Chapter 2

 

Chapter 2

     “By God, I’m so exhausted!” My throat was desert dry from the constant talking. Sitting in a metal fold-out chair for more than... how long had it been? It couldn’t have been less than four hours I had been frozen in one spot. My knees would creak and ache as I stretched them out. Lying, still, limply under the table was my left hand; the wrist attached to it was indented from the fixed handcuffs squeezing the bone together. The pain was draining my energy, my thoughts often switching back to my wrist.

     For the past thirty or so minutes, I had described to this man how I met Sara, the friend of my first contact from the Crew. I had been acquainted with her one time by a mistype in an email address. She had Instant Messaged me mistaking a 4 for a 5 in the address.

            It was my Spring Break, my sophomore year of high school and I had just turned on my computer and signed on to chat when a message popped onto my screen. I might have thrown in some teenage drama into the monologue just for the benefit of reminding myself there was an outside. But, after a gruesome thirty minutes of hearing no voice apart from my own, the explanation and a small side chat of how my Spring Break from my second year in high school went, was over.

During that time period, I had realized that being chained to a table had many more than one disadvantage.  Wait, were there any advantages?

I was incapable of stretching my legs or getting comfortable in my chair. I’d wanted to sit back and rock the chair on its two back legs, but the shortness of the handcuffs curtailed any movement I made that put my left wrist more than four inches away from the table.

     I swiveled round to where I guessed my silent captor had most likely fallen victim to sleep. My back protested from the quick movement after so long of being stationary. After my soporific voice droning on about inconsequential information, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was sleeping.

     “Hey J32 or whatever your name is, you awake back there?” There was no answer. “Hey I know I was going through some pretty boring stuff earlier but I thought you would want to know how I came in touch with you guys in the first place.” Still no answer. “You know, it wouldn’t be so great for you if your boss found out you were sleeping on the job.”

     I could not sense any swirls of light forming around a silhouette or clicking of boots on the floor. “Hey Frankenstein! Your lips sewn together?” I yanked my wrist left and right against the leg of the table, wincing from the piercing pain. It created a loud metal on metal clinking raucous that would have surely awakened the man if he was asleep.

                Not ten seconds later, there was the resonance of a door swaying open and a low grey light from outside the room drifted in and settled like dust. A shadowed figure entered and, behind him, the door thudded to a close. Soft, familiar footfalls echoed about the space. It was difficult to pinpoint the exact location through these slow, whispering boot steps, but I was most certain the figure was circling around my chair.

     “Oh hey, Frankenstein. Do I get to sleep now? Please, please please don’t tell me I’m going to sleep in here. Oh, and let’s not forget, I’m still chained to a table.” I smirked, pulling my aching wrist as far away from the table as I could manage to demonstrate. My defiant grin plummeted into a grimace as the metal cuffs pulled my skin tighter on to the bone. “Oh come on. At least have the courtesy to plunk me in a room with a sleeping bag; I am an honored guest aren’t I?” I was trying to muster up the energy I had left. “I mean I know you guys sleep on beds of nails or you don’t sleep at all, but us normal people like to snooze for at least three to four hours a night.”

     The footfalls ceased. The low growl rolled around the room. “You want a little place to rest your head do you? You, the one that hasn’t said not one word about what you know of the Crew. What was it that I told you specifically to do else there’d be consequences? What was it?”

“Yea, but I had to give you the background of it! If I hadn’t you wouldn’t understand!” I felt like I was fighting against one of my parents; they were wrong and I was right. Would he always be telling me I was wrong whenever I opened my mouth?

 “No. Everything that’s come out of your mouth has either been irrelevant or selfish f*****g complaining.” I bit my lip. My heart’s pounding began to quicken in tempo.

His voice rose in anger. “What possessed your puny little mind to believe you that you’re here because you want to be, little miss? Need I remind you that you are not the one in charge here! Here, you are my puppet. Here, I control you. And tell me, little miss... What is a puppet without its strings? Oh heh yea, it’s dead, flopped down on the floor, dead.”

     My heartbeat was a horse’s hoof beets, galloping away. The cold air that enveloped me spiked the hair on my tender arms. An icy shiver seeped up my neck. I was like stone, petrified in fear. My mouth wouldn’t unfasten.

     He is going to kill me.

     The voice moved as the threats continued. “Oh, I’m pretty sure Boss would mind if you were to accidentally lose a few of your petite fingers.” My hands instantly went into a fist, hiding my freezing digits. “It’s really only your stupid little head we need to keep so you can just tell us what you know.” I had the terrifying realization that this man would not only put his threats into action but would also perform them with pure pleasure.

     “Well f**k you,” I muttered under my breath.

     Silence.

     I suddenly felt very confined in my chair. My ears pricked up to listen for the slightest movement. My eyes became wider than they ever could, making them sting with pain. My pale hands under the table trembled violently. My lips quivered. My dry eyes searched for anything that could protect me. Nothing. Then, I began to hear him come closer.

     First step. My nose started to leak with snot. Second step. My feet tapped the concrete uncontrollably. Third step. Oh what can I do? Fourth step.

     Silence.

     I’m dead! A sharp point punched my back and slashed slowly across.

     I let out a piercing squeal as I leapt high out of the chair, sending it sprawling behind me. Then I realized, although I had felt the dull impact of a blade, there was no wound.

My heart was racing out of my chest. My breaths were short and frantic. My head was twitching rapidly to look to my sides and behind me.

With my hand chained to the underside of the table, I had to slam down on one knee to fully turn around and confront him. My wide eyes zipped around the room but all I could distinguish was the foldable chair on its side on the floor. Wait, what is that on the backside of the chair. A line of the metal was shaven cleanly off. Oh God. It was the chair he hit instead of my back.

These people are killing machines, born to kill, I reminded myself. I’d be completely out of my mind to think I had a chance against one of them!

 “Next time’s for real, you useless piece of trash!” It was the voice of a murderer, whispering into his victim’s ear seconds before he slides the knife across the man’s throat.

“What the hell is your problem?!” I thought I would faint under the table.

“You need to learn to obey without questions or complainin’, little Miss.”

“Good God, man! Can’t you see I need to rest?! I haven’t eaten or had anything to drink in.... I don’t even know how long I’ve been in this room! I’m going to go insane! Insane in a room with someone who has ALREADY lost his mind!” Instead of trying to reach for the chair three feet out from me, I slithered under the table, pulling my knees up to my chest, my one free hand draping over them. I relaxed my head on the leg of the table.

I’m not going to be able to take this much longer.

So faint was the opening on the door behind me and the grey light that entered for those couple moments.

I was no longer able to keep watching the room; I let my eyelids slip down over my eyes like a warm blanket over a freezing child. Oh, how pleasant that felt.... A tear dropped somberly off an eyelash.

I wasn’t awake to hear the door open the third time that evening.

 

Author's Note

Went back over this and changed a couple of things. Feel free to pick at it and let me know how to improve.

Reviews

[Jacoby de Alton]

Paragrapgh One- Once again, only a tiny change could be made, bones don't exactly make your hand go red, and if they were being squeezed together in a literal sense, more than a little pain would follow suit, much more than the average person could withstand in experimenting with their freedom of movement as she does in paragraphs five-six.

And really, thats the only thing I have to say in this chapter. Its wonderful, i've always managed to find so many little errors in what I read to prod, but this is gold.

[r]

Oh my god!! I HATE that dude!! But OMG, this is AMAXING, wonderful. I love the last sentence, how you ended it, i LOVE things like that!!

[shivam]

I liked the descriptive very much. The way you made the reader visualize the eerie room is indeed commendable. I am eager to read the next chapter!

[Kiynteyh]

Ahhh! It's killing me. I want to know what this organization is all about. How did she get captured? Will the kill her, or torture her at the least? And who is Sara? Suspenseful. At the end of each chapter, I'm left wanting more.

Excellent job. :D

[Minki]

I quietly feared for her life. I wanted to help her escape somehow. I was dying to take the man's knife and show him what I could do. Excellent. The depth of your main character is defined in the way her emotions change rapidly while she is under extreme stress. Your expression of your ideas is commendable; I loved the similies and metaphors you used. Very original.

There are some small grammatical errors present, but there are few of them. They do not take very much away from this part of the story, but closer editing will only make it better. Your first chapter was good, and you have only improved.