Out of Place Read Online Free PDF

good word for it, but even that didn’t quite encompass the depth of the hateful explosion that percolated in her belly.
    Somewhere in the night , a car door closed. In that split second her body stiffened, her heart rate increased and the fear returned. Emily listened intently as footsteps started to carry through the wooden structure. A flicker of light cast probing shadow fingers under the gap of the door.
    S omeone was walking around out there. Her imagination ran wild with a million different things, none of which were any good. Then the mystery walker stopped in front of her door. The slight groan in the wooden planks carried an ominous weight.
    The door swung open and a tall sturdy man dressed in all black stood there in the shadows looking at her. There wasn’t enough light to see his face, but he had on what looked like the comedy half of the classic comedy-tragedy white rubber mask.
    He walked over to the table next to the bed and placed a small , plastic, battery-powered dome lamp. He then handed her a brown paper bag without saying a word. But Emily just sat there.
    He held the bag out closer, shaking it in urgency for her to take it. She didn’t want to touch it, but he just stood there looking down at her, silently. She tentatively reached out and took hold of the bag.
    The obvious smell of food radiated through the brown paper, but she wasn’t hungry. She placed the bag down next to her on the bed and he turned to walk out. “Who are you?”
    He stopped and looked back at her , staring, still without saying a word.
    “Why are you doing this to me?”
    He tilted his head.
    “Are my friends all dead?”
    He nodded once.
    “Please, just let me go, please—please let me go.”
    He turned and walked out, shutting the door softly.
    Emily looked to the ceiling and around the room now that she had some light. It looked like a log cabin, an old one. It smelled old and musty before. Now all she smelled was the food and she was suddenly very hungry.
    Part of her didn’t want to eat anything. A trace of fear inside her worried that maybe it was poisoned or laced with something. But she felt like she hadn’t eaten in days and she never skipped meals. People often thought because she was in such good shape that she doesn’t eat. But that’s completely wrong, she ate a lot, she just ate clean foods. Junk foods, fast foods, candy and soda were not part of her daily routine, which made her a rare creature in her world.
    Finally , she opened the bag. It was a submarine style sandwich and a small bag of potato chips. It was not normally something she would eat. Deli meats were full of fillers and chemicals. It’s not that she didn’t eat meat, she did. But she only ate actual meat, except for beef and pork. Not because they were unhealthy in moderation, but because she loved pigs and cows. There was nothing more cute than a little baby piglet and there was no way she was going to eat one. Even the sight of bacon gave her shivers, which was hard these days since people were putting bacon on and in everything.
    She gave up eating beef because of a documentary she saw on how the cows were treated. It made her stop consuming dairy of all kinds. Some people called her silly and made fun of her over it, but she didn’t care. Never one to go along with trends, Emily relished in being against the grain. There was no delusion in her mind that maybe she was a bit loony when it came to her food. Her friends joked that by the time she was thirty she’d be eating weeds, bark, and free-range snails. Nevertheless, she had to eat something, so she reluctantly sank her teeth into the sandwich.
    After finishing the meal , she opened the bottle of water that was at the bottom of the bag. The water was a brand she’d never seen before, but it was very refreshing. She wanted more.
    “Hello?” she called, but her captor didn’t answer. “I need to use the bathroom.” After a few seconds, she heard the creak of floorboards and the