She Plays with Fire

You have to know who you are, if you don't you have nightmares. ~ Stephen Rea

"You'll be down the left aisle on the window side, enjoy your flight," said the flight attendant.

Abbi mumbled something incoherent as she made her way down the aisle, praying that this would be a fairly empty flight and she wouldn't have to endure the company of strangers, be they talkative or not. She was glad that she at least had an aisle seat so she would have to ask strangers to move if she needed to get up. She shoved her small carry on into the over head bin and sat down in her seat, placing her earbuds in her ears and getting out her book, hoping to achieve a 'leave me alone' vibe.

She was totally engrossed in her book when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She reluctanly removed one of her earbuds and looked up expectantly at the intruder of her solitude. "I'm sitting in the window seat. Could you excuse me please?" he said.

"O-ok, s-s-sorry," Abbi stuttered. "He-here you g-go." She was clearly flustered by the man, and the knowledge that she would have to spend the next ten hours sitting right next to him. She stepped aside as he sat down and then took her seat again, putting her music back on and opening her book again.

He chuckled, amused that this little slip of a girl, probably not much taller than 5'4", was so obviously flustered by his presence. She appeared to be attempting to read but he could tell that she was looking at him. He was rather amused by her, most girls of his acquaintance would never try to use a book to camoflauge their actions, it just wasn't believable. Then he noticed what she was reading, or rather, found out he couldn't determine what she was reading, the blasted thing was in Russian, or at least he thought it was Russian. Arabic he knew as well as English and he could get by in Spanish and German, but he could never get the hang of Russian. She didn't look or act like she could be a spy, but wasn't that the point? What was that saying something about keeping friends close and potential enemies closer? "Looks like its time to make a new friend," he thought.

He pulled out one of Abbi's headphones and said, "Hi, I'm Liam. I figured we could get to know each other a little bit since we're gonna be seatmates for the better part of the day. I'm headed to Jakarta on business."

Abbi blushed bright red and mumbled, "M-my na-name's Abigail. My cu-current destination i-is Bali, but I'm ki-kinda on a wo-world tour right now." She put her headphones back in, hoping he'd get the message, but had no such luck. He yanked it right back out.

"Not very talkative are we?" he chuckled. "Any particular reason for this world tour? Or for your behavior towards me? I didn't do anything to offend you did I?" Suddenly Liam realized that he cared more about the answers to those questions than he wanted to admit, enemy spy or not.

"I-I guess I can answer all y-your questions wi-with one st-statement," Abbi whispered. "I'm r-really shy."

Liam chuckled.

"Sh-shut up if you w-want me to f-finish. I'm really sm-smart. I know that s-sounds conceited, b-but its t-true. Over the course of my schooling I-I've skipped four g-grades and t-taken all advanced courses. I-I graduated summa cum laude l-last year and j-just received my master's degree, I'm t-twenty by the way. W-when I was young m-my classmates thought I-I was t-too young to b-be friends with, n-not that m-my parents let m-me have t-time for f-friends, or socializing. In high s-school a-and college, I had one close friend. My parents never liked her. Th-this trip is to forget, and hopefully find the real Abbi. Oh, and no you didn't of-offend me, I-I really just don't do w-well with p-people."

By the time Abbi finished her story Liam could barely hear her, her voice was just above a whisper. Liam was shocked, either that was the best cover story he'd ever heard or he'd judged this girl all wrong, but then he remembered the book in Russian and he knew that he couldn't take any chances with this one. But she seemed to be opening up, stuttering less, and he wanted to know more about her, try and figure her out.

"You only talked about your best friend in the past tense. Did she move away, or did you get in a fight?" Liam questioned.

Abbi visibly tensed when he asked that question and her answer was abrupt, "I don't want to talk about it!"

Liam didn't protest this time when she put her headphones back in and picked back up her book. It was clear that he'd pushed her too far. He'd leave her alone for now, but he already had a plan forming to get her talking again at dinner.

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Abbi could hear screaming coming from another room as she stumbled around in the dark. Her hand groped along the wall until it finally grabbed hold of a door knob. She wanted it to open, but she knew she didn't want to see what was on the other side of the door. Slowly she turned the knob.

The room was made of concrete, floor, ceiling and walls, and it was dimly lit with one bare light bulb flickering like it was about to die. Grime covered the floor and in the middle of the room sat a girl, her head was bowed and she was tied to a chair. She was wearing nothing but her bra and a pair of shorts. Her hair may have once been blonde, but it was impossible to tell for certain because her hair was caked with dirt and blood. Abbi tried to get to the girl, to help her, but she was frozen, somehow she couldn't move.

A door across the room opened and a man walked in, he carried with him a long knife, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a bottle of water. He set down the knife and the pliers as he twisted open the bottle of water. The man smiled evilly as he pulled the girl's head up by her hair. Abbi thought that this was her chance to see the girl's face, but the bottle of water got in the way. The man began to pour the water down the poor girl's throat. She drank hungrily at first but then began to choke. Abbi didn't think the girl could stay concious much longer, but just in time the man stopped, forced the girl forward and made her cough the water out of her lungs. He slapped her hard across the face and turned around and grabbed the knife.

Abbi grimaced. She had a feeling she knew what was coming next, and she was right. He chuckled a little as he drew his knife slowly across her cheek, just enough to draw blood. He repeated the motion on the other side, then moved down to her arms, drawing a zig zag down the tender flesh of her inner arms and wrist. Each mark he made on her body was symmetrical, what was done to one arm was done to the other. He ran the dull side of the knife across her belly before reaching down and grabbing her feet. He slit the bottom of each foot and began drawing patterns up each of her legs. When he reached her belly again he cut this time. He cut deep. The marks spelled something out, but Abbi couldn't read the marks.

The man walked to the door and Abbi thought that maybe the poor girl would be left alone, but at the door the man turned around and addressed the battered girl, "Don't worry, my pretty, I'll be back, but everyone knows that you shouldn't leave blood on your knife," he smiled. "Its just unsanitary."

As soon as the latch on the door clicked Abbi sprung into action. She ran to the girl and began to untie her hands. All the while she was whispering soothing words to the girl. Things were going well until the girl uttered one word, both a name and a question, "Abbi?"

Suddenly everything clicked for Abbi and she asked, "Rachael? Oh God, Rachael, what have they done to you?" She caressed her best friends face before continuing to release her from her bonds. Just as she untied the last rope, the door opened again.

"What do we have here?" he asked in a deceptively calm voice. "Did you think you could escape?"

At the sound of his voice Rachael began to cower and Abbi tried to run, but she didn't succeed. Strong hands caught her, bound her, and positioned her on the floor where she had a clear view of Rachael. Then the man retied Rachael, and grabbed the bottle of alcohol that Abbi had all but forgotten about. Rachael knew what was coming but Abbi didn't. The man unscrewed the cap and slowly poured it over Rachael's fresh cuts. Abbi's screamed for the man to stop as Rachael's wails filled the chamber.

Abbi felt someone shaking her, she could hear a voice a long way off, someone was trying to get to her out of here.

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Liam was beginning to worry about Abbi. She'd started thrashing about five minutes ago, crying two minutes ago, and now she was screaming. He decided he didn't have any choice, he had to wake her up. He knew that as shy as she was she probably wouldn't appreciate waking up to the face of a man who was basically a stranger, but he couldn't let her suffer in terror.

"Rachael, Rachael! No!" Abbi screamed.

Liam knew that she was disturbing other people on the plane, so he gently began to shake her saying, "Abbi, Abbi. C'mon, wake up. Its just a nightmare, just a nightmare."

Abbi startled awake to find herself in Liam's arms. Normally she would have freaked out, but she'd had the nightmare again. It was never the same, except the way it ended, with Rachael dead. She pulled away and said, "Thank you for waking me up Liam. I'll be right back."

She got up and headed to the bathroom. She splashed some water on her face and tried to slow her breathing. She wished that she could stay in here forever, but there was someone knocking on the door, a rather large man by the sound of him, so she decided that it was time to vacate the bathroom.

She walked back to her seat and sat down, hoping against hope that Liam would stay quiet and just let her be. Her wish wasn't granted.

"Her name was Rachael, and she's dead," he said. It was a statement, not a question.

She looked up at him with her question in her eyes. She didn't trust her voice yet.

"You screamed her name when you were dreaming and considering your shaking and crying I knew it wasn't a good dream so I put two and two together. Are you up to telling me what happened?"

Abbi was considering it when the flight attendant came by with dinner. "I'll tell you after I eat. I don't see why not, its not like we'll ever see each other again."