I opened my eyes. Everywhere was blurry and everything seemed to dance around the room. I felt like I was in a psychiatric hospital because everywhere seemed to be made out of yellow pillows.

     As everything began to clear, I realized I was tied to a chair in something like a strait jacket.

     "You're awake."

     I heard the voice before I saw the speaker. It was Nova. I tried to scream but I realized my mouth was duct taped shut. I struggled to be free but the rope and jacket were just too tight.

     "Look," Nova said, pulling a chair out of nowhere. He put the chair in front of me and sat. We both sat there, staring at each other for what seemed like hours before Nova finally gave a light chuckle, which sounded really familiar.

     "I bet you wanna know what's going on." He said. I was about to say "You think?!" When I remembered that my mouth was taped shut.

     "Now, I'm not going to release you until I'm sure you're gonna be a good girl."

     I rolled my eyes.

     "Here's how it's gonna go down. I'm sure you don't know but I run a system here. With some other buddies of my own. We recruit people. Girls to be precise. And you," He said, poking me in the belly, "Are my next recruit. And once you're in, sweetheart, you can't back out."

     I had a lot of things to say at that moment, but I tried to keep calm.

     "And you can't 'cos I have this," He said, holding up MY phone. I was really shocked, wondering how he had figured out my pass code.

     "And I saw this." He said, tapping on it for a bit then holding it up again. My eyes grew wide as I saw what was on the screen. A few months ago, I had met a guy during our pen pal project in IT class. He was Asian, and drop dead gorgeous, and his name was Rakesh. We became really close after that, and even after our pen pal project. But  I think we became too close, and I ended up sending inappropriate pictures and messages to him. The same week that the pictures and messages exchange began, he disappeared. He stopped replying my messages, stopped answering my calls, heck, he even BLOCKED my number at a point.

     I left his contact as a way of remembering him, and I probably forgot to delete the inappropriate things from my message box.

     "And since those ones had no evidence of you as you took care to leave your face out of it, I took a few of my own." He said. He tapped on it for a while before holding it up again.

     This made me even more astonished. What I was sitting there looking at was a picture of me in nothing but my shoes on. I seemed to be asleep, probably when  I had passed out. I suddenly felt self conscious, realizing that the guy sitting in front of me knew every curve and edge of my body. I turned bright red and hung my head so my hair fell across my face and my cheeks weren't visible. Nova chuckled again. I looked up to see him doing some other stuff to my phone. When he was done, he stuffed it in his front pocket and looked up at me. I hung my head again. He put his finger under my chin and brought my head up. Then slowly, he used his other hand to peel off the duct tape. I sat there for a while, staring at him, practically boring holes through his head.

     "Why are you doing this to me?" I asked.

     "I'll let you go once you agree to cooperate." Nova said.

     I sat there, staring again, something in me telling me to scream for help.

     "Do you promise to cooperate?" Nova asked.

     "Do I have a choice?" I asked.

     "No, not really." Nova said with a sneer.

     "What am I cooperating upon?"

     "Do you promise to cooperate?"

     "What am I cooperating upon?"

     "Do you promise to cooperate?"

     "What am I..."

     "WOULD YOU FUCKING PROMISE TO COOPERATE?!!!" Nova yelled, swinging his hand to send the chair flying across the room.

     "I'm not gonna repeat it, Nova." I squeaked. Nova glared at me. Then he approached me slowly until he was towering over me. He grabbed my neck with one of his hands and leaned forward so his face was just an inch from mine.

     "Listen here, you slut." He said. I could smell his tangy breath. "We could do this the easy way and get it over with, or we could... Or maybe YOU could go through this all night." He said, tightening his grip around my neck. I could feel blood rushing up to my face as I found it harder to breathe.

     "Do you promise to cooperate?"

     I didn't say anything.

     "I said, do you promise to cooperate?"

     I didn't... Well I COULDN'T say anything.

     "You did hear me, didn't you?"

     I could feel my throat burn. His grip was so tight, I could see black spots begin to appear before my eyes.

     "I said, DO YOU PROMISE TO CO-"

     "Yes! Yes!!!" I choked out.

     Nova, with a satisfied grin, let go of my neck and went behind me to get the hair he had earlier flung. I sat there staring at the wall in front of me, scared to look back in fear of what might happen.

     I heard the sound of the chair scraping the floor until Nova finally came back into view.

     "Please let me go."

     "I will." Nova said, "But don't be shocked by what you see."

     I sat there staring at him, wondering what on earth he meant. He slowly began to untie the rope, and then he fiddled with the strait jacket.

     I stood up when he was done, still keeping my eyes on him, but taking off the jacket at the same time. Just as the strait jacket fell to the floor, I felt a wave of breeze brush past me. I looked down to find out that I was in nothing but my underwear. Overcome with emotion, I burst into tears, falling on my knees.

     "Why are you DOING this to me?!" I asked in between sobs.

     "Stop being such a drama queen." Nova said, probably enjoying what he was seeing. "Here's how it is. I have some pals of my own. You probably don't know them, but we're all in need of money. And not just any money. You know Willow street right?"

     I nodded.

     "Good. A man lives there. A blind man. And dude's got cash. One o' my pals told me all about it, how to get in and how to carry out the plan. The man has a daughter, about your size, slim and of average height, just like you. Plus, she uses glasses, just like you do."

     At that moment, I noticed my glasses were not with me. "What did you do with my glasses?" I asked.

     "It's safe. I'll give you when you're ready to carry out the plan. Now, the man has a safe in his room, under his bed. The code is 4238."

     "How do you know all this?"

     Nova chuckled. "Well, his daughter is my pal's bitch. He forced the secrets outta her... I'm gonna let you go tomorrow morning. Don't try anything funny... Don't even THINK about telling the police. I'm watching you, Kobie. Goodnight, sweetheart." He said. Then he turned, left the room and locked the door.