The devil is sometimes disguised as the most attractive thing you've ever seen.
How the hell did she expect me to escape? My hands were tied (and) bound to the back of the chair, and my legs were...
My legs were free now. She'd cut through those bonds to check my ankle where that cockbag had poked me and hadn't retied them.
Did she just forget? Or was that intentional?
I considered both options and decided she must have forgotten. After all, she'd said only earlier this morning that I was just a means to getting paid. I was a contract.
But if all that was true, why did she even care that I'd gotten cut?
Possible reasons your captor would care... Well, from the movies I'd seen the only thing I could come up was she wanted to make sure I was gonna stay alive and maybe not bleed out. But even ( I ) knew the wound wasn't that serious. It still fucking hurt, don't get me wrong, but my body would heal that puncture long before I would possibly lose enough blood to (die) from it.
So maybe she...
You know what? I was getting tired of referring to her as simply 'her' and 'she'. If any of the three people (so far as I know they are the only three) I'd encountered in my time here deserved an identity, it was her. She cut me off when I was talking, and she'd insulted me, but she hadn't laughed at my plight like the brit, and she hadn't groped me like that smelly dick with dental problems. So far by way of direct interaction, she'd made sure my wound wasn't bad, and she'd cut my legs free so at least now I could swing my legs back and forth (which is actually quite an amazing feeling when they've been bound together for half a day or more).
So if I had to pick which one I liked, she won by a landslide.
Anyway, name... name...
What do I have to go by here? She wore boots, leather pants, a tank top and she had a ponytail. None of those made particularly good names.
( It's my sign. )
Oh, right! The tattoo on the back of her neck! The artistic representation of the Capricorn zodiac sign.
Hmm, that had a nice ring to it. Capricorn.
Okay, I'll just think of her like that then. Sure wasn't gonna come up with anything better, unless she actually TOLD me her name, but I didn't see that happening. These types of people in the movies didn't usually tell you identifiable information unless 1)They were about to kill you or 2)You asked them in exchange for not killing them.
Much as I'd like to imagine myself being capable of killing the bad guys in James Bond fashion, complete with some irrelevant line about how I like my martini, I wouldn't be doing that.
I could see myself WANTING to kill those other pricks, but not her. Not Capricorn.
Hah, listen to me. Talking about her like she's my knight in shining armor come to save me. She had done two things to help me, but ultimately she wasn't here to rescue me. She'd left me down here just like the other two at the end of the exchange. She didn't care about me THAT much, clearly.
But still, nothing wrong with having SOMETHING positive to look at in a situation like this. She wasn't gonna rescue me, and she probably didn't 'like' me, but at least she treated me semi like a human being and not a piece of meat.
But holy shit am I losing my train of thought.
Okay. Let's recap.
She didn't leave my legs untied on purpose. She couldn't have. She'd get in trouble for something like that, right?
In trouble with the 'boss', who at this point I could only assume was the brit since he seemed to talk like he had control over all of this. I wonder why he would choose to talk to me first...
Maybe I didn't have all the pieces in the right places, but it made sense to me. Making sense of this, even if my thinking was flawed, helped me a lot. I didn't feel quite so vulnerable and lost.
Well, I did feel vulnerable I guess, now that my shirt was cut open and my ankles to my knees were exposed, but at least I had some kind of grasp on the situation.
Brit: bad, possibly the boss of this thing.
Hulk with bad breath: bad, and a pervert.
Capricorn: only one who seemed remotely human and not against helping me so far. But I guess still bad.
Dad: missing in action, probably still getting his rocks off across the ocean, oblivious to this whole thing. Still my dad though, so he's good.
The good versus the bad, laid out like this, wasn't very promising. If only I could get Capricorn to defect to my side, we'd be on even ground. That is, if there really were only three people upstairs.
I was hardly some kind of psychologist that was capable of getting in Capricorn's head, though. She had an aura of experience to her. I wasn't the first person she ever guarded as a captive, I could tell that much. She wouldn't be prone to my -at best - amateur attempts at getting in her head to convince her this was wrong.
Yet, I would have to try. It seemed like the only realistic option. Fighting wasn't an option, I managed to hurt myself simply conducting my daily life, much less actually facing someone in a real fight.
So there we go. As good an escape plan as any. Convince Capricorn to let me go.
If I could only get her to stay down here with me for longer than a few minutes at a time so we could actually talk...
But I supposed that's the exact reason she DIDN'T stay down here. And the reason she cut me off when I tried to tell her anything remotely personal about me. She didn't want to hear it.
I could imagine in her position it might be hard to continue to cooperate with detaining someone against their will if you actually related with them, and they had a name to you. If when you looked at them you saw a person and not a paycheck, it'd probably be pretty hard.
So that's what I had to do.
I felt so accomplished. Who knew you could proverbially get so much done without being able to move?
I stayed repeating what I'd come up with in my head for a while, before I heard the door open.
There was always a brief suspense for about five seconds whenever this happened, because I heard the footsteps before the person came into view at the small section of the staircase I could see.
The footsteps weren't heavy like that other hulk, so unless there was a new person added to the mix, it was definitely Capricorn.
She was carrying a bottle of water.
Water.
I'd been thinking so much I'd forgotten to think about how thirsty I was. But seeing that bottle in her hand was like the promised land, the oasis in the desert.
In her other hand was something that was disc-shaped, I couldn't tell what it was exactly until she walked past me.
A wall clock.
"Hi again." I said, since she'd not spoke to me yet.
She didn't respond. I watched her lean over and set the clock down, then lift up the back of her shirt and pull a hammer out of her pants. Then she reached down and retrieved something from her boot.
I concluded it was a nail when she stuck it up against the wall and lifted the hammer flush with it.
"This might be loud. You might wanna cover your ears."
Wouldn't you know it, I actually fell for it. Attempted to bring my hands up when yep, realized they are still definitely bound, that hadn't changed.
What a smartass.
"Hah hah." I shook my head.
I wasn't sure, but from the looks of it, the wall looked like concrete. I didn't ( think ) one could put a nail into concrete, at least not with a hammer, but I figured she wouldn't try it if she didn't think it would work.
When she hinged her arm back with the hammer, she inadvertently flexed. I could see her arms were quite toned and muscular.
It didn't actually make much sound at all when she hit the nail, aside from a little metallic clink. Her body was blocking my view of the actual event, so I couldn't see if she was making any progress at all.
"C'mon you bastard..." I heard her curse the nail.
A few more clinks, then, "Fuck me... you little..."
More clinks. "God...DAMNIT!" She turned and threw the hammer against the back wall, where it ricocheted off onto the table.
It seemed a little dramatic to me, for failing to nail something to a wall. Maybe something else was bothering her.
"You...okay over there?"
"Building is old, I figured I could get a nail into it. Guess I was wrong."
I really wanted to say something like 'I coulda told you that' but we weren't exactly best friends that could give each other a hard time about something.
"Be right back. I'm gonna get a drill. Don't go nowhere." She said, and quickly ascended the staircase.
Again with the smartass comments.
The wall clock was on the ground, but it was propped up to where I could read it.
5:17pm.
And she was almost gone for an hour, because when she returned it read
6:08pm.
She carried an orange plastic bag with some kind of logo on it over to the wall, and dumped it out. A small case fell out, and a slip of paper fluttered to the ground.
Was that a receipt?
Did she actually go and BUY a drill?
Just to put up a clock... for me?
She opened the latches on the case and took a small drill out, affixed a drill bit to the end, and placed it against the wall.
I heard her squeeze the trigger on it, but nothing happened.
"Oh, of fucking course, it's dead..." She seemed to be talking to herself.
She got down on her knees and rummaged through the case, and pulled out a cord and adapter for the drill.
She started chuckling after she looked around the wall and the corner that was nearby.
"What's funny?" I wondered.
"There's no fucking power outlet right here. God doesn't want me to put this clock up right now, apparently."
She grabbed the clock and walked to the back wall. "There's an outlet here."
She held the clock up on the wall.
"Can you read it here?"
The light from the fluorescent didn't reach all the way to the back wall. I could SEE the clock, but I couldn't read it.
I shook my head. "Not really. But I mean... I'm not really in a place to complain about something like that so..."
She shook her head. "No, I didn't buy a damn clock AND a drill to put it up somewhere where you can't even read it."
Wow. She bought both of those things then. For me.
"Umm... I'm honestly not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything but... why did you buy those things for me?"
She plugged the drill in and sat in the chair across from me, backwards just like the last time.
"'Cause I wasn't gonna give you my watch, and I don't want you to ask me what the fucking time is every time I come down here."
She got up from the chair and walked over to the original place she tried to put the nail in, and picked up the bottle of water.
Unfortunately, she didn't offer any to me, she just sat back in the chair and took a sip in front of me.
"That drill has to charge for at least twenty minutes before it'll work." She said, in between sips.
I nodded.
I noticed her look down towards my legs. As she did I realized I'd been kicking them back and forth, since I'd gotten used to being able to do it now.
"Gonna have to bind your legs again tomorrow. Enjoy it while it lasts."
So I guess she DID leave them untied on purpose. Huh. That's a twist.
"Can I ask... why?" I braved.
"More people will be here tomorrow, including the boss."
MORE people? Whyyyyyy?
"AND..." She interrupted me as I was about to ask why again, "No, I'm not telling you why. You'll find out tomorrow."
"Is it bad?"
"No."
"Is it... good?"
"No."
"If it's not bad or good-"
"It just IS, okay? It's what has to happen. Lord, you ask more questions than m-... than a little kid."
I caught on to her cutting herself off and correcting herself. Something told me she was about to tell me something personal.
Damn, was my plan working already?
"Okay sorry. You know, you can ask me questions instead if you don't like answering them..."
She raised her eyebrows. "Why the hell would I want to ask you questions. Besides, if this was an interrogation, you wouldn't have to tell me to ask, trust me."
I watched her sip the bottle of water, and looked at the amount left in it. It was under half now.
"Can I ask you ONE more question if I promise to not ask any more right now?"
She grumbled. "Fine."
"Do you think... I could have... a sip of that?" I bobbed my head gesturing to the bottle.
"It'll just make you more thirsty. That's not what you want."
"Please? My throat is so dry..." I whined.
"You're not understanding me." She got up from the chair and walked over to me, putting the bottle under my nose. "Sniff."
I did, and instantly made a face. It wasn't water. It was vodka.
She laughed. "I told you. If it was water I would have offered you some. I'll definitely give you some tomorrow though."
"Why tomor-"
"Ah! No more questions. You promised."
I sighed.
Well, my thirst disappeared. I definitely didn't want any of that. But I had to wonder what she meant about giving me some tomorrow.
A few minutes later, she retrieved the drill, testing to make sure it worked. Then she went to the wall on my right side and held the clock up. "Is this good?"
"Yeah, that's good. Thank you."
She began drilling into the wall, and it sounded obnoxious as hell. I really wished I could have covered my ears.
"There we go." She said, mounting the clock on the nail.
Now it read
6:47pm.
She left the drill and other pieces laying there, and returned upstairs, not saying a word.
I figured I was alone again, until she came back a few minutes later with a glass of water. I should have known she'd come back, because I never heard the door close after she'd opened it.
She held the glass to my lips.
"Open."
She poured a little bit in my mouth.
Water never tasted so divine. I didn't realize how utterly dead the inside of my mouth felt until I felt the cold water splash around inside.
"Swallow."
I felt the cool sensation make it's way down my throat and into my stomach. It felt so rejuvenating.
There were a few more iterations of "Open, swallow" until I finished the whole thing.
"Thank you so much." I smiled at her.
"Just doing my job, keeping you alive. You won't be thanking me when you have to piss again, though." She smirked.
"I have to go. Don't you dare think about trying anything with that drill."
I shook my head and couldn't help but think it was funny. The drill was easily seven or eight feet away from me.
I heard her stop near the top, and the fluorescent light turned off.
"HEY!" I shouted, not really having any place to. It was just instinct.
"You won't be awake for long. Get some sleep. Big day tomorrow."
I heard the door open and close.
Now I was in complete and total darkness.
Except that I realized the numbers and hands on the wall clock she'd bought was glow in the dark.
How thoughtful. The glow didn't produce any kind of light where I could see anything, though.
What did she mean 'you won't be awake for long'? And why was tomorrow a big day?
As it turns out though, she was right. Not more than ten minutes later I felt drowsy as hell.
This wasn't a natural feeling.
I should be grateful I guess. It wasn't exactly the ideal position to fall asleep naturally in.
But it was also terrifying.
I didn't want to sleep, because who knows what I would wake up to?
Big day tomorrow, big day tomorrow, big day tomorrow...
What the hell
did that
mean?
She put
something
in
the
w
a
t
e
r. . .