Finding Darkness

Chapter 4 Trapped

Several hours later, Tamar awoke to a smell she'd never known. A part of her knew it though, even if the part of her that was human didn't. It brought her up to a sitting position in the bed before she knew that she'd even moved. The pain in her arm made stars spin across her vision, but she ignored it. What was that smell? She'd never smelled anything like it before. A part of her knew it was meat, cooked meat.

Her stomach grumbled, reminding her how she'd not put anything in it in over two days. Then she remembered where she was and who she was with. Her hands began to roam all over her body, looking for any new wounds while she took metal stock of herself as well. Then she let herself fall back onto the bed and, for the first time, she noticed something new. She'd never been anywhere near something as soft as what she was lying on.

Looking around, she saw an expanse of blue fabric had been laid over her, and under her a pale pink material covered the old mattress. Her head almost sank from view into the pillow that had been placed under it. Where had all these things come from?

"Oh look, sunshine's awake." Tamar hadn't noticed when her captor had walked into the room, so she glared up at him not giving him the courtesy .

"Your shoulder and arm are almost healed. You were right. Once I removed most of your infected tissue and disinfected the area, your body handled the rest very nicely." Malachi saw Tamar's eye flick towards the room he'd just left, and had a pretty good idea why.

"It's fried spam, not exactly gourmet fare, but under the circumstances it was the best I could find." He told her while walking back into the other room and out of sight.

What is he doing? Tamar screamed at herself. "He didn't do a thing to me, nothing. And now he's cooking something for me. Why? Her mind couldn't come up with a satisfactory answer to that question before she noticed Malachi walking towards the bed, holding a tray in both hands.

He sat the tray on the bed next to her within easy reach, then held a bottle near her for inspection.

"What is that?" Tamar asked, nodding her head  to gesture at the bottle.

"It's water. I sanitized it, so it's safe for you to drink." He pushed it towards her, then pulled it back. "Oh wait a second, I forgot something." He dropped the bottle out of sight. When it reappeared, it had a strange plastic tube sticking out of it.

Tamar had never seen anything like it. So when he offered it back to her, she made no move to drink from it. After a few awkward moments, Malachi tried to explain.

"It's a straw. I thought it'd make it easier for you to drink if you didn't have to sit up so far."

"What's a straw?" She asked, looking at him askance.

"You've never seen a straw?"

"No I haven't, okay! Where I grew up, I had to lap my water out of a bowl that was welded to the floor. I have no idea what that stupid thing is."

Malachi stopped dead in his tracks. His mind had a hard time processing what he'd just heard. Sure, this young woman looked so much like a cat some people might think she was enough feline to be considered one. But to treat her like an animal, that was heartless.

So he took the bottle and laid it on the floor, picked it up, made sure Tamar was watching as he dropped another straw into it, then made it look as if he put it in his mouth, then made an exaggerated sucking motion and sound.

"That's how you use them. All you have to do is suck the water out of the bottle." He handed Tamar her bottle and watched as she threw the straw across the room and proceeded to pour more water on herself and the bed than into her mouth.