Chapter 7: Shower Light

There is finally light in the captives bedroom.

They listened hard after that and heard her muttering as she rocked in her chair right outside the door for a while.  A short time later and they heard her saying something inaudible to them off in the other room. 

Encouraged by the development David began kicking the door to unlock it, and soon the latch broke.  Then excited by the turn in events he kept kicking the door and it came open a little more each time.  But when he tried to fit through the opening he found that it wasn’t wide enough for him and though Peaches was much smaller than he was, he figured it was way too narrow for her to fit through also.

It felt good to have light in the bedroom and the couple looked at each other filled with nothing but questions.  David was the first to reason she must have anticipated they would be able to break the lock and she had piled something in the hall to make it even more difficult.  In the light from the hallway he could see a large platform constructed by a two by four base and a piece of plywood covering just a few inches narrower than the hall.  There was an old wooden rocking chair on top where apparently the old woman had rested after locking them in.

"God d****t!” he yelled and started to punch the wall with his broken hand.  Then thinking that he might actually be able to punch through the wall, he used his other hand in an attempt to punch his way out.  It was not oak veneer he had seen covering the wall.  On the contrary, it was solid oak boards that covered the walls of the old bedroom. 

Amazed he looked at Peaches completely stumped as to what to try next.

She moved quickly to the door and tried to fit in the crack and at the same time saw that the old woman sat in her rocker holding a hatchet.  But, she also noticed the old woman was asleep.  Therefore she started to retreat, not only thinking it possible she could perhaps squeeze through the opening, but that the old woman would awaken and at least club her with the flat end of the hatchet.

She had no more than finished her retreat when the door went shut again, and the couple stood in the dark knowing it was the old woman who had closed it.

“Don’t worry, dearies,” she cackled, “I’ll let you out as soon as I find my glasses and the police are here.”

 But it was only a few moments later when they heard her start to snore ever so softly as Peaches opened the door again, but ever so slightly.

“I haven’t always been an old woman,” she said quietly apparently knowing they could hear her. 

“I was young then; seventeen I think.  There was a rock concert in town.  You could hear the Animals making a lot of noise in the background.  But it was quieter here by the church than it was in the park over by the lake.  It was so crowded at the park, I couldn’t stand it.

When I saw Henry, I thought he was very handsome in his mountain man way of dressing.   I walked right up to him and looked him in the eye.

He was no fool.  He knew immediately what I wanted.

You know?  I don’t remember saying a word to him and I know he never said one to me.  He simply took me by the hand and sort of gently dragged me off into this old house.  I’ve been right here ever since.

I didn’t ever love Henry.  I call him that.  I never knew his real name.  I was just here for maybe a one night stand, and probably not even that.  It was the music.  You know?  Well, it was!

Before I realized it, I had the pleasure of my life right there in that bedroom where you are.  But when I woke up he was not there with me, and it was so very dark I almost screamed. 

It was like he could sense my moods.  He was johnny-on-the-spot, opening the door only a half a second late.  Then when he saw I wasn’t dressed he … well, you don’t need to know that part.  But eventually, I wound up making breakfast for us and enjoying a very nice day.  Something had come over me that I had never felt before, and I just didn’t want to leave.

I had no idea what I was getting into.  Henry was a strange one.  He very seldom spoke.

Well, we went to bed that night and everything, but in the morning when I awoke I heard him lock the bedroom door.

‘What the Goddam hell?’ I thought.  “Henry, what the f**k are you doing?” I yelled at the b*****d. 

Lock me in his bedroom … who the hell did he think he was?

Then I figured it must be some kind of joke until I heard the front door open with a creak and close with a creak and then a deadbolt lock turned closed.

At first I was so amazed I just stood there like a mute who had just been struck blind and stupid at the same time.  Then I did what you did.  I pounded on the door and made all kinds of noise.  There was no one here to tell me it wouldn’t do any good.  The wall is soundproofed.  The ceiling is too.  Sooner or later I must have made it to the bed and cried myself asleep. 

When I woke up it was light and Henry was inside of me and I was about to explode.

He hurried and finished and then when he left he left the door open too.

I was angry.  Madder than a wet yellow jacket I started cussing him. 

My mistake … he just came to the door and slammed it shut.

I woke up alone that night sometime I figure.  He had rigged a light so I could see.  The shower and the commode were to the right like they still are.

By the bye, the light switches don’t work anymore, even if you did happen to find them.  But the light in the shower does.  I figure you two are ripe by now.

I do wonder where I put my glasses,” she said and they could hear her get off the rocker again.

Feeling foolish for not having noticed the shower Peaches walked to the shower stall and there between it and the commode was a dangling chain.  She reached out in the faint gray light produced by the crack in the door and pulled the chain.  The light came on immediately.

The shower was gold.  There were no curtains, nor even a curtain rod.  It was just a little three sided room with a floor that was maybe five inches lower than the rest of the room.  The commode set right out in the open.  The chain Peaches had pulled hung on the wall with the plumbing between them.  The wall behind it was finished walnut with a very high ceiling made of pine with the rest of the walls completed out of various oaks.  The door was surrounded by white oak and so on all around the room, each wall being made out of a different oak.  The floor was covered with carpet only around the bed.  The rest of the room was made of birch.  It was beautiful!

“I-I feel like we just stepped into another dimension or something,” Peaches said as she looked up and stared at the light pine ceiling.

“I don’t!” David yelled.  He stormed to the door.  “Let us the f**k out of here!” he shouted and pounded on the open door.

All was quiet.

Then he turned when he heard the spray of the shower.  Peaches was there.  She had just stepped down in and stood facing David with no expression on her face.  He knew what she wanted though.  He stripped and joined her.  What could it hurt?

The old woman must have looked in the crack in the door for she closed it with a hushed comment neither heard by Peaches nor David.