Natalia

I grip the blade tightly in my fist and lunge forward to charge the stranger. But nothing happens. My legs refuse to move. They stay tethered to the ground, as if they’d been glued in place.

The man crooks his finger again.

A tightness wraps around my body, like a boa constricting around me. There’s nothing touching my skin, I’m certain of it. But I can’t move. I can’t take a single step.

What’s happening to me?

Suddenly, my hand opens on its own accord, and the knife I’m wielding drops to the forest floor. I gasp, shocked by the sudden lack of control over my own body. I didn’t tell my hand to do that!

“What’s going on?” I demand. “What are you doing to me? Did you put something in my drink?”

The man doesn’t respond. He doesn’t even move. He curls his finger and I feel the sensation of ropes pulling taut around me.

I gasp, coming to the sudden realization that it’s him. That he’s the one doing this. I don’t know how, but it’s too coincidental. Every time he curls his finger the ropes tighten.

“Let me go!” I snarl, floundering against the invisible bindings. “Whatever weird devil shit you’re doing, cut it out!”

The man finally seems to respond to my demands. A smirk cuts across his face and he lifts his head, looking down his nose at me. “I’m impressed,” he says. “Normally your kind doesn’t put up a fight.”

He curls his fingers again, and the snake tightens around me. I choke out a breath, feeling the oxygen pull from my chest. I writhe, flailing my shoulders, fighting harder against whatever invisible force he’s using against me.

All the rage in me seeps out through my glare as I find the man’s eyes in the darkness. “You’re…not—” I push against the feeling, twisting my body violently against the pressure— “going to do this to me!” Frustrated, I let out a snarl and shout, “I won’t be your victim!”

Normally, this would be the point in time when the person I’m speaking to reassesses their choices, but the man simply widens his smile.

“As fun as this might be, I don’t have time for games.” Then he opens his palm. I feel the pressure release—but only for a moment, before he closes his fingers into a fist. The binds crush me, and everything goes black.

***

When consciousness finds me again, I’m staring at the bonfire, the light glaring and painful on my eyes. I must’ve had too much to drink. That was a hell of a dream.

But as I reached out to stretch my stiff arms, the feeling of constriction wraps around me. The events of my birthday night come flooding back.

Ashlyn.

The stranger.

Suddenly, my surroundings come into focus. I am not staring into the bonfire, but rather a single chandelier suspended above me. I blink, taking in the room around me.

Rows of cots with people sleeping atop them. The smell of burning candles and the sound of pacing somewhere nearby.

“Where am I?” I murmur. “Ash? Hello?”

A woman comes into view, though she’s blurry at first. She looks…like a nurse. But not the usual kind. I’ve never seen nurses with uniforms like these.

A second woman sidles up to her, dressed the same way. She chances a look at me over her shoulder, and I hear the faintest sound of her murmurs as she says, “Looks like she’s waking up. I heard this one was a lot of trouble to get here.”

“Really?” the first nurse asks. She’s writing something down on a pad of paper, but she pauses to look back and take in the sight of me. “That’s rare, isn’t it?”

The second nurse nods. “Humans are usually so easy to subdue.”

I feel a twinge of frustration tugging at my chest. How dare they talk about me as if I’m not right here? And what the hell do they mean by human?

“Hey, Chatty Kathy!” I call out. “Where’s my friend? Tell me, now!”

The younger of the two nurses approaches my bed side, doing little to hide the look of amusement on her face. “Or what? There isn’t much you can do, sweet thing. Why don’t you lie back and rest like the other obedient little mortals? Your friend is in good hands. I can assure you, she’s being well taken care of.”

I jerk at the binds keeping me tied down, anger flaring in my nostrils. I’m confused, and my entire body aches. But more importantly—

“What the hell do you mean by mortals?”

The nurse gives me one last glance and walks off to manage another patient.

Suddenly, I recall the conversation with the man in the forest. The way he had called us humans, as if he wasn’t one himself.

A chill sweeps down my spine.

Where the hell am I?