The Side Effects of Being Teleported

What should she do now? The police station really seemed like a good idea. That was her plan. Take him to the police station. In her head she imagined walking up to the station, standing at the bottom of the steps, gesturing with both hands to the front doors of the station and saying, "Here's your stop." Would he get angry? If they're at the police station, surely, they'd be able to protect her? What if he truly was a hallucination? It would make it very awkward for her. But it would be better to be safe than sorry. Thinking about it, though. Every time she saw him no one else interacted with him. Not even her boss acknowledged his presence before walking out the door.

Perhaps he really was just a figment of her lonely imagination? She wished she had her car. But her car was at home. What could she do in this situation? She normally never had an issue with what to do but she was definitely in unknown territory. She just kept walking toward the police station. How well does he know this area? Will he realize right away what her plan is? She really didn't know what to do. They weren't saying anything. Her heartbeat was picking up speed. He grabbed her arm.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Of course not," she said.

"Right," he said. "I can keep you safe."

"I don't even know you."

"You sound like a child."

"You sound like a crazy stalker," she retorted.

"Fair enough," he said. "Please, let me help you."

"No, I just want to go home, but I'm not going home with you," she said. "I just want to live my boring life, is that too much to ask for?"

"It is when demons are after you," he said.

She stopped walking. "Demons?" she asked. "They're not real."

"They're as real as angels," he informed.

"I don't believe in angels, either."

"You must have, otherwise you wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. You could keep living your 'boring life,' but somewhere deep down you believe in angels."

"Tell me what you know," Daniella demanded.

"I'm only going to tell you what you need to know," he said.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Okay," she said and kept walking toward the police department. They were almost there. It shouldn't be long now. He must have seen the police department because he stopped walking, but she kept going.

"You can't be serious," he said.

"Why not?" she hollered back to him. "I'm very serious."

"There are dangerous people working there," he said.

She shrugged. "It's a police station. There are a such thing as corrupt cops." Then she quickly added, "I think, anyway. There are corrupt cops in movies. Why not in real life, too?"

"No, Daniella, I'm talking demons. There are demons working there. Those same demons who want you dead. Mostly demons who work for the demon who wants you dead."

She scoffed at him. "There's no such thing as demons."

"I'm a demon," he proclaimed. She still wasn't listening to him. He appeared next to her and then that's all she remembered.

***

Daniella woke up in her own house on the couch. She still wore her clothes from yesterday. She tried to think back to last night. Then she recognized her phone ringing. She got up and went to where it was. It was on the floor by the front door.

It was her boss. She answered it quickly. "Hello?" she said. Her voice came out hoarse. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Hello?" it came out much more normal.

"Daniella, where are you? Jessa is still there. She was supposed to be off an hour ago."

Her heart stopped. She looked at the time on her phone. "I overslept," she said. "I'll be there in twenty minutes. Please, tell Jessa, I'm sorry. You can take it out of my pay."

"Just hurry. You're lucky this is the first time it happened."

Daniella nodded and then realized she was on the phone. "I'll be there very soon." She hung up the phone and moved quickly to go brush her teeth and run a quick shower. She took her car to work because of how late she was.

She got there quickly and apologized to Jessa over and over again as she walked out the door. Jessa lifted her hands in the air and said, "Stop apologizing, it's fine." But Daniella could tell her coworker was very angry. She felt flustered and messed up a lot in the beginning of her shift. She finally got herself together over an hour later.

Zander came in a couple of hours after she got there. "Daniella, what happened? You've never been late for work once."

Daniella shook her head. She still couldn't remember anything that happened last night. "I don't have any excuses or valid reasons. I swear I didn't drink or anything but I don't remember what happened last night."

"Do you remember working last night?" he asked.

She thought about it, her brain felt fuzzy every time she tried to think of last night. She remembered coming to work, but she lost her memory mid shift. She told him that. He shook his head.

"You've worked here for years," he said. "If it happens again, I'm going to have to let you go. You're one of my best workers, I don't want to have to lose you. Don't let it happen again, understand?"

"I promise," she said.

"Good." He bowed his head toward her and left. She breathed a sigh of relief. She hoped she could keep her promise. It really bothered her that she couldn't remember. What if it did happen again? She'd be fired for sure. She didn't want to lose her job. She couldn't let it happen again.

She worked extra hard that night, trying to make up for being over an hour late. She kept up everything to the point she had to continue to look busy. She deep cleaned quite a few things just to keep moving. Close to closing, a man came in and walked straight to her. Daniella was wiping tables. He leaned against the border between the seat for the table she was wiping and the next.

"Hi," she said. "I'll be with you in just a moment. I just want to finish wiping this table."

"You don't remember me?" he asked.

"No," she said. The way he said it bothered her. "I've never seen you in my life."

"I knew you'd forget me, but I had no choice."

A shiver ran down her back, making her feel like there were thousands of needles going into the skin of her arms and legs. "I think you should leave."

"You can't kick me out," he said.

Daniella pointed to a sign on the wall, stating the right to refuse service to anyone. "I can and I am. Please leave."

"No, they're coming for you, Daniella. I saw them!"

She could tell he was trying to be quiet. She looked over at the other customer. It was just one guy, drinking an IPA from the bottle, watching a video on his phone. He didn't seem to care about them. "Sir, please leave. I don't know what you're talking about and I'm about to close. Let me do my work."

He stepped back a couple steps. He left without another word. Time went quickly after that. The one guy left when she was letting him know that it was closing time for her. She finished her work and slipped out the back door like normal. She rounded the corner, headed straight for her car. She ran into a person standing there.

She looked up at a face that looked contorted. A large scar ran from his forehead, into his nose, making it look so strange, and cut through his mouth. Fear shot through her like never before. She was alone, and she knew she wouldn't be able to unlock the back door soon enough to get away from him.

"Hello, there," the man said. His voice sounded rough. He walked toward her as she backed away.

She heard a man scream from behind the monstrous dude in front of her. The man who came into the bar ran around the mountain of a man and slammed into her. She hit the wall and screamed in pain before she blacked out.

***

She woke up slowly, coming to her senses little by little. She opened her eyes. Something wasn't right. The ceiling wasn't hers. She started panicking. She sat up quickly. Her right arm caused a white light in her vision. It hurt so much. She touched it with her other hand. A voice made her jump. She looked in front of her. Her panic rose more. She was in a cell. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of stone. A brown rug was placed in the center. Her bed was comfy which probably meant she wasn't in jail.

She looked through the bars at an older woman. She held a tray of food, sliding it onto a shelf that was resting in the middle of the cell door. Daniella didn't move. She watched the woman warily. She definitely didn't look like a police officer. The woman wore a dress that went to her ankles. It was yellow in color. Her feet were bare. A shawl hung from her slender shoulders. Her hair was black with strips of gray running through it, held up in a ponytail. Her eyes were a pretty green and watched Daniella. The woman didn't seem like she was a threat.

"Where am I?" Daniella asked.

"Worry about that later. Eat up and rest. He hit you hard enough, your arm broke against a wall," she said. Her voice was soft and gentle.

Daniella blinked in surprise, looking at her arm. "Who…? What happened?"

"As I said," the woman said. "Worry about it later. I made this for you."

She slid off the bed and walked carefully to the tray. There was grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli. She carried the tray to the bed and sat down. She just stared at the food. How is she here? What happened? Is she dreaming? She took the fork and stabbed the chicken in the middle. She bit a piece from the edge. It was extremely delicious. It couldn't be a dream.

"Dakota," a man's voice came from the cell bars.

She looked up. He was talking to her. "My name isn't Dakota. It's Daniella."

"It was, but now it's Dakota." He said it so matter of fact, as if she shouldn't argue with him.

"No," she said. "No, it isn't. My name is Daniella. It's not changing."

"Look," he said with gritted teeth. He took a breath. "I don't care what you say. I brought you here to protect you."

"Are you the one who broke my arm?"

"I didn't mean to. They were going to kill you."

Fear went through her. "You're lying. No one wants to kill me. I have to go to work. Where am I?"

"You don't work anymore."

She got angry. "Yes, I do! I have shit to pay for! I have to switch out Jessa. Let me out of here."

"You're not going to work because you're nowhere near there. I teleported you here," he said.

"Where is here?" she asked.

"You're on an island in the Philippines. Siargao Island."