trap. Then again, if they wanted her, whoever they were, why not just outright abduct her? They knew where she lived. Why go through the trouble of making fake photos?
She looked at the note and the photos again. The woman really looked like Maya, right down to the few strands of blonde in her otherwise red hair. It had to be her. Whoever they were, they were giving her the option, and a warning. What might be done to her? Rape? Worse?
She eyed the glass again. The blue liquid sat in it, looking alot like kool aid. It probably wouldn’t taste like it though. Heh if she drank it it’d be like drinking the kool aid. Was Maya in some kind of cult? What if she drank the “kool aid”? Would she end up sitting next to Maya wearing a robe in some psuedo temple mindlessly chanting slogans? She went back to the pictures. Maya didn’t look like she was in a temple. The first image appeared to have been taken at a carnival. She was wearing regular jeans and a tee shirt in that image. The next image showed her posing next to a movie poster of a superheroine. The last one was of her and the anonymous man she was with. They were dancing together in what looked like a ballroom.
The decision to do it lasted long enough for her to grab the glass and quickly gulp the liquid down. It didn’t taste exactly like kool aid, but it was pleasantly sweet. Then a second later she realized what she had done. She shuddered.
“...Well you’ve got me now...” she said aloud. Hearing that made her nervous. What had she just done? Whatever was in that chemical concoction was now inside her! Maybe she could try throwing up? She looked at the three pictures again. No... she was gonna go through with it. She went into the living room and laid down on the couch. She decided to play a quick little game on her phone, aware that it might be the last time she would do so. Ugh that was morbid. She switched to happier thoughts. Maybe they just wanted to keep their anonymity, hence the reason for sedation... She started to find it hard to concentrate on the game. Damn, that drug was acting quickly....