Fear Feast

Junkyard Troll: Dessert

Junkyard Troll: Dessert

Hazel's eyes snapped open. Darkness surrounded her. She tried to sit up but her throbbing head insisted that she remain lying down. She lay there, her eyes searching through the darkness. Shapes and colours came into view. Her eyes were slowly adjusting. She stretched her arms out and found something cold, smooth and metal nearby, on both sides. She pushed herself to a sitting position and continued to feel her way around. The metal surrounded her on all four sides and above. She shuddered. She was in a cage. The ceiling was too low for her to stand. She could just make out the glint of the metal bars now. She looked around the room. It seemed there was another cage nearby but she could not be sure of it.

An idea struck her. She was dressed in her usual pair of jeans and her house keys were stashed in the pocket. She had a tiny flashlight keychain attached to them. She rummaged through her pocket for it. She felt a thrill of hope pass through her when her fingers grasped the little flashlight. She flicked the switch and it flickered on, casting a small beam of light. She used it to survey the room. The air around her was heavy. The light confirmed her suspicions. She was in a large basement: no windows, just a flight of rickety wooden stairs on the opposite side of the room. The stairs led to a shut door. There were half a dozen cages in the room. Five of them were the same size, including the one that Hazel was in.

Hazel felt relief wash over her as she spotted Josie lying on the floor of another small cage, her chest rising and falling slowly. Cod was nowhere in sight but she could not risk alerting him by trying to call out to Josie. He was probably unaware that Hazel had regained consciousness and she wanted to keep it that way. She continued her examination of the basement, turning her attention to the one cage that was different from the others. It was huge, at least triple the size of the smaller cages, and it took up most of the corner it had been placed in. There was a figure inside the cage. Hazel edged closer, bringing her face right up to the bars of her own cage. She peered at the figure. It was trembling slightly. It appeared to be a man, crouched over with his arms thrown over his head. Despite the size of the cage, the man was quite cramped inside. Hazel estimated he would be seven feet tall easily if allowed to stand. He had a mop of tangled hair and wore shabby, frayed clothing. Hazel realized he was barefoot. There were painful looking marks on his grimy feet. Hazel suddenly found her fear mixed in with another emotion. She was feeling sorry for this strange man.

"Hey," whispered Hazel. "Hey."

The man stopped trembling. An eye peaked out from under one of his arms, a large green eye. Hazel pushed her fears to the back of her mind. She had to act quickly and this man was her only source of information. He had undoubtedly been here long before Josie and Hazel had been captured.

"We're in Cod's basement? Right?" asked Hazel, keeping her voice low and her eyes on the door at the top of the stairs.

The eye narrowed. The bushy brow above it furrowed in confusion. Something occurred to Hazel.

"I mean, Donny. Do you know who Donny is?"

The man began to tremble again, violently this time. He hid his face.

"No, no, it's ok," cooed Hazel. "Tell me. Talk to me. I'm your friend ok. We're friends. We're in this together."