Karen heard the car's tires spinning on wet pavement as the vehicle lurched towards her and cut off her escape.  Before she could even think to start screaming, gloved hands were covering her mouth, and grabbing at her waist and legs.  As she struggled, she caught glimpses of two faces that she thought she recognized as two late-arriving bar customers.  Before she could think much further, everything went black. 

The bar was incredibly busy, like on a Friday night at the end of the month, when everyone got paid.  Thumping dance music blared, and voices were shouting drink orders at her from all directions.  Hands groped from out of the darkness and held her as she struggled to get back to the bar, which didn't seem to be where it belonged.   It was a nightmare that Karen had at least once a week.  Realizing she was dreaming, she fought to wake herself up.  It all started fading away.  The shouting crowd, the grabbing hands, the flashing lights, all melted like frost.  The only thing that remained was the thumping beat of the music.  It sounded like the rhythmic drone of car tires driving down a highway.  She vaguely remembered being thrown into the trunk of the car.  Slowly she realized that she was in another nightmare, but this one was real.

RATE THIS BRANCH!