It seemed like just yesterday she was working at the shop when she received a message on her phone. She thought nothing of it, she got text message all the time notifying her of clients who had scheduled her in. Taking a peak she saw she had received a message from a blocked number;
Unknown: Do you have time to talk? Meet me at the Big City Java shop.
Me: Who is this?
Unknown: Someone who knows who you really are.
Me: Hahaha. What a funny little troll you are. You have no idea what it means to mess with me.
Unknown: I have every idea of what it means to mess with you. Come or don’t. There are other ways of doing this, with or without your compliance.
Me: I hope you are entertained by this. I’m not.Who did they think they were? Messaging her like that. These kids with their fancy technology these days learning to exploit it and trouble people like her trying to make a living. She huffs and places down the phone onto a counter. Her receptionist Jodie looked at her.
“Boy trouble?” she ask her.
“Some internet troll thinking he’s being funny,” Morgana told her fixing her hair, “Wants me to meet them at the Big City Java. Probably part of this whole elaborate prank or no one shows while they watch from a distance to laugh at how stupid I was to show up there.”
Jodie clicks her long nails on her keyboard, “These pranks are really getting elaborate and out of hand, someone should do something about it.”
“I agree,” Morgana told her nodding her head.
Grabbing her phone off the counter Morgana stared at empty chairs in her waiting room. It wasn’t always this slow, they had a few good days on the island of nice weather. It teased you to go out and play in the sun, near the beach or on the port. Most people didn’t come in when the days almost tempted you to go out and play in them. Still it should pick up after lunch. Morgana smiled at Jodie.
“Want anything?” Morgana asked.
“I brought lunch from home today,” Jodie told her, “A drink would be nice.”
Morgana laughs.
“You’re funny,” Morgana tells her, “I’ll see what I can do.”
“And Morgana, don’t feed the trolls,” Jodie tells her with a wink.
“Riiight,” Morgana winks at her, before grabbing her purse and walking out the small clinic she managed to buy with the money her ex husband had left her.
To think that she could have had a child running around in the park on a warm, sunny day here on Del Rosa Island made her a bit melancholic. Sometimes it felt like she had lost everything that day. She didn’t like thinking about that though, and it was only ever a thought when she passed the school park. Tempting fate she walked into the coffeeshop she had been directed to come. Looking around the busy coffee shop she smiled and laughed, “I’m here.” she says to no one in particular.
Walking to the counter, next to order, someone in a black trench coat cut in front of her. She would have said something, it was hard to make out the details of their face.
“I’m glad you have come to talk with me,” even their voice was distorted a little.
Okay now this was getting weird.
“I am not here for you,” she tells them.
They give a small chuckle, “Maybe not. But I am an opportunist, and I’ll take it.”
She pretends to not hear them, they order a drink for her. She wraps her arms around her chest and glares at them.
“Who are you anyway?” she asked, “This is really elaborate for a prank. And how can you hide in such plain sight?”
They give a small, heh, before giving an answer, “I supposed there’s no point in lying to you. I’m an agent, but that’s as far as I can tell you.”
“What does an agent want from me?” she asked, she was about to grab the cup of coffee ordered for her, but they took it for her and handed it to her. She glared. She was no pretty doll to be toyed with. If this was this agent’s way of asking her out she would not have it.
“The truth,” he told her.
The truth? What the hell did that mean? She really wanted to hit him. He had no right to toy with her like this. Against her own instincts she took a sip of coffee.
But all of that seemed like a hazy dream as she slowly peeled her eyes open, finding herself in a beige bedroom. There were pictures on the wall, all of them seemed explicitly there to invoke some sense of familiarity. Except that none of this was familiar to her. Quickly getting out of the bed she started to look around, it’s winterous outside compared to where she lived.
A city encased in a sheet of ghostly ice. No cars. No sound of traffic or people walking. Only the funny whine and hum of machines people were very much use to when they sat in “silence”. Quickly flipping open the laptop in the room in hopes to message someone, she found herself staring at a message when she opened the web browser.
Don’t want to cause distress? Or harm? What did any of that mean? They saw the irony, right? This is already distressing to wake up in some strange luxurious hotel. Being drugged and taken against her will. They did see that they already made her a victim? And when she figured all of this out she would sue whomever did this to her.
For emotional distress. The message said something about other people. Well then she guess she’d just have to work her charm on them to get them to leave with her. There was no way she was going to stay here and deal with all of this nonsense. There was no way this should be legal.
Leaving the hotel room in a huff she headed towards where the message had directed her next. To meet these so called others.