“Hello thank you for calling Five Minute Delivery. Your delivery is guaranteed to arrive in five minutes or it’s free. Boxes must weigh no more than seventy pounds. No live animals. Cash only. How can I help you?”
“I have a delivery. I’m sending the video.” The called ended and a message notification popped up The voice had been curt, not someone I had talked to before but they apparently knew how I worked. I watched the video. Gray walls, a clock, and nothing else. I closed my eyes, pictured the room and couldn’t go. Not enough detail for me home in on. I watched the video again paying attention to the size of the room and the exact shade of gray on the walls. I tried again and felt myself go this time.
I was looking at the clock when the lights went out. I had started to turn, when I heard a pop, something hit me in the back, and everything went white. When I could think again, I was on the floor. My head hurt, I felt hot, and my back ached. I focused on someplace else and teleported.
The sun was bright over head and the sidewalk warm under me. I started to get up and felt a stabbing pain in my back. I reached back gritting against the pain and felt wires leading from my back. Fuck, they tasered me.
“Ma’am are you ok?” I looked up towards the mouth of the alley to see a guy slowly walking toward me.
“I just got tasered. So no, not really,” I called out. He squatted next to me, looking at the wires stuck in my back I guessed.
“Did you get mugged?” he asked.
“Something like that,” I said.
“Stay here and I’ll get help.” He got up and walked out of the alley and turned left.
“Sure, I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.” A few minutes later, people appeared and helped me into the café I had teleported next to. I sat sideways on a chair. One of the guys, who had help me inside, set the taser gun on the table next to me. Huh, I must have brought it with me when I teleported.
“Do you want some water or something?” one of the baristas asked.
“Yeah, water sounds good,” I said.
“What happened?” someone asked. What had happened? I got lured into a trap, got tasered, and escaped.
“I’m not sure. I didn’t see anything. One minute I was standing then I was on the ground.” I said.
“Did they steal your purse?”
“Yes.” I didn’t have it with me so I must have dropped it when I dropped. I didn’t carry ids or credit cards, so I didn’t have to worry about my would be kidnappers finding me that way. My phone was still on me but I’d have to get a new one to throw them off. The only real loss from losing my purse was the cash from today’s deliveries.
A few more people tried to ask me more questions but the barista shooed them off and let me sit quietly until the paramedics arrived. They checked my vitals, removed the taser barbs from my back, and covered the punctures with bandaids. To get the barbs out they had to cut my shirt open in the back. By that time a police car had also arrived to the scene. I gave the cops a false name and promised to come by the station to fill out a report. After the officials left, I teleported home from the bathroom. Normally, I avoid leaving locked room mysteries behind me but it would be a while before I went back to that city.
I arrived at my home and collapsed on the sofa face down. A minute later I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
“Hey, are you going to be home for a while?” my girlfriend called out. “Hon?”
“I’m in the living room,” I called back.
“Are you – What happened to your back?” The sofa shifted as she sat beside me and looked at my cut up shirt and bandages.
“I got tasered.”
“You got tasered? Did a client do this?”
“Not exactly. It was the black bag guys again, I think.”
“Black bag guys? Again?” she asked with growing concern.
“Didn’t I tell you about them?”
“No you didn’t. What happened?” Uh oh she’s starting to sound mad.
“A year ago I teleported for a pick up and had a black bag shoved over my head. I teleported out and took the bag off.” I left out the time before that when they tried to have a guy just grab me in a bear hug.
“You almost got kidnapped and you didn’t tell me!” Now she was equal arts angry and concerned.
“It wasn’t a big deal. No one can hold me against my will,” I told her truthfully. Nothing I had ever tried could stop me from teleporting.
“They tasered you. What if they kept shocking you?”
“They didn’t. Anyways, you can’t keep shocking someone without killing them.”
“What if they used smaller shocks? Just enough to keep you from teleporting.”
“Don’t give them any ideas,” I said.
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing?” I said unsure how she would take it.
“Nothing? Someone tried to kidnap you. Twice.”
“I don’t know it was the same people and what can I do? I don’t know who they are or where they are. They could be working for the government for all I know.”
“You can’t just let them get away. Next time they might have a way to capture you.”
“There’s nothing that can stop me from teleporting. Handcuffs, jail cells, ropes. Nothing can stop me,” I emphasized.
“What if they figure something out?”
“They won’t.”
“I don’t want to lose you,” she said.
“Nothing can keep me from you. I will always come home,” I reassured her. I hoped it would always be true.