chapter 1

Samantha Briggs woke with a pounding in her head and a rumbling in her belly. It was no surprise really, after the binge she had been on the previous evening. As Sam rolled onto her back she could feel what was left of last night's food and booze slosh in her stomach. She thought to herself, "Ugh...what did I do last night?" As the beat of the marching band in her head grew, she raised a hand to her brow. There was a clinking noise and her hand stopped short of her face.

Sam's eyes sprung open and darted around the room. "Holy shit what DID I do last night?" she asked herself aloud. Nothing looked familiar and she was chained to the large canopy bed in which she lay. Her feet were free, but both hands were cuffed securely to the headboard. The black posts and railings were covered in ornate scrolls, she would have thought it quite beautiful under different circumstances. In front of her a huge flat screen TV hung on the wall opposite the foot of the bed. There was antique roll top desk in the left corner, and in front of it a big brown overstuffed desk chair that had to have been three feet wide. Windows lined the wall to her left. In the center were french doors that opened on to a balcony. Beyond that she could see nothing but fields and mountains in the distance. Wherever this place was, Sam realized she was in the middle of nowhere. Her heart and mind raced as she remembered that no one knew where she was and she understood that the probability of anyone finding her in this remote location was very low.
Sam's eyes continued to search the room, hoping to figure a way out of her predicament. Along the wall to her right there were three doors, almost ominous in their classic dark mahogany finish. A full length mirror hung on one of them. In the corner was a reclining chair comparable in size to the one at the desk. Immediately to her right was a mini refrifgerator like the one she'd had in her dorm room at college. To the left of the bed was a night stand. It's shelves contained a pile of black and white composition books and a cup full of pens and pencils. Atop the stand was a large glass bowl filled with a colorful mix of M&Ms. Other than that the large room was empty, with no decor adorning the mint green walls.
Sam closed her eyes again. Her head was really spinning now, both from her hangover and the reality of her position. "Shit!" she thought "I really should have told someone where I was going."